Prof Stanley Insler (pictured), a giant in the field of Gatha studies (among other fields), departed this life on January 4, 2019 at 81 
years of age. A world renowned scholar of ancient Indo-Iranian languages and texts (including Avestan), one of his insights concerning Pali, the oldest language of the Buddhist canon, is enshrined in Indo-Iranian linguistics as "Insler’s Law.” For his professional colleagues, his life is worth celebrating because of his awesome linguistic credentials which enabled pioneering contributions in understanding Indo-European languages, including Avestan.
His 1975 translation of the Gathas — widely recognized as a modern standard — opened up for me a whole new universe of Zarathushtra’s ideas, like fireworks in the mind. And for this, I will always be grateful to him. His translation decisively counters those academicians who expressed the opinion that so ‘primitive’ a society could not have produced such lofty thoughts.
In a middle aged search for my roots, I tried to learn Zarathushtra’s teachings by reading available literature. I was struck by the wide diversity of views — so much of it simply expressing opinions, unsupported by evidence.
Insler’s translation of the Gathas brings us Zarathushtra’s own words. Fortunately, we are among the few religions of the world whose founder’s words are available to us. When we read a ‘free’ translation, we are stuck at the level of understanding of the translator. In contrast, Insler’s translation is linguistically up to date, often insightful. It is only when we read as literal a translation as possible, that we begin to glimpse Zarathushtra’s own thoughts. True, any translation of the Gathas is bound to have some interpretation in it because the Avestan language itself has inherent ambiguities and has not yet been decoded 100%.
I do not always agree with some of Insler’s interpretations. But despite our disagreements, he freely allowed me to use his translation in my writings. That showed a rare generosity of spirit. And without his translation I would never have discovered Zarathushtra’s amazing and beautiful thoughts.
Insler had a great sense of humor. He was often kind and generous with his knowledge which he shared with Zoroastrian communities by lecturing on Zarathushtra’s teachings throughout the USA, India, and Europe. He spoke at the First Gatha Colloquium in 1993, held by the World Zoroastrian Organisation (WZO) in England, and at many of the WZO summer seminars during which he traded jokes with independent researcher Farrokh Vajifdar and developed a warm friendship with officers and members of WZO. At WZO’s 25th anniversary celebrations, Insler was awarded the honor of being made a Fellow of the World Zoroastrian Organisation for his extensive and ongoing contributions to the knowledge and understanding of Zarathushtra’s teachings.
A graduate from Columbia University, Insler did postgraduate studies at the University of Tübingen in Germany, research at the University of Madras, and received his PhD from Yale University at which time he became a member of the faculty. He later became the Salisbury Professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology in Yale’s Department of Classics, chaired the Yale Department of Linguistics for over a decade and became Professor Emeritus of Linguistics upon his retirement in 2012. The widely published author was president of the American Oriental Society and a member of the Société Asiatique, the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, the Philological Society, Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, among others.
Zoroastrians like to point out that Cyrus the Great freed the Jews from captivity in Babylon, and allowed them to return to their own country. And later, Darius the Great gave them gifts of money to help rebuild their temple. Those ancient gifts have been abundantly returned to us by their descendent Insler who has brought to us the gift of Zarathushtra’s own words.
Rabindranath Tagore said, "Death is not the end. It is putting out the candle because the dawn has come.” Let us wish him joy in the dawn of whatever new adventures are ahead of him.