Ardašīr Son of Bābak and the Goddess Anāhitā

In the Sāsānid Era, in which religion and kingdom were considered as twin brothers, Sāsānid kings specially after coronation or after victory in wars, endowed royal gifts to fire temples and Zoroastrian temples; this was a proof of their good attitude to old Zoroastrian religion as Iranian national religion. Surprisingly, after his victorious battles, Ardašīr son of Bābak (224-240 A.D), the founder of the Sāsānid kingdom, had sent the severed heads of their rivals in the city of Marv in Khorāsān to fire temple of goddess Anāhitā in Estaxr, Fars. The researchers of the history and culture of Sāsānids have not studied this event, and our current knowledge on why Ardašīr son of Bābak had gifted the severed heads of their rivals to goddess Anāhitā, is trivial. In this research the connection between Ardašīr and Anāhitā is studied in a broader context and we will see that endowing such gifts to Anāhitā was in accordance with her combative characteristics, due to the fact that in Abān Yašt of Avesta, Anāhitā, besides being the goddess of waters and fertility, is the goddess of war and fighting, who helped kings and commanders in battles. Ardašīr had gifted the severed heads of their rivals to goddess Anāhitā in order to truly praise this goddess of war and fighting, the goddess who alongside Ahurāmazdā, bestowed kingship to the lineage of Sāsānids.