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A fierce controversy raged around this question, with the result that the orthodox went on praying in their own way, and the reformers, neither having faith in the recital of their prayers in an unintelligible language nor having a proper substitute to satisfy their demand, went without prayers of any kind. And the situation remains, in large measure, unchanged up to this very day.

The Avesta text metamorphosed into an ungrammatical jargon. The reformers further said that the Avestan texts were recited with the most incorrect pronunciations. In vindication of their statement they quoted passages from the original texts and put by their side the corrupt formulas in vogue in the community. An example of this kind may not be out of place here, and we shall insert the text of Ahunavar, the most important Zoroastrian formula, first in its correct form and then in the corrupt form which obtains among a considerable portion of the community up to this hour. The original formula is as follows:

yathā ahu vairyo athā ratush ashāt chit hachā vangheush dazdā manangho shyaothananām angheush Mazdāi khshathremchā ahurāi ā yim dregubyo dadat vāstārem.

The corrupt form of the same:

athāu veryo thāre tose sāde chide chavanghoise dezdā manengho sotthenanām anghyos Mazdāe khosetharamchāe orāe āiyem daregobyo daredar vāstārem.

This, however, did not trouble the orthodox, for they complacently remarked that as long as they had implicit faith in what they recited, and recited it whole-heartedly, it mattered very little whether they used correct pronunciation or not. Ormazd looked to their hearts, and not to their sense of grammar and orthography. So long as their motives were good, their prayers were acceptable to the Heavenly Father.

The redeeming feature of this entire controversy has been a growing tendency in the community to avail itself of the help of the philologist, who has brought nearer home to them the correct and carefully edited version of their sacred scriptures, and they have consequently begun to recite their daily prayers from books that have based their texts on the standard and authorized version of the liturgy.