i. General
Baga– is attested in early and late Iranian with two meanings (1) agent noun “distributor,” glossed by Parsi Sanskrit vibhaktar– and (2) noun of action and result “portion.” Beside the noun, the verb bag– “give or receive portions” is in frequent use: bag-, present baj– and baxš-, participle baxta-, and nominal derivative bāga-. The cognate words are cited in full in Dictionary of Khotan Saka, p. 300: Avestan baž-, baxta-, bāga-; Sogdian βaxš-, βxt-, βγn-; Zoroastrian Pahlavi baxš-, baxt; Khotan Saka būṣṣ-, būta-; Old Indian (Sanskrit) bhájatiṃbhaktá-, bhága-, bhāgá, traced in Indo-European in J. Pokorny, Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern and Munich, 1959, p. 107 s.v. bhag-.
The agent noun baga– “distributor” was adopted as a name for “god” and “gods.” In Old Persian baga– occurs beside maθišta bagānām “greatest of gods” for Ahuramazdā. It renders the Akkadian Semitic ilu “god.”
In the Avesta the word yazata– “worshipful” was preferred, the later Zor. Pahl. yazd and Ossetic izäd, in Greek script isdi– in the name Isdigerdēs, Yazdkirt, Armenian Yazkert. The other word of divinity, dai– “shine,” is retained once in the Avestan word dyaoš “from the sky” (genitive from dyau-) and in daiva– of the Avestan phrase daēvāiš-ca mašyāiš-ca “with gods and men.” Normally this word for the ancient gods was developed to “devils” in the Zoroastrian tradition. The North Iranian Khotan Saka also had developed dyūva– “devil” from daiva. A trace of the older “god” can be seen in the name Dēv-dād “created by god.” Xerxes in a Persepolis inscription reported daivadānam viyakanam “I destroyed the house of devils” (XPh 37).
In the later Zoroastrian books Pahlavi and Pazand baga– became baγ (bkˈ, bγˈ, Pāzand baγ) and occurs associated with yazata– in the phrase yazdān baγān “gods” (bkʾn, bγʾn). A lost nask “book” of the Avesta (a word preserved in its earlier non-technical sense in Caucasian Georgian naskʾ-v-i “knot,” verbal naskʾ-va) was called Baγ (bkˈ) and Baγān. The Avestan baγō.baxta– can be rendered either “bestowed as a portion” or “distributed by the gods,” the second meaning can be supported by the compound (Dēnkard, ed. Madan, p. 603.6) baγ-tāšīt “created by gods.” The Aramaic ALḤA “god” was interpreted by baγ; it is used in the Ḥājjīābād inscription and in the inscription of Šāpūr I, Parthian line 1 mzdyzn ALḤA, *mazdēẓn baγ, Greek masdaasnēs theos. The king Ḵosrow I is called im baγ “his present Majesty” (Dēnkard, p. 413.9). Šāpūr son of Ohrmazd is quoted in Škand-gumānīk Vičār (ed. P. J. de Menasce, Fribourg, 1945, pp. 118-19, 10.70) ōi baγ šāhpūr ī šāhą šāh i hōrməzdq “the god Šāpūr king of kings son of Ohrmazd.” The baγ yazdkart is cited in Dēnkard, p. 949, 21. The word baγa– gave Sogdian βγ (in Arabic script this β– was expressed by the letter f with three dots on it, which in normal Arabic could be replaced by f). The Buddhist Sogdian employed βγ– of the Buddha P 2.1137-45 βγʾn βγtm pwty “the most godlike of gods Buddha.” The Khotan Saka had preferred gyastānu gyastä “god of gods” from yazata-. Sogdian had the plural βγʾyšt, *βaγišt, gen. plural βγʾn, *βaγān, and βγʾstʾn, *βaγastān for “paradise.”
The Kušan bagapouro (from baga-puθra-) is represented in Turfan Parthian bγpwhr and New Persian faγfūr, and found in Armenian čen-bakour, the Chinese imperial title ṭʿien-tsï “son of heaven,” to which the Old Indian word was deva-putra-. Manichean and Christian texts use this same word for “son of god.”
