Haoma

[3] In Old Persian cuneiform it was known as 𐏃𐎢𐎶 hauma, as in the DNa inscription (c. 490 BC) which makes reference to "haoma-drinking Scythians" (Sakā haumavargā).

[4] Since the late 18th century, when Anquetil-Duperron and others made portions of the Avesta available to western scholarship, several scholars have sought a representative botanical equivalent of the haoma as described in the texts and as used in living Zoroastrian practice.

[5] The plant, as Falk also established, requires a cool and dry climate, i.e. it does not grow in India (which is either too hot or too humid or both) but thrives in central Asia.

Later, it was discovered that a number of Iranian languages and Persian dialects have hom or similar terms as the local name for some variant of Ephedra.

In the latter half of the 20th century, several studies attempted to establish haoma as a psychotropic substance, basing their arguments on the assumption that proto-Indo-Iranian *sauma was a hallucinogen.

In the conclusion of his observations on a 1999 Haoma-Soma workshop in Leiden, Jan E. M. Houben writes: "despite strong attempts to do away with Ephedra by those who are eager to see *sauma as a hallucinogen, its status as a serious candidate for the Rigvedic Soma and Avestan Haoma still stands".

Haoma was the first priest, installed by Ahura Mazda with the sacred girdle aiwiyanghan (Yasna 9.26) and serves the Amesha Spentas in this capacity (Yasht 10.89).

(Yasht 10.90) Haoma is associated with the Amesha Spenta Vohu Manah (Avestan, Middle Persian Vahman or Bahman), the guardian of all animal creation.

In Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, which incorporates stories from the Avesta (with due acknowledgement), Hom appears as a hermit, dweller of the mountains, incredibly strong.

the giver of immortality?The Indian-Zoroastrian belief mentioned above also manifests itself in the present-day Zoroastrian practice of administering a few drops of parahaoma to the new-born or dying (see Ab-Zohr).

According to the Wizidagiha-i Zadspram, at the end of time, when Ormuzd triumphs over Ahriman, the followers of the good religion will share a parahom made from the 'White Hom', and so attain immortality for their resurrected bodies.

As Indologist Jan Houben also noted in the proceedings of a 1999 workshop on Haoma-Soma, "apart from occasional and dispersed remarks on similarities in structure and detail of Vedic and Zoroastrian rituals, little has been done on the systematic comparison of the two".