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Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1549.) * The Paoiry6 dkaés6 in the Avesta. ‘ Persepolis. * caste! y yest. * Wt, als. Lerped 9 CaBd2 orm xliv VEND{DAD. left. Therefore we must absolutely have an upright and honest man to revise the Religion.’ Tansar himself confesses that Ardashir does not pretend to re-establish the old order in its entirety, nor even to keep it free from the admixture of new elements. He takes liberties with it, and, whereas he comes forward to correct the new order (sunnati Akhirin) by the light of the older one, he does not waive the right of correcting what may be wrong in the old law. Therefore, by his own confession, his restoration is an adaptation. How little he was embarrassed in his work by the authority of authentic written texts, Tansar lets us easily guess, ‘When the Sh4hinshah wants to suppress any iniquity of the Ancients, which does not suit the necessities of the present, they say: “This is the old custom, it is the rule of the Ancients.” Iniquity, past or present, is a thing to be reproved, whether it comes from the Ancients or from the Moderns. But the Shahinshah has power over the Religion, and God is his ally?; and in this destroying and changing of the order of tyranny, I see him better armed and adorned with more virtues than the Ancients. No king attempted what he did. The Religion being lost and history forgotten, what man could judge him? Besides, even in the times when men had perfect knowledge of their religion and were closely attached to it, they felt the need of a powerful and wise king in times of doubt ; for if the Religion is not enlightened by reason, it has no steadiness 8.’ It is no wonder therefore that Zoroastrians of the time may have considered Ardashir a sacrilegious heretic. One of his acts that created the greatest indignation was that he had the sacred fires of the Muldk ut-tav4if extinguished : a crime that would have cost any other man his life: ‘no man before him,’ exclaimed king Gasnasf, ‘had ventured on such a sacrilege.’ Tansar threw back the charge of sacrilege on the shoulders of the Muldk ut-tav4if: they 1 Lettre de Tansar, 1. 1. p. 212. . Pb IG Gy pep Cel bbw se Ely. Pals pols wIS le ul UL yer INTRODUCTION, III. xlv had no right to have a second fire of their own: ‘it was a bad innovation, contrary to the custom of the old kings.’ It is more likely that the unity of the royal fire was a new dogma, invented on the spur of the moment to serve the usurper’s political devices; and Atar himself, when found to favour anarchy, was treated like any other rebel. In fact many were the laws, introduced by Ardashir, that were disapproved by public opinion as unwarranted innovations: such were the laws on the strict division of the people into classes with their functions, rights, and distinctive marks ; and the laws on heredity. His restoring the Law of the Ancients, said Gasnasf, is nothing else than destroying the real Law!.
2His restoring the Law of the Ancients, said Gasnasf, is nothing else than destroying the real Law!. § 14. How far these reforms were representéd as resting on the mere will and reason of the king, or on the authority of religious texts, we do not know. As to the religious texts themselves, and their collection into a body of doctrines, the Dinkart has the following: ‘ Ardashir had all the scattered teaching (4mék-i pargandak) brought together to the capital under the high authority of Tansar ; Tansar came; him alone he accepted (frag patiraft); and from all the others he took away authority.’ In other words, among the Zoroastrian schools,there were current several collections of religious texts, more or less authentic, and it was the one taught by Tansar that was stamped by Ardashir with an official character. From another text in the Dinkart it appears that the Ardashir compilation contained two classes of texts: texts that were incorporated as they were, and other texts that were conjecturally restored by Tansar, the Pérydétkés, so as to make a collection that should be an exact reproduction of the Vistasp Avesta, the lost treatise of Shapigan?: which is as much as saying that the Ardashir Avesta is a compound of texts anterior to Tansar and texts emanating from Tansar, the whole being an ideal restoration of a primitive Avesta, of the ‘old law’ or of what was supposed to be the old law, in the time of Ardashir. 1 Journal Asiatique, 1894, No. 3, p. 514. 2 See the text in the Guimet Zend-Avesta, III, p. xxxi, note 2. xlvi VEND{DAD. § 15. Ardashir’s collection was not a canon closed. His successor Shahpdhr I (241-272), the conqueror of Valerianus, had, we are told, the scientific and philosophic fragments, scattered in India and Greece, collected and embodied in the Avesta. This is a confession that part of the Avesta was translated or imitated from foreign sources: but it is a confession that a Zoroastrian might easily make, as it was an accepted legend that Alexander had the Avesta translated into Greek, so that they could borrow back from the Greeks without being indebted to them. To us it tells a different tale, namely, that the scientific Nasks of the Avesta!, of which unfortunately very little is left?, were written under Shaéhpdhr I, in imitation of Greek and Sanskrit scientific treatises.
