Avesta Avesta The Avesta is the primary collection of religious texts of Zoroastrianism, composed in the otherwise unrecorded Avestan language. The Avesta texts fall into several different categories, arranged either by dialect, or by usage. The principal text in the liturgical group is the "Yasna", which takes its name from the Yasna ceremony, Zoroastrianism's primary act of worship, and at which the "Yasna" text is recited. The most important portion of the "Yasna" texts are the five Gathas, consisting of seventeen hymns attributed to Zoroaster himself. These hymns, together with five other short Old Avestan texts that are also part of
Teocalli of the Sacred War hold a more historical and less allegorical interpretation––reading the symbols as cosmograms. He argued that these cosmograms did not represent mythology, but rather represent the sacred nature of the Mexica as a whole. Palacios' interpretation of this Teocall received wide acclaim from scholars, and served as the foundation of his broader assessments on Mexica religion. According to historian Richard Townsend, the earth zoomorph featured on the platform of the Teocalli represents Mexica land held by force of arms. Teocalli of the Sacred War The Teocalli of the Sacred War ("teocalli" is Nahuatl for "temple;" Spanish: "El Teocalli de la Guerra