 According to Boyce, the present-day expression "Atash-Behram" as the name of the most sacred class of fires is a confusion of the adjectival "Victorious Fire" with "Fire of Bahram" The former is the way it appears in Middle Persian inscriptions such as the Kartir inscription at "Kabah-i Zardusht", while the latter is what is now understood by the term "Atash-Behram".Gnoli attributes the change to natural misunderstanding "abetted in Islamic times by a progressive decay in Zoroastrian priestly teaching"

The only evidence of a cult appears in the first century account of Strabo, who reports, probably on authority of Nearchus, that the Karmanians worshipped a divinity of victory ("Geographika", 15.2.14).That this was Bahram/Verethragna is unlikely if, as per Strabo, he was their "only god."