3To us it tells a different tale, namely, that the scientific Nasks of the Avesta!, of which unfortunately very little is left?, were written under Shaéhpdhr I, in imitation of Greek and Sanskrit scientific treatises. § 16. It was not to be expected that a body of Scriptures, formed so recently and with such visible accretions, should obtain at once sufficient authority to command universal respect and check the sectarian spirit. In vain did Ardashir put the secular arm at the service of the new orthodoxy ®: the inquisition disgusted the older generation and could not ensure the triumph of one particular system. The old free believers, not yet confined in the immovable limits of orthodox dogma, went on growing and branching off into independent heresies. One of these, Manicheism, became at one moment powerful even at the court of Shahpdhr. The execution of Manes under Shahpdhr’s successor, Bahram I (272-276), did not stop the progsess of the heresies, and it was only under Shahpdhr II (309-379) that, through Adarbad Mahraspand’s devotion, the ortho- ! The fragments treating of medicine and astronomy, time and space, nature and creation, generation and corruption (yahvinishn vindsishn; yéveois xat Odpors ; SLund 3 oS pls, Tansar, p. 10 b). * Of the Hadha-mathra Nasks the contents of only one are sufficiently known (the Daémd&d). * ¢The SbShinsh&h has ordered that if a man swerve from the Religion he should be put in prison, and that for a whole year without ceasing the clergy should read to him, and admonish him, and give him proofs and dissipate his doubts, If he repent and confess his error, he is set at liberty; if through obstinacy and pride he harden in infidelity, he is put to death.’ (Letter of Tansar, fol. 12 a.)—Cf. Vd. XVIII, 9, 10; Mindkhard XV, 22-25. INTRODUCTION, IV. xl vii dox doctrine prevailed in a decisive way. After a public controversy with his opponents, he appealed to God’s judgment and had molten brass poured on his breast: he went through the ordeal unscathed, and confounded the heretics. During the ordeal he may have repeated the Gatha lines :— *O Good Spirit, Ahura Mazda, by thy fire thou decidest between the opponents, according to the greater degree of piety and sanctity; and many of those who see it believe in thy law’ (Yasna XLVII, 6). The king announced that the true religion having manifested itself in a visible way, any false religion (ag-dinth) could be tolerated no more. That great religious event must have taken place about the year 330; for the persecution of the Christians began in that year. It was about the time when the Fathers at Nicaea organised Christianity into an orthodox state religion.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1549.) * The Paoiry6 dkaés6 in the Avesta. ‘ Persepolis. * caste! y yest. * Wt, als. Lerped 9 CaBd2 orm xliv VEND{DAD. left. Therefore we must absolutely have an upright and honest man to revise the Religion.’ Tansar himself confesses that Ardashir does not pretend to re-establish the old order in its entirety, nor even to keep it free from the admixture of new elements. He takes liberties with it, and, whereas he comes forward to correct the new order (sunnati Akhirin) by the light of the older one, he does not waive the right of correcting what may be wrong in the old law. Therefore, by his own confession, his restoration is an adaptation. How little he was embarrassed in his work by the authority of authentic written texts, Tansar lets us easily guess, ‘When the Sh4hinshah wants to suppress any iniquity of the Ancients, which does not suit the necessities of the present, they say: “This is the old custom, it is the rule of the Ancients.” Iniquity, past or present, is a thing to be reproved, whether it comes from the Ancients or from the Moderns. But the Shahinshah has power over the Religion, and God is his ally?; and in this destroying and changing of the order of tyranny, I see him better armed and adorned with more virtues than the Ancients. No king attempted what he did. The Religion being lost and history forgotten, what man could judge him? Besides, even in the times when men had perfect knowledge of their religion and were closely attached to it, they felt the need of a powerful and wise king in times of doubt ; for if the Religion is not enlightened by reason, it has no steadiness 8.’ It is no wonder therefore that Zoroastrians of the time may have considered Ardashir a sacrilegious heretic. One of his acts that created the greatest indignation was that he had the sacred fires of the Muldk ut-tav4if extinguished : a crime that would have cost any other man his life: ‘no man before him,’ exclaimed king Gasnasf, ‘had ventured on such a sacrilege.’ Tansar threw back the charge of sacrilege on the shoulders of the Muldk ut-tav4if: they 1 Lettre de Tansar, 1. 1. p. 212. . Pb IG Gy pep Cel bbw se Ely. Pals pols wIS le ul UL yer INTRODUCTION, III. xlv had no right to have a second fire of their own: ‘it was a bad innovation, contrary to the custom of the old kings.’ It is more likely that the unity of the royal fire was a new dogma, invented on the spur of the moment to serve the usurper’s political devices; and Atar himself, when found to favour anarchy, was treated like any other rebel. In fact many were the laws, introduced by Ardashir, that were disapproved by public opinion as unwarranted innovations: such were the laws on the strict division of the people into classes with their functions, rights, and distinctive marks ; and the laws on heredity. His restoring the Law of the Ancients, said Gasnasf, is nothing else than destroying the real Law!.
