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Faravahar, believed to be a depiction of a Fravashi.

In Zoroastrian doctrine a Fravashi or Fravaši (Avestan, فروردین Farvadin in later Persian) is the guardian spirit of an individual, who sends out the urvan (often translated as 'soul') into the material world to fight the battle of good versus evil. On the morning of the fourth day after death, the urvan returns to its fravashi, where its experiences in the material world are collected.

The concept of the fravashi, unlike that of many of the other Yazata, does not appear to have an equivalent in proto-Indo-Iranian religions. The historical development of the concept is unclear, and there are several conflicting theories as to when and why fravashi received the role they play in the texts of the Avesta. Even the origins of the term are subject to dispute. Boyce speculates that perhaps the fravashi are the remnants of the hero-cult of the "Iranian Heroic Age" (c. 1500 BCE onwards), when ancestor-worship was widespread.

Early Zoroastrian texts such as Yasht 17 make a clear departure from ancestor worship, but the Fravashi may have been re-integrated later in an effort to make the religion more widely acceptable. The military prowess of the fravarshi is celebrated throughout the Yashts, and in two sections they are clearly identified with the urvan. Both are more consistent with the beliefs of the Iranian Heroic Age than with the philosophy expressed in the Gathas, the most important part of the Avesta and thought to have been composed by Zarathustra (Zoroaster) himself.

The fravarshi are not mentioned at all in the Gathas. The earliest mention of them is in the Haptan Yasht, where they are mentioned several times. Although there is no physical description of the fravarshi in the Avesta, the faravahar or farohar, one of the best known symbols of Zoroastrianism, is commonly believed to be the depiction of a fravashi. The use of faravahar (Avestan) or farohar (Persian) to refer to the symbol is probably a later development. In Avestan language grammar, the fravashi are unmistakably female, while the faravahar are unmistakably male.

In Zoroastrian angelology, a fravashi (Farvadin) is a Yazata, responsible to the archangel Haurvatat (Khordad Amesha Spenta), whose special domain is water. In chapter 57 of the Yasna, the fravashi are responsible for the course of the sun, moon, and stars (and will do so until the renovation of this world), and in nurturing waters and plants, and protecting the unborn in the womb. They would annually strive to ensure that "family, settlement, tribe, and country" had rain.

The principal source of information on the fravarshi is Yasht 13, where they appear as beings who inhabit the stratosphere, and aid and protect those who worship them. In the Farvardin Yasht, the farvarshi are described as a vast host of "many hundreds, many thousands, many tens of thousands" aiding Ahura Mazda in the creation of the universe. This is diametrically opposite to what is expressed in Gathas 34.5-34.7, where Ahura Mazda is the sole deity and omniscient creator of everything.

The nineteenth day of the month of the Zoroastrian calendar and the first month of the Zoroastrian and present-day Iranian calendars are named Farvadin and are dedicated to the fravashi.

• Jal-Vajifdar, Farrokh. "The Decent of the Fravashis". The Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies. 
• Boyce, Mary. "Fravaši". The Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies. 
• Malandra, W. W. (1971). The Fravaši Yašt. University Microfilms. 
• Moulton, J. H. (1972). Early Zoroastrianism. London. 
• "Fravashi". Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics (2). (1913).
• Narten, J. (1985). "Avestisch frauuaši". Indo-Iranian Journal 28: 35–48.