During the ritual the poet-sacrificer, on behalf of his patron and community, returns to Ahura Mazdâ what he, during his first ordering action, gave to the world to use, but which still belongs to him. These sacred objects—sacred because of divine origin—by their circulation between the divine and human spheres as gifts and counter-gifts, confer upon these two spheres all the profits of the gift exchange. There are three kinds of sacred objects: 1. the ritual thoughts, words, and actions; 2. the objects manipulated during the actions, among them the ritual refreshments intended for the gods; 3. the constituent substance of the world/macrocosmos and men/microcosmos: its vital spirit and bones. All three types are explicitly said to have originated with Ahura Mazdâ and to be returned to him during the ritual. Once made by Ahura Mazdâ these sacred objects were brought down to earth by Zarathustra, and the worshippers consecrate them and offer them in return to Ahura Mazdâ for his enjoyment.
How could evil have gotten into the Ordered cosmos of Ahura Mazdâ? By a wrong ritual, a ritual inviting the wrong gods, informed by the bad manyu, based on the wrong choice. Our poet exhorts the sustainers of Order not to listen to them, as in 1.31.18, where “But let no one among you keep listening to the formulas and the teachings of the one possessed by the Lie!,” which echoes 1.29.8 “who ... listens to our ordinances, Zarathustra Spitâma.” In 2.44.20 the karpan and the usij are said to ”give the cow to Wrath,” and in 3.48.10 our poet expresses his disgust at them for working ineffective rituals, unable to bring back the sun and make the earth prosper (see below), for this they are condemned to failure because (4.51.14) “the mumblers (do) not abide by the deals” and to failure and ridicule in 5.53.8. The performance of the bad poet-sacrificer is characterized by mediocrity and wrong performances, expressed in part in the vocabulary of the Old Avestan texts by a special set of words or forms reserved for them.
The poet-sacrificer, getting ready to assist Ahura Mazdâ in his fight against the Lie and to improve his own circumstances, prepares his sacrifice and sends his sacrifice and praises up to the other world. The praises take the shape of chariots with his tongue as charioteer. But the rival poet-sacrificers prepare their own sacrifices and send their own praise songs. The competing praises therefore take the form of a contest or competition, more specifically, a horse and chariot race, in which the quality of the poems and the poets determine who will be the winner.
The same holds true of the Rigvedic poet according to Louis Renou: “in order to restore the ambiance in which the hymns moved, we must recover, beneath the description of the actions of the cult or the mythical facts, the poet’s major concern, upon which his future and that of his community depended, namely, success in the literary contest.” And, finally, “the poet thinks about his work, about the demands of the rhetoric contest (lutte oratoire), he fears failure, he hopes for success ... The composition, the poetic technique, in this sense, becomes a purpose in itself.”
The Sacrifice (Yasna)
