Editing Airyanem Vaejah (section)

== In Zoroastrian tradition ==
In [[Pahlavi scripts|middle Iranian]] sources, Airyanem Vaejah appears as Eranwez. The [[Bundahishn]] describes how Eranwez was the place where the first cattle was created (Bd. 13.4) and where Zarathustra first received the religion from Ahura Mazda (Bd. 35.54). The Bundahishn furthermore states that Eranwez is located near [[Azerbaijan (Iran)|Adarbaygan]] (Bd. 29.12) and that it is connected by the river Daitya to a country called Gobadestan (Bd. 11A.7). The identity of Gobadestan is not known, but its name has been interpreted as a distortion of [[Sogdia|Sugdestan]].{{Sfn|MacKenzie|2011}}
Likewise, the river Daitya is often identified in the literature with the [[Oxus]].{{Sfn|Gnoli|2011|loc="DĀITYĀ, (VAŊHVĪ) (lit., “the (good) Dāityā”; Mid. Pers. Weh Dāitī), the name of a river connected with the religious "law" (Av. dāta-, Mid. and NPers. dād), frequently identified in scholarly literature with the Oxus or with rivers of the northeastern region [...]."}} This apparent conflict between a western and an eastern localization in [[Greater Iran]] has been explained as a westward shift in geographic place names that may have taken place parallel to the rise of political power in the western regions, in particular [[Media (region)|Media]] and [[Persis]].{{Sfn|Benveniste|1934|loc=p. 272: "Quand le centre de l'Empire s'est déplacé vers l'Ouest, il s'est produit parallèlement, à l'époque sassanide, un transfert dans la nomenclature géographique on a reporté dans l'Iran occidental une grande partie du répertoire des noms orientaux conservés par l'Avesta."}}