From Vedic Tvaṣṭṛ to Mardâs of Shâhnâme (A Review of the Meaning and Etymology of Mardâs)

Despite the few data about Mardâs in Shâhnâme, the very high attention of scholars to him and his name is indebted to the importance of his son, Zahhâk, in Iranian mythology. The lack of any information about this personality in Avesta, ambiguity of written forms of his name in Pahlavi script in middle Persian texts, multiplicity of the recorded forms in Islamic texts and also the similarity of the written and probably phonetic forms of this name in Shâhnâme and the Arabic personal name are the issues which make Mardâs and his name more and more ambiguous. In Vedic myths Zahhâkʼs equivalent is viśvarūpa. This latterʼs father, tvaṣṭṛ, is a deity. The vast mythology of this god can partly compensate our lack of information about Mardâs. In this article attempts has been made to provide a more precise view about Mardâs and his name by reviewing the data related to this person in Vedic texts on the one hand and surveying the recorded forms in middle Persian and Islamic texts and also by criticizing the previous views.