Drvaspa

In the Yašt tradition Drvaspa is named among specifically Iranian divinities and the hymn describes her as made by Ohrmazd (Mazda). The surviving material is primarily the Yašt (Gosh/Drvasp Yašt, Yašt 9), which situates her within legendary ritual episodes in which rulers and ritual actors petition her at sacrificial sites, heights and lakes and receive concrete boons. Later scholarly treatments note her classification with Iranian divinities and discuss possible historical and comparative links, but the core origin framing comes from the Avesta's hymn narrative.

Avestan hymn material gives only limited visual detail, praising Drvaspa's brightness and glory and describing her as yoking teams of horses, turning her chariot and making its wheels resound. Beyond this cultic charioteer imagery the texts offer little concrete physical description. Numismatic reports note that on some Kushan coins a deity associated with her name appears in masculine form under a Bactrian legend (transcribed Lrooaspo / Lruwasp), suggesting a local male depiction in that iconographic context.

Drvaspa's primary function in the tradition is the protection and maintenance of the health and prosperity of horses, flocks and herds; the Yašt repeatedly states that she 'keeps animals healthy' and watches over them. In the hymn she grants boons to petitioners who perform prescribed offerings and speak rightly (examples in the narrative include requests for victory, abundance, the binding of foes, and that specified persons think, speak and act according to Mazdean law). The hymn also emphasizes her charioteer role, linking her function to horses and to ritual-scale sacrificial reciprocity.