Editing Airyanem Vaejah (section)

==In the Avesta==
The earliest mentions of Airyanem Vaejah are found in the [[Avesta]], in particular in the [[Vendidad]] and several of the [[Yasht]]s. In the Yashts, Airyanem Vaejah is most prominently named in the Aban Yasht as the place where both [[Ahura Mazda]] and [[Zarathustra]] sacrifice to [[Anahita]]:

{{Blockquote|
<poem>
Unto [[Anahita|her]] did the Maker [[Ahura Mazda]] offer up a sacrifice in the Airyanem Vaejah, by the good river Daitya; with the [[Haoma]] and meat, with the [[Barsom|Baresman]], with the wisdom of the tongue, with the [[Mantra (Zoroastrianism)|holy spells]], with the speech, with the deeds, with the [[Ab-Zohr|libations]], and with the rightly-spoken words.{{refn|group=note|Darmesteter interprets this unique passage, in which Ahura Mazda himself sacrifices to a lesser deity, as the "heavenly prototype of the Mazdean sacrifice as later shown to mankind by Zarathustra".{{Sfn|Darmesteter|1882|loc=p. 57}}}}

...

Unto her did the holy [[Zarathushtra]] offer up a sacrifice in the Airyanem Vaejah, by the good river Daitya; with the Haoma and meat, with the  Baresman, with the wisdom of the tongue, with the holy spells, with the speech, with the deeds, with the libations, and with the rightly-spoken words.
</poem>
|Aban Yasht 5.17, 5.104 (translated by [[James Darmesteter]]).{{Sfn|Darmesteter|1882|loc=pp. 57, 78}} }}

The other verses in which Airyanem Vaejah occurs in the Yashts follow the same structure, differing only in the deity to whom the sacrifice is offered. While in Yt. 5.104, Zarathustra is sacrificing to Anahita, this is changed to [[Drvaspa]] in the Drvasp Yasht (Yt. 9.25), and to [[Ashi]] in the Ard Yasht (Yt. 17.45). In the Vendidad, however, Airyanem Vaejah appears as the first of the [[Avestan geography|sixteen best lands and countries]] that Ahura Mazda had created for the Zoroastrian community:

{{Blockquote|
<poem>
I have made every land dear (to its people), even though it had no charms whatever in it: 
had I not made every land dear (to its people), even though it had no charms whatever in it, then the whole living world would have invaded the Airyanem Vaejah.

The first of the good lands and countries which I, [[Ahura Mazda]], created, was the Airyanem Vaejah, by the good river Daitya.
Thereupon came [[Angra Mainyu]], who is all death, and he counter-created the [[Zahhak|serpent in the river]] and winter, a work of the [[Daeva|Deavas]].

There are ten winter months there, two summer months; and those are cold for the waters, cold for the earth, cold for the trees. 
Winter falls there, with the worst of all plagues.
</poem>
|Vendidad 1.1 – 1.3 (translated by [[James Darmesteter]]).{{Sfn|Darmesteter|1880|loc=pp. 4–5}} }}

This connection between Airyanem Vaejah and winter is further described in Vd. 2.20–23. In these verses, Ahura Mazda is meeting there with [[Jamshid|Yima]] and instructs him to build a shelter for the winter that Angra Mainyu would soon unleash upon the material world. The harsh description of Airyanem Vaejah in Vd. 1.3, however, seems to conflict with the positive assessment given in Vd. 1.1. This has led some to speculate that the third verse is a later insertion,{{Sfn|Vogelsang|2000|loc=p. 50}} while others think that it could be a fragment of an originally longer description, and the text in Vd. 1.3 refers only to the upper headwaters of the river Daitya.{{Sfn|Humbach|1991|loc=p. 36}}