The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c24.117

v1.c24.117

An illustration or two may be chosen from the domain of religion alone. The Veda and the Avesta, which are the earliest literary monuments of India and Persia, contain sufficient evidence of the fact of such connexion, even though each of these works may date from times long after the period of Indo-Irānian separation. A certain relationship, for example, is acknowledged to exist between the Vedic divinity Varuṇa and the Avestan deity Ahura Mazda, or Ormazd, the supreme god of Zoroastrianism. Equally well known are the points of kinship between the Indian Mitra and the Irānian Mithra, and, in less degree, between the victorious Indra Vṛitrahan of the Rigveda and the all-triumphant Verethraghna of the Avestan Yashts. Nor need more than mention be made of the parallels between Yama and Yima or of the cognate use made by the Indians and the Persians of the sacred drink *soma* and *haoma* in their religious rites. Scores more of likenesses and similarities might be adduced to prove the long-established connexion between India and Irān, but they are generally familiar¹.