Editing Atar (section)

===In the Gathic texts===
''Atar'' is already evident in the [[Gathas]], the oldest texts of the compendium of the [[Avesta]] and believed to have been composed by [[Zoroaster]] himself. At this juncture, as in the ''[[Yasna Haptanghaiti]]'' (the seven-chapter [[Yasna]] that structurally interrupts the Gathas and is linguistically as old as the Gathas themselves), ''atar'' is still—with only one exception—an abstract concept simply an instrument, a medium, of the Creator and is not yet the divinity (''[[yazata]]'') of heat and light that ''atar'' was to become in the later texts.

In the most ancient texts, ''atar'' is a medium, a faculty, through which judgement is passed and reflects the pre-Zoroastrian institution of [[Trial by ordeal|ordeal by heat]] (Avestan: ''garmo-varah'', heat ordeal; ''cf.'' Boyce 1996:ch. 6). Justice is administered through ''atar'' (''Yasna'' 31.3, 34.4, 36.2, 47.2), the blazing ''atar'' (31.19, 51.9), through the heat of ''atar'' (43.4), through the blazing, shining, molten metal (''ayangha Khshushta'', 30.7, 32.7, 51.9). An individual who has passed the fiery test, has attained physical and spiritual strength, wisdom, truth and love with serenity (30.7). However, among all the references to ''atar'' in the oldest texts, it is only once addressed independently of [[Ahura Mazda]]. In this exception, ''atar'' is spoken of in the third person masculine singular: "He detects sinners by hand-grasping" (''Yasna'' 34.4). Altogether, "there are said to have been some 30 kinds of fiery tests in all." (Boyce, 2002:1)

Also in the early texts, tangential to its role in establishing guilt, ''atar'' is the light of revelation through which Zoroaster is selected by Ahura Mazda, the ''Zarathushtra Mainyu Athra'' (''Yasna'' 31.3), radiated by Ahura Mazda (43.9), bearing the conviction of "Good Purpose"  (''[[Vohu Manah]]'', 43.4; see also [[Amesha Spenta]]), and enlightening one's inner-self (46.7). Within this framework of the concept of divine illumination, ''atar'' radiates the "other lights" (31.7), the essence (of Ahura Mazda) from which insight and wisdom permeate the universe. So also Zoroaster's injunction to always pray in the presence of ''atar''—either towards the sun, or towards their own hearths—so as to better concentrate their devotions on ''[[asha]]'', righteousness, and the virtue that should be striven for (''Yasna'' 43.9, see also Boyce, 1975:455).