Abstract
Av. xvar_??_nah- n. belongs to the following groups: Av. raex_??_nah- ‘Erbe’<raek- ‘linquere’, cf. Skt. reknas- ‘inherited possession’ Av. aenah ‘Gewalt’<aen- ‘vergewaltigen’, cf. Skt. enas- ‘crime, sin’Av -cinah- in aša-cinah- ‘nach dem AŠa verlangend’<kan- ‘Verlangen tragen nach’, cf. Skt. canas- ‘delight’ Av. θamnah- ‘Sorge’ < *θam- ‘sorgen’, cf. Gk. rd καμνω ‘sich mühen’<km-n- ‘Kummer’ Av. var_??_nah- ‘Farbe’<var- ‘hüllen’, cf. Skt. varnam. ‘Farbe’ Av. var_??_šnah- ‘Tun, Tätigkeit’<var_??_z- ‘wirken’.
All of the -na-h- nouns are neutral ones. Then, Av. xvar_??_nah- is reduced to xvar- ‘to eat’ and -na-h-, and its original meaning, presumably, was ‘eating, food, sacred meal, corn spirit’. ‘Glory, luck, fortune’ is its developed meaning.
Aramaic ideogram gaddeh also meant, besides ‘glory’, ‘the god of good fortune’ and ‘coriander’ which was widely used to make mythical manna.
There were two kinds of xvar_??_nahs, that is, xvar_??_nah and axvar_??_ta- xvar_??_nah; the former, ‘reviving corn spirit’ and the latter, ‘dying corn spirit’. Dumézilian tripartite structure of xvar_??_nah is uncertain. Partaking of the corn spirit to get ‘glory’ was what Pahlavi xveškarih meant. Xvar_??_nah was kosher, halal food while dušxvar_??_nah was treyf, haram one belonging to the daevish existence.
