From Ṛta to Aša: Ontological Transformation, Religious Normativity and the Formation of Early Indo-Iranian Thought

This article investigates how cosmological conceptions are transformed into normatively structured religious ontologies in early Indo-Iranian thought. Through a comparative analysis of the Rigveda and the Avesta, it argues that these corpora should be understood not merely as related textual traditions, but as successive stages in the development of religious conceptions of being, order, and ethical responsibility. Moving beyond continuity-based interpretations in Indo-Iranian studies, the article integrates comparative religion, philosophical hermeneutics, and ontological analysis to examine the transformation of the concepts of ṛta and aša. It argues that the Rigveda, particularly the Nasadiya Sukta (RV X.129), presents an open and apophatic ontology in which the distinction between being and non-being remains fundamentally indeterminate. By contrast, the Gathas reconfigure this ontological openness into a religiously grounded normative framework in which cosmic order is inseparable from ethical truth, human agency, and the concept of aša. The study demonstrates that the relationship between the Rigveda and the Avesta is better understood as a process of ontological transformation than as either continuity or rupture. This transformation proceeds through three interconnected movements: from ontological indeterminacy to structured order, from descriptive cosmology to religious normativity, and from cosmological harmony to ethically grounded dualism. In doing so, the article introduces the conceptual distinction between open ontology and normative ontology as a new analytical framework for interpreting early Indo-Iranian religious thought. The findings contribute not only to Indo-Iranian studies but also to broader debates in Religious Studies and Philosophy of Religion concerning the relationship between ontology, religious normativity, ethical order, and the formation of social life.