Dahman

Dahman or Dahman Afrin is the Avestan language name of a Zoroastrian concept, later considered to be the embodiment of prayer, and ultimately (also) as a divinity, one of the yazatas.

Dahman Afrin in its true sense literally translates to 'devout blessing(s)', and the divinity Dahman is the active principle and hypostasis of the Gathic Avestan Dahma Afriti invocation (Yasna 60.2-7). Yasna 61 also refers to the prayer as Dahma Vangui Afriti and considers it to be the fourth most potent incantation. The prayer is invoked as a blessing upon the house of the ashavan, which may be translated as 'just' or 'true' man.

In Zoroastrian tradition, the divinity Dahman appears as Middle Persian Dahm.

In scripture

As used in Yasna 60 and 61, the term dahma appears to mean 'pious' or 'good', but that it may have originally been used to refer to one who had been initiated into the Zoroastrian religion. Zend translations of Yasna 61 and middle Persian glossaries appear to have considered the term unfamiliar enough that it needed explanation. In these, dahm is considered the essence of the just man, and the name of the prayer is translated as 'blessings of the good/pious'. However, according to Boyce (1982), the authors of the Zend were mistaken. According to her, dahm was not a (masculine plural) noun, but an (accusative singular feminine) adjective "used exclusively of Afriti among the divine beings." The mistranslation became the standard name of the prayer, and ultimately embodied as that of a yazata.