In the same manner the artificial pronunciation of the Iranian portion of the Huzvaris may be explained. The compilers of the glossary found a nuinber of words in the Pahlavi texts, which were written in some obsolete or contracted manner; they knew the meanings of these words, but could not trace the true readings in the altered letters ; they, therefore, adopted the most obvious readings of the written characters, and thus produced another series of artificial words, such as anhéma for atharmazd, yahan for yazdan, madénad for maindédk, shatan for shatrd, &c.
Naturally enough the Parsis are loth to admit the possibility of any error in their traditional readings of Huzvaris, and very few of them have yet adopted the views of European scholars further than to admit that they are ingenious hypotheses, which still require satis- factory proof. They are quite right in demanding such proof, and they may reasonably argue that the conflicting opinions of various European scholars do not tend to in- crease the certainty of their explanations. But, on the other han’, they are bound to examine all proofs that may be offered, and to consider the arguments of scholars, before utterly rejecting them in favour of their own pre- conceived not.ons of traditional authority.
Fortunately, we possess some means of ascertaining the ancient pronunciation of a few Huzvaris words, independent of the opinions of comparative philologists, in the inscrip-
Introduction, Xix
tions already mentioned as having been engraved on rocks, and impressed on coins, by the earlier kings of the Sasanian dynasty in Persia. The earliest of these rock inscriptions records the name and titles of Artakhshatar son! of Papak, the first Sasanian monarch (A. D. 226-240); it is engraved in Greek and two kinds of old Pahlavi characters, which have been called Chaldawo-Pahlavi and Sasanian-Pahlavi, because the one bears more resemblance to Chaldee, both in its letters and the language they express, and the other is more frequently used by the subsequent Sasanian monarchs. A similar tri-lingual in- scription records the names and titles of his son and successor Shahpdhar I (A.D. 240-271), who has also left a long bi-lingual inscription, in Chaldwo and Sasanian- Pahlavi, in a cave near Persepolis. Another long bi-lingual! inscription, fragments of which have been found on stones among the ruins of Pai Kali, is attributed to his early successors, who have also left us several uni-lingual in- scriptions in Sasanian-Pahlavi, two of which are of great length, but none later than the end of the fourth century.
The language of the earlier of these inscriptions differs from that of the manuscripts preserved by the Parsis, chiefly in the use of several Semitic words unknown to the manuscript Huzvaris, the non-existence of Iranian Huzvaris (which is evidently a growth of later times), and the less frequent use of Persian terminations affixed to Semitic words. These differences however, are hardly greater than those which distinguish the English of Chaucer from that of our own day. Moreover, they gradually dis- appear in process of time, as we find the later inscriptions of the fourth century approaching much closer, in language, to the manuscripts.
As the alphabets of these inscriptions are luss imperfect and ambiguous than that of the Pahlavi manuscripts, they render the pronunciation of many words much more cer- tain. They consist of eighteen letters, having the following sounds :—
' So stated in the inscription, but Pahlavi MSS. call him the son of PApak’s daughter and of Sasan (see Bund, NXNI, 30).
XX PAHLAVI TEXTS.
laa abo gap? gta 5 ee coke
7.0. ° 82x, v, w, 0; 6. (Ore TOl ss. EE a ee
14.1lr, 15-m. 16.n, 17. y,1,6 18. doubtful, being
equivalent to Chaldee N+ and to Pahl. MS. -man".
Comparing this list of sounds with that of the sounds of the manuscript alphabet (pp. xvi, xvii) it is evident that the inscriptions must afford a means of distinguishing 4 from kh, s from any binary compound of y, d, g, or g, sh from any compound of y, d, g, or g with 4, h, or kh, n from v, r, or 1], and y, d. g from each other; all which letters and compounds are left in doubt by the manuscript alphabet. Unfortunately we do not possess trustworthy copies of some of the inscriptions which are evidently the most important from a linguistic point of view”; but such copies as have been obtained supply corrections of tra- ditional misreadings of about twenty-five Huzvaris logo- grams, and at the same time they confirm the correctness of three traditional readings which have been called in question by most European scholars. So far, therefore, the inscriptions would teach the Parsis that the decisions of comparative philologists are not likely to be right more than seven times out of eight, even when they are tolerably
unanimous, The Chaldzo-Pahlavi character appears to have soon
* Whether the sound of this letter can ever be satisfactorily settled remains doubtful. Levy, in his Beitrige, cited on p. xi, considers it to be the Semitic 7, on paleeographical grounds ; but there are serious objections to all the identi- fications that have been proposed.
