KHVARENAH is the Avestan term for "splendor" (OPers, farnah; MPers, Pahl., khwarr; NPers, khurrah or farr), designating one of the most characteristic notions of ancient Iranian religion. It is often associated with the aureole of royalty and of royal fortune, thanks to its identification in the Hellenistic period with Greek tuchē and Aramaic gad, "fortune" (gdh is also the ideogram with which khwarr is written in Pahlavi), but its meanings go beyond the sphere of royalty, and its influence transcends the confines of the Iranian world. Aspects of the concept of khvarenah are found in Manichaeism and Buddhism and are interwoven with similar concepts characteristic of other cultures, as in the Turkish notion of qut and the Armenian p'aṙk'. In the Avesta and in Zoroastrian tradition in general, khvarenah is also personified as a yazata or a being "worthy of worship."

Fundamental to the concept of khvarenah...