5 sections of this entry are open to everyone: the summary, the people, the symbols, the lineage and the sources. The other 9 (Name and epithets, In the ancient sources, The myths, Worship and archaeology, How the god was depicted, What scholars debate, After antiquity, Did you know?, Codex relic) are part of the full Codex: PRO opens the whole study of all 500 deities, and without a subscription you can read one full entry a day, just like in the app.
The Persian deities belong to Zoroastrianism, the faith of the ancient Persian Empire, founded on the teachings of Zarathustra. Centered on the cosmic struggle between good (Ahura Mazda) and evil (Angra Mainyu), it influenced Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It is still practiced by Zoroastrian communities in Iran and India (the Parsis).
In the fire temples, priests keep sacred flames that have burned for centuries — the one in Yazd, Iran, for over 1,500 years. Nowruz, the Persian new year at the spring equinox, and Yalda night, at the winter solstice, celebrate the victory of light over darkness.
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At a glance
Rashnu (Avestan: Rašnu; Middle Persian: Rašn; Modern Persian: Rashn) is the revered yazata divinity of judicial righteousness, evidential truth, and incorruptible integrity in the Zoroastrian pantheon. Personifying absolute impartiality and unerring judgment, Rashnu functions as the celestial arbiter tasked with ascertaining truth in mortal disputes and evaluating the eternal destiny of departed souls at the threshold of the afterlife. His theological stature is codified in the Rashn Yasht (Yasht 12 of the Khorda Avesta), a thirty-eight-stanza hymn wherein Ahura Mazda prescribes the formal invocation of the divinity to oversee judicial trials, sacred oaths, and ordeals by water and fire (varah). Throughout this liturgical hymn, Rashnu is hailed as omnipresent: whether dwelling upon the central continent of Xwaniratha, atop the towering peaks of cosmic Mount Hara Berezaiti, amidst the boundless depths of the ocean Vourukasha, upon the mythical Tree of All Seeds (the nesting place of the Saena bird), or within the celestial orbits of the Stars, Moon, and Sun, he is summoned to manifest immediately to guarantee justice and vanquish perjury. In late Sasanian Pahlavi eschatology (prominently articulated in the Menog-i Khrad and Dadestan-i Denig), Rashnu fulfills a paramount role: bearing the golden scales of divine judgment (tarāzūg) across the Chinvat Bridge, he meticulously weighs the thoughts, words, and deeds of every deceased mortal, refusing to tip the balance by so much as a single hair's breadth for kings, heroes, or paupers. Standing alongside Mithra and Sraosha in the supreme judicial triad, Rashnu represents the unshakeable certainty that ethical conduct alone determines entrance into the celestial House of Songs (Garōdmān) or damnation into the abyss of punishment.
9 min read · Reviewed on September 30, 2026 · How we research
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Sacred symbols
The scales, the Chinvat bridge, the measuring rod and the light of truth
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Family
Siblings
Arshtat (Arštāt / Ashtad, the female yazata of Rectitude and Steadfastness; serves as Rashnu's inseparable liturgical partner in judicial rites)SSraoshaMMithra
Rashnu
Genealogy according to Avesta (Rashn Yasht / Yasht 12; Mihr Yasht / Yasht 10.41, 10.100; Siroza 1.18 e 2.18; Vendidad 4.43, 4.54–55); Textos Pálavi (Menog-i Khrad 2.115–122; Bundahishn 26.56–58; Dadestan-i Denig 13.2–3; Shayest ne-Shayest 17.4; Arda Viraf Namag 5.1–5); Leon Goldman (2012); William W. Malandra (2013); Christian Bartholomae (1904); Ilya Gershevitch (1959/1967); Mary Boyce (1975)
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Sources and further reading
Primary sources
Avestan Tradition & Darmesteter, James (Trans.), Khorda Avesta: 12. Rashn Yasht (Hymn to the Yazata of Justice). translation: The Zend-Avesta, Part II: The Sirozahs, Yasts, and Nyayis (Sacred Books of the East, Vol. 23, Oxford University Press, 1883). read
Avestan Tradition & Geldner, Karl F. (Ed.), Khorda Avesta: 12. Rashn Yasht (Original Avestan Text). translation: Avesta: The Sacred Books of the Parsis (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1896). read
Avestan Tradition & Darmesteter, James (Trans.), Khorda Avesta: Siroza 1 & 2 (Verse 18: Rashnu). translation: The Zend-Avesta, Part II (Sacred Books of the East, Vol. 23, Oxford University Press, 1883). read
Studies
Goldman, Leon, RAŠN YAŠT entry in Encyclopaedia Iranica. Encyclopædia Iranica Foundation, Digital Edition, 2012/2013. open
Malandra, William W., RAŠN entry in Encyclopaedia Iranica. Encyclopædia Iranica Foundation, Digital edition, 2013. open
Gershevitch, Ilya, The Avestan Hymn to Mithra (with exegetical notes on Rashnu and the judicial triad). Cambridge University Press, 1959/1967. open
Boyce, Mary, A History of Zoroastrianism, Vol. I: The Early Period. Leiden & Köln: E. J. Brill (Handbuch der Orientalistik), 1975/1996. open
Name and epithets
The Avestan masculine theonym Rašnu is a primary nominal derivative constructed from the Proto-Indo-European verbal root *h3reĝ- ('to make straight', 'to direct', 'to rule uprightly') paired with the primary nominal suf…
In the ancient sources
Avesta (Rashn Yasht / Yasht 12), Younger Avesta (c. 7th–6th centuries BCE).. Complete sacred hymn dedicated to Rashnu, constructed as a grand cosmic litany invoking the deity to witness judicial ordeals from every physi…
The myths
The Universal Invocatory Litany and the Witnessing of Ordeals. As recounted in the dramatic verses of the Rashn Yasht (Yasht 12.1–38), whenever a critical legal dispute or severe accusation of covenant violation threate…
Worship and archaeology
Devotion to Rashnu was intricately bound up with the judicial system, civic contracts, and mortuary liturgy throughout ancient Iranian history.
How the god was depicted
Material culture across ancient Iran attests to Rashnu through legal symbols and monumental judicial imagery. In the glyptic art and numismatics of Iranian border realms, such as Characene, Parthia, and the Kushan Empir…
What scholars debate
Indo-Iranian Heritage versus Zoroastrian Ethical Specialization. Scholars of comparative Indo-Iranian religion have long debated whether Rashnu descends from a shared Proto-Indo-Iranian judicial divinity or was an origi…
After antiquity
Rashnu's ethical legacy contributed one of antiquity's most uncompromising visions of judicial fairness. By postulating an afterlife tribunal where worldly lineage, wealth, and royal status hold zero weight before the s…
Did you know?
The scales held by Rashnu in the Menog-i Khrad are described as entirely immune to bribery, refusing to alter their balance by even the width of a single hair for king, hero, or peasant.
Codex relic
Golden Scales. The scales on which he weighs the good and evil deeds of each soul at the bridge that divides the living from the dead.
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