GA.' THIS, gtifthitz (Av. gO0a,Skt., Pali g&ha, song). The name applied to certain metrical com positions,both in the Avesta and in Sanskrit Brah manic and Buddhistic literature. The Gathas of the Avesta comprise 17 hymns (Yasna 28-34, 43-51, 53), which contain 232 stanzas, besides three in Yasna 27..13-14 and Yasna 54. They are composed in five metres, which are reckoned by the number of feet, not by their quantity, as in Greek and Latin. These metrical schemes, which are of great antiquity, are composed respectively of three-line stanzas of 7 + 9 (or sometimes 8) syllables (Ahunavaiti), five-line stanzas of 4 -1- 7 syllables (Ushtavaiti), four-line stanzas of 4 -I 7 syllables (Spentamainyu), three-line stanzas of 7 7 syllables (Vohukhshathra), and four-line stanzas, whose first two lines have 7 -1- 5, and the last two 7 + 7 + 5 syllables (Vahishtoishti). The dialect in which these hymns are written differs considerably from the ordinary Avesta, and is more archaic in character. If we may reason on the analogy of the Gathas of the Buddhist Jatakas (q.v.), where verse alternates with prose. it might be plausibly suggested that the Avesta Gathas represent but a small part of the original content of this portion of the Zoroastrian Scrip tures. There may have been a large amount of prose between the stanzas which has been lost. The Iranian tradition ascribes the authorship of the Gathas to Zoroaster (q.v.) himself. They are of peculiar difficulty, owing in part to the inflectional system of the Gatha-Avesta dialect, and in part to the numerous words which occur but once in them and have no representatives, so far as known, in any other Indo-Iranian or even Indo-Germanic language. Their interpretation is aided, however, to a large degree, by a Pahlavi version with glosses, which was translated into Sanskrit by a Parsi priest, Neryosangh, probably about A.D. 1200. These versions, while important,
are not altogether trustworthy, mainly on ac count of the decay of grammatical knowletl:!e of the Avesta language. They are, notwithstanding, indispensable in interpreting the Gathas. and mainly through their aid the meaning of the hymns is now for the most part tolerably certain.
In India the term Gatha was employed in the Brahmanas (q.v.) to denote verses of religious content which did not belong to any of the four Vedas. (See VEDA.) It became wider in its scope in the Buddhistic literature, and denoted espe cially that part of the sacred canon which com prised the Dhammapatla, Theragatha, Therigatha, and the pure verse sections of the Suttanipata, and also to the verses in the Jatakas. It is most commonly applied. however, to the North Bud dhist Lalita-Vistara ( q.v. ) composed in verse mingled with prose. This work is in a dialect, probably artificial, of Prakrit words with Sanskrit. terminations, and on account of this peculiarity the language of the Ialita-Vistara is often called the Gatha dialect, although prose works were sometimes written in it. Consult : Italie, Die Giithfi's (Leipzig,. 1858-60) ; Bartholome. Die Gd 04's nod heiligen Gebete des altiranischen Volkes (Halle, 1897) ; Mills, A Study of the Five Zarathushtrian [Zoroastrian] Gathes (Oxford, 1892-94) ; id., A Dictionary of the Gothic Lan guage of the Zend Avesta (ib., 1901 et seq.) ; id., The Gdthds of Zarathushtra [Zoroaster] in Metre and Rhythm (ib., 1900) ; Miller, "Der Dialekt der Gitthfis des Lalitavistara," in Bei triige zur vergleichenden Sprachforschung, vol. viii. (Berlin, 1876). See AVESTA; LAurA-Vis TARA ; ZOROASTER.