Turfan Parthian had bg, *baγ with plural baγān and adjective baγānīγ. Turfan Persian had developed –y– from –γ– in by, *bay, plural baʾān (bʾʾn) and adjective bayānīγ. This bai is found in New Persian bē-doxt, bē-loft from *baga-duxtā “daughter of god” for the planet Venus. About A.D. 800 Iranian baγ is present in Kirkut (Qiṛγiz) bai, written by the Chinese sign buâi (Mathews, Chinese-English Dictionary, no. 4991, modern pei) cited in JA, 1950, p. 298. The Kirkut adopted the Turkish language only in the 7th-8th centuries.
Khotan Saka has beʾga-, baʾga-, and be– in the title beʾgarakä, baʾgarakä, and berakä for Turkish bägräk. From Turkish, in proper names Ossetic has bī “prince,” as in Baras-bī “tiger, prince.”
Turkish took the title bäg, beg, and later bey; in early Turkish in Brāhmī script it was bhek, and in Byzantine Greek the Khazar title was written mékh. The form bägräk occurs in a Turfan Manichean source. In Arabic script the Turkish title was bag, baḵ, and bāk.
The sacred fire called farn-baγ “the distributor (god) of farn” (farn was equated with Aramaic GDHǰ “fortune”) was located at Kārīān in Fārs. The Pāzand read the name as farō-bag and in Armenian it probably gave hour-bak.
In Kushan inscriptions this baga– is vaka– and vvaga-in the name Vaka-mihira and Vvaga-mihira “the god Miθra.” The v– and vv– are an attempt to express the fricative β. The Kushan bakana-pati– “temple official” is βγn-pt in Sogdian. Armenian has bagin (q.v.) “shrine, altar” from Parthian.
Choresmian from Toprak-kala has βγy for the sixteenth day of the month corresponding to mtr “Miθra,” as Bīrūnī gave fyγ, *βaγ, from βaγi for the same day.
The word baga– occurs in many proper names in ancient Persia. In Greek these names are written with Baga- and Mega-. The name bg-srw, *baga-srava– occurs in an Aramaic papyrus from Egypt.
Two toponyms contain the word baga– in Persia, others are in Armenia. The rock of Behistūn, Bīsotūn is on tò Bagístanon óros. The Bundahišn cites Baγ-dāt ī baγān-dāt “Baghdad which is created by the god(s)” (TD2, p. 205.12).
In the sense of “portion” Gathic Avestan has baga-, beside later baγa– and baγā-, which is glossed by Zor. Pahl. baγ, bažišn, and baxtārīh.
The derivative baxta– “distributed, allotted” also is frequent later. The Avestan phrase in Vištāsp yašt 38, baxta-ca nivaxta-ca, is explained to mean pat nēvakīh ut frazandān “possessed of good things and children” where “possessed” is Pahlavi baxtadār (baxtiyār). The baxt “fortune” takes the form of a varrak ī vazurg “great ram” mounted behind Artaxšaθr (Ardašīr) in his flight from Artapān (Ardavān).
The noun derivative bāga– is also important in connection with baga-. A later form is attested in Khotan Saka haṃbāya– (sing. haṃbā, plural haṃbāya) “portion” corresponding to Turfan Parthian ʾmbʾg, *ambāγ, Turfan Persian hmbʾw, *hambāv, “rival,” Zor. Pahl. hambāγ, Pāzand hambāi, hambāe “companion.” Through connection with “possessions” the Iranian bāy gave Turkish bai “rich,” whence Mongol bayan “rich.” In Ossetic the Turkish bai– occurs in the personal family name Bai-tuγantä “rich” and “bird of prey.” As a “portion of land” New Persian has bāγ “garden” and Pāzand has bāγastą i vahəšt “garden of Paradise,” that is Garō’amān, and vahišt is in Zor. Pahlavi bō’astān “garden as place of perfumes.” From Alanian (that is older Ossetic) Caucasian Čečen has (with many other words of Alanian origin) the word bai “meadow, lawn,” plural beš, with Inguš bai, plural bäš (the plural suffix is –aš and –s-).
This bāy “rich” is also found in the Finno-Ugrian Ostyak way.