Where was
Zarathushtra Born?
Someone sent me the following tweet someone has put up today:
https://x.com/alphafirdous/status/1981562360335847749
“According to Shrikant G Talageri, Zoroaster (the founder of Zoroastrianism) was born in kashmir. Shrikant's views are controversial, he is known for promoting "Out of India theory", according to scholars his methodology or conclusions have "fatal errors".”
8:54 AM · Oct 24 2025
Where do these people get their information from?
To deal first with the secondary comment, “according to scholars his methodology or conclusions have "fatal errors"”: which “scholars” have claimed my “methodology or conclusions have "fatal errors"”, and what exactly are those errors? Cheap unsubstantiated statements of this kind are tantamount to the anonymous letters which most writers (e.g. Enid Blyton, Agatha Christie, etc.) refer to as a kind of criminal activity practiced by the lowest and most cowardly minds. Pathetic is a mild word for this.
But the main point which prompted me to write this rebuttal is the false claim that I have said that “Zoroaster (the founder of Zoroastrianism) was born in kashmir”. Really? Where and when, i.e. in which book or article of mine have I ever made such a claim?
In all my descriptions of the Iranian migrations from India, I have pointed out, for example, and right from my second book in the year 2000, in a detailed section titled "The Iranian Migrations" (TALAGERI 2000:208-231):
“The evidence of
the Rigveda and the Avesta makes it clear that the Iranians, in the earliest
period, were restricted to a small area in the east, and the vast area which
they occupied in later historical times was the result of a series of migrations
and expansions.
The early
migrations of the Iranians follow a clear trail: from Kashmir to the Punjab;
from the Punjab to southern and eastern Afghanistan; from southern and eastern
Afghanistan to the whole of Afghanistan and southern Central Asia; and finally,
in later times, over a vast area spread out at least as far west as western
Iran and as far north as northern Central Asia and the northern Caucasus.
The early
history of the Iranians may be divided into the following periods (see chart on
next page).
The details may
be examined under the following heads:
A. The
Pre-Rigvedic Period.
B. The Early
Period of the Rigveda.
C. The Middle
period of the Rigveda.
D. The Late
Period of the Rigveda.
|
Period |
Rigveda |
Avesta |
Iranian Geographical Area |
|
|
Pre-Rigvedic Period |
_________ |
Kashmir |
|
Early Period of the Rigveda |
Early Period of the Rigveda |
Pre-Avestan Period |
Punjab |
|
Middle Period of the Rigveda |
Middle Period of the Rigveda |
Period of Gāthā and early Yašts |
Punjab, Southern and Eastern
Afghanistan |
|
Late Period of the Rigveda |
Late Period of the Rigveda |
Proper Avestan Period |
Punjab, Afghanistan, southern
Central Asia |
In the pre-Rigvedic period, the Iranians were inhabitants of Kashmir. In the Avesta, this period is remembered as a remote period of prehistory, enshrined in the myth of Airyana VaEjah, the land of severe winters.”
So it was the remote ancestors of Zarathushtra who lived in Kashmir. My claiming that “Zoroaster (the founder of Zoroastrianism) was born in kashmir” would be tantamount to a supporter of the AIT claiming that “Divodāsa and Sudās were born in the Steppes of Ukraine”!
In my books, I have repeatedly given detailed quotations from Avestan scholars like Gnoli to the effect that Zarathushtra lived in (and was probably “born” in) Southern Afghanistan.
I am a bit tired of people making up stories and attributing views and conclusions to me which I have not only never expressed or made but about which my actual views and conclusions recorded in writing in my books and articles are completely different from those that these people falsely or ignorantly attribute to me. For the objective reader, I can only repeat what I have already said many times: “Please do not accept that I have written something just because someone claims I have done so. Please refer to my actual books and articles to see what I have actually written”.
For a last laugh, apparently an illiterate internet clown (after consulting his mummy and daddy − or their google equivalents − whose views are the gospel truth for him) has replied to this as follows:
https://x.com/reticentdelhite/status/1981584752370200974
“Just googled him. The source isn't a historian.”
10:23 AM · Oct 24 2025
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