Avesta other general. The following categorization is as described by Jean Kellens (see bibliography, below). The "Yasna" (from "yazišn" "worship, oblations", cognate with Sanskrit "yajña"), is the primary liturgical collection, named after the ceremony at which it is recited. It consists of 72 sections called the "Ha-iti" or "Ha". The 72 threads of lamb's wool in the "Kushti", the sacred thread worn by Zoroastrians, represent these sections. The central portion of the Yasna is the "Gathas", the oldest and most sacred portion of the Avesta, believed to have been composed by Zarathushtra (Zoroaster) himself. The "Gathas" are structurally interrupted by the
Avesta in the royal archives ("Dk" 4B, 5). Following Alexander's conquest, the Avesta was then supposedly destroyed or dispersed by the Greeks after they translated the scientific passages that they could make use of ("AVN" 7–9, "Dk" 3B, 8). Several centuries later, one of the Parthian emperors named Valaksh (one of the Vologases) supposedly then had the fragments collected, not only of those that had previously been written down, but also of those that had only been orally transmitted ("Dk" 4C). The "Denkard" also transmits another legend related to the transmission of the Avesta. In that story, credit for collation and