Nanaya in Bactria (1)

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

Andrea Piras

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