Study and Review of Indicators of Personal Sanitation in Sasanian Period and Aims and Reasons for Applying the Indicators

Ancient civilizations, proportionately to the extent and impact of their culture, used some methods in the field of personal sanitation to prevent infections and general diseases. Studying the indictors of personal sanitation, methods and the aims, in broad lands of Sasanians, would lead us to sanitary treatments of people in this empire. Considering the issue that personal sanitation in Sasanian period (651-224 A.D) was more influenced by the teachings of Zoroastrianism, the study of the Zoroastrian perspective is of the greatest importance in this regard. Personal sanitation in that period included washing with water, soil and gomiz, using special places for washing called Pādyāw, using napkins, using perfume and combing hair. There were also strict, detailed rules that made personal sanitation difficult and intolerable. Thus, some meges made efforts to change these rules. This paper aims to study indicators of personal sanitation and their applications for more than 400 years during Sasanian period with descriptive analytical method, on the base of literary evidence.