The Avestan Priestly College and its Installation

The present article deals with the ceremonies dedicated to the installation of the Zoroastrian priestly college in the framework of the Mazdean liturgies. This ritual has not received a special attention in past studies so that the focus on it represents a new trend in the framework of Avestan and Zoroastrian studies. In this context, very important and extremely worth of investigation is an Avestan passage (with its corresponding Pahlavi translation) appearing in Vr. 3,1,2, which concerns the liturgical installation of the seven assistant priests (and their leader), whose presence was indispensable only in solemn ritual, while during the standard performance of the Yasna their number was limited to only two priests, the zaotar- and his main assistant. The article studies the roles of the seven assistant priests and the function of the main priest, the zaotar-. Furthermore, a part of the work is dedicated to the procedured enacted for the installation, and to the indentification of the priest who was attributed the role of the installation, if the zaotar, the sponsor of the sacrifice (as in India), or another ritual priest.