2His restoring the Law of the Ancients, said Gasnasf, is nothing else than destroying the real Law!. § 14. How far these reforms were representéd as resting on the mere will and reason of the king, or on the authority of religious texts, we do not know. As to the religious texts themselves, and their collection into a body of doctrines, the Dinkart has the following: ‘ Ardashir had all the scattered teaching (4mék-i pargandak) brought together to the capital under the high authority of Tansar ; Tansar came; him alone he accepted (frag patiraft); and from all the others he took away authority.’ In other words, among the Zoroastrian schools,there were current several collections of religious texts, more or less authentic, and it was the one taught by Tansar that was stamped by Ardashir with an official character. From another text in the Dinkart it appears that the Ardashir compilation contained two classes of texts: texts that were incorporated as they were, and other texts that were conjecturally restored by Tansar, the Pérydétkés, so as to make a collection that should be an exact reproduction of the Vistasp Avesta, the lost treatise of Shapigan?: which is as much as saying that the Ardashir Avesta is a compound of texts anterior to Tansar and texts emanating from Tansar, the whole being an ideal restoration of a primitive Avesta, of the ‘old law’ or of what was supposed to be the old law, in the time of Ardashir. 1 Journal Asiatique, 1894, No. 3, p. 514. 2 See the text in the Guimet Zend-Avesta, III, p. xxxi, note 2. xlvi VEND{DAD. § 15. Ardashir’s collection was not a canon closed. His successor Shahpdhr I (241-272), the conqueror of Valerianus, had, we are told, the scientific and philosophic fragments, scattered in India and Greece, collected and embodied in the Avesta. This is a confession that part of the Avesta was translated or imitated from foreign sources: but it is a confession that a Zoroastrian might easily make, as it was an accepted legend that Alexander had the Avesta translated into Greek, so that they could borrow back from the Greeks without being indebted to them. To us it tells a different tale, namely, that the scientific Nasks of the Avesta!, of which unfortunately very little is left?, were written under Shaéhpdhr I, in imitation of Greek and Sanskrit scientific treatises.
3To us it tells a different tale, namely, that the scientific Nasks of the Avesta!, of which unfortunately very little is left?, were written under Shaéhpdhr I, in imitation of Greek and Sanskrit scientific treatises. § 16. It was not to be expected that a body of Scriptures, formed so recently and with such visible accretions, should obtain at once sufficient authority to command universal respect and check the sectarian spirit. In vain did Ardashir put the secular arm at the service of the new orthodoxy ®: the inquisition disgusted the older generation and could not ensure the triumph of one particular system. The old free believers, not yet confined in the immovable limits of orthodox dogma, went on growing and branching off into independent heresies. One of these, Manicheism, became at one moment powerful even at the court of Shahpdhr. The execution of Manes under Shahpdhr’s successor, Bahram I (272-276), did not stop the progsess of the heresies, and it was only under Shahpdhr II (309-379) that, through Adarbad Mahraspand’s devotion, the ortho- ! The fragments treating of medicine and astronomy, time and space, nature and creation, generation and corruption (yahvinishn vindsishn; yéveois xat Odpors ; SLund 3 oS pls, Tansar, p. 10 b). * Of the Hadha-mathra Nasks the contents of only one are sufficiently known (the Daémd&d). * ¢The SbShinsh&h has ordered that if a man swerve from the Religion he should be put in prison, and that for a whole year without ceasing the clergy should read to him, and admonish him, and give him proofs and dissipate his doubts, If he repent and confess his error, he is set at liberty; if through obstinacy and pride he harden in infidelity, he is put to death.’ (Letter of Tansar, fol. 12 a.)—Cf. Vd. XVIII, 9, 10; Mindkhard XV, 22-25. INTRODUCTION, IV. xl vii dox doctrine prevailed in a decisive way. After a public controversy with his opponents, he appealed to God’s judgment and had molten brass poured on his breast: he went through the ordeal unscathed, and confounded the heretics. During the ordeal he may have repeated the Gatha lines :— *O Good Spirit, Ahura Mazda, by thy fire thou decidest between the opponents, according to the greater degree of piety and sanctity; and many of those who see it believe in thy law’ (Yasna XLVII, 6). The king announced that the true religion having manifested itself in a visible way, any false religion (ag-dinth) could be tolerated no more. That great religious event must have taken place about the year 330; for the persecution of the Christians began in that year. It was about the time when the Fathers at Nicaea organised Christianity into an orthodox state religion.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
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