The Antiquity of the Sacrificial Praises in the Indo-Iranian Rituals: The Combination of Chanting and Reciting as an Inherited Feature

There is no longer any doubt as to the inherited character of the Indo-Iranian rituals, since the Vedic Agniṣṭoma and the Avestan Yasna share various features, like the fire cult, the animal sacrifice, the pressing of a sacred plant, and the use of two kinds of lauds within a ritualistic core. Despite the various differences they expose (like the vocabulary), the same archaic combination of chanted and recited praises must be underlined, since their performance is crucial for the fulfilment of the sacrifice. This association is exposed explicitly in the two oldest Indo-Iranian literatures, namely the R̥gveda in Vedic and the Yasna in Avestan. If the representation proposed by each literature differs, the interpretation that emerges from it is quite similar.