#Avestan language

• Avesta — The collection of sacred texts of Zoroastrianism (the ancient religion of Persia), written in the Avestan language, an ancient Iranian language closely related to Vedic Sanskrit; it comprises religious hymns attributed to the prophet Zoroaster (the Gathas), prayers, liturgical rituals, and cosmological and moral law codes. Additionally, the name may appear as a modern toponym, denoting an industrial town in Sweden renowned for its metallurgy history.
• Avestan — Pertaining to the Avesta, the sacred texts of Zoroastrianism in ancient Persia, or to the people who created them; as a masculine noun, it denotes the Avestan language, an extremely important ancient Iranian language of the Indo-European family, closely related to Vedic Sanskrit and used exclusively for liturgical and religious purposes. This idiom represents a fundamental source for the comparative study of Oriental languages and mythologies.
• Avestan — The feminine gender form for the adjective 'avestic'; it directly denotes the Avestan language (as a feminine noun), the Eastern Iranian idiom used in antiquity for drafting the Zoroastrian scriptures. As an adjective, it qualifies a writing, doctrine, historical stage, or a cultural and phonetic feature closely linked to the early Persian civilization and the texts included in the Avesta.