The logo of the Melammu Project

The Melammu Project

The Heritage of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East


  The Melammu Project
  
   General description
   Search string
   Browse by topic
   Search keyword
   Submit entry
  
   About
   Open search
   Thematic search
   Digital Library
   Submit item
  
   Ancient texts
   Dictionaries
   Projects
   Varia
   Submit link
  FAQ
  Contact us
  About

  The Newsletter
  To Project Information >

 

Nanaya in Bactria (1)

Printable view
Topics (move over topic to see place in topic list)

01 Religious and ideological doctrines and imagery






01 Religious and ideological doctrines and imagery



Keywords
Bactria
gods
Nanaya
Period
2nd century CE
Channel
Iconographic tradition
Iranian culture


Text
The goddess of Mesopotamian origin, Nanâ/Nanaya, was an equivalent of Ištar. The worship of Nanâ spread to the Iranian plateau, to Bactria and Transoxiana, where the goddess played a leading role in the local panthea of the eastern Iranian world. Her iconography in Bactria remained strictly Near Eastern. The presence of the goddess Nanâ is recorded on the Kushan coins and inscriptions of the second to the fourth century (Kushan period): e.g. as “Nana the ruler” (nana šao). As a dynastic goddess her role was concerned with the divine legitimation of kingship which was probably of Mesopotamian inspiration. According to the Bactrian inscription from Rabatak in northern Afghanistan (section 1-2) the king “ … of great salvation, Kanishka the Kushan, the righteous, the just, the autocrat, the god worthy of worship, who has obtained the kingship from Nanâ and from all the gods.” The same inscription (section 9) puts together Iranian, Indian and Near Eastern divinities: “the lady Nana and the lady Umma, Aurmuzd, the Gracious one, Sroshard, Narasa, (and) Mihr”.


Source (list of abbreviations)
Rabatak Inscription

Bibliography

Azarpay 1976Azarpay, G. “Nanâ, the Sumero-Akkadian Goddess of Transoxiana.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 96 (1976) 536-542. [JSTOR (requires subscription)]
Sims-Williams and Cribb 1995-1996, 78-79Sims-Williams, N. and J. Cribb. “A new Bactrian Inscription of Kanishka the Great.” Silk Road Art and Archaeology 4 (1995-1996) 74-142.

Andrea Piras


URL for this entry: http://www.aakkl.helsinki.fi/melammu/database/gen_html/a0000732.php


Illustrations
No pictures


^
T
O
P