* The Sasanian inscriptions, of which new and correct copies are most ur- gently wanted, are:—1. An inscription of thirtyeune lines high up in the left side-compartment (behind the king) of the centre bas-relief of Naqs-i Ragab, near Persepolis. 2. Two inscriptions, of eleven and twelve lines respectively, on the stones of .ue edifice near the south-west corner of the great platform at Persepolis, south of the Hall of Columns (see Ouseley’s Travels in Persia, vol. ii. p. 237 and plate 42), 3. All the fragments of the Pai KAlt inscription, of which probably not more than half have yet been copied.
Of the very long inscription behind the king’s horse in the bas-relief of Naqs-i Rustam, con‘aining more than seventy lines very much damaged, a copy taken by Westergaard in 1843, with his usual accuracy, probably gives nearly all that is legible. And of the Hagiabad and shorter inscriptions, little or nothing remains doubtful,
Introduction. Xxi
gone out of use, after the establishment of the Sasanian dynasty, as the latest known inscription, in which it occurs, is that of Pai Kali, which contains the name of Ad- harmazd I (A.D. 271-272); while the long inscriptions of Naqs-i Regab and Nagqs-i Rustam, which contain the name of Varahran II (A.D. 275-283), are engraved only in Sasanian-Pahlavi. From these facts it seems probable that Chaldzo-Pahlavi went out of use about A.D. 275. The Sasanian characters continue to appear, with very little alteration, upon the coins until the end of the fifth century, when most of them begin to assume the cursive form of the manuscript Pahlavi, which appears to have altered very slightly since the eighth century.
The oldest Pahlavi manuscript known to be extant, consists of several fragments of papyrus recently found in a grave in the Fayim district in Egypt, and now in the Royal Museum at Berlin; it is supposed to have been written in the eighth century. Next to this, after a long interval, come four manuscripts written on Indian paper, all by the same hand, in A.D. 1323-1324; they are two copies of the Yasna and two of the Vendidad, containing the Avesta with its Zand, or Pahlavi translation and com- mentary; two of these old MSS. are now preserved in Kopenhagen, one in London, and one in Bombay. Next to these in age are two MSS. of miscellaneous Pahlavi texts, written probably about fifty years later; one of these is now in Kopenhagen and one in Bombay. Another MS. of nearly the same age is also a miscellaneous col- lection of Pahlavi texts, written in A.D. 1397, and now in Munich; where there is also one of the oldest Pazand- Sanskrit MSS., a copy of the Arda-Viraf-namak, written in A.D. 1410, Another Pazand-Sanskrit MS., a copy of the Khurdah Avesta, of about the same aye, exists in Bombay. Pahlavi and Pazand manuscripts of the sixteenth century are rather more numerous.
Pahlavi literature reached the zenith or its prosperity
about thirteen centuries ago, when it included the whole
literature of Persia. Seventy years later its destruction
commenced with the fall of the Sasanian dynasty (A.D.
XXil PAHLAVI TEXTS.
636--651) ; and the subsequent adoption of the modern Per- sian alphabet gave it its death-blow. The last remnants of Pahlavi writings are now contained in the few manuscripts still preserved by the Parsis in Western India, and their almost-extinct brethren in Persia. A careful estimate of the length of these remnants, so far as they are known to Europeans, has shown that the total extent of existing Pahlavi literature is about thirty-six times that of the Bundahis, as translated in this volume. One-fifth of this literature consists of translations accompanying Avesta texts, and the remaining four-fifths are purely Pahlavi works which are nearly all connected with religion. How much of this literature may have descended from Sasanian times can hardly be ascertained as yet; in fact, it is only very recently that any trustworthy data, for determining the age of a few Pahlavi writings, have been discovered, as will be explained hereafter, when considering the age of the Bundahis.
3. THE BUNDAHIS.
The term Bundahis, ‘creation of the beginning, or ‘original creation, is applied by the Parsis to a Pahlavi work! which, in its present state, appears to be a collection of fragments relating to the cosmogony, mythology, and legendary history taught by Mazdayasnian tradition, but which cannot be considered, in any way, a complete treatise on these subjects. This term is applicable enough to much of the earlier part of the work, which treats of the progressive development of creation under good and evil influences; but it is probably not the original name of the book. Its adoption was no doubt partly owing to the occurrence of the word bin-dahisn, or bdn-dahisnih, twice in the urst sentence, and partly to its appropriateness to the subject. But the same sentence seems to inform
* When this work forms part of a collection of Pahlavi texts, the whole manuscript is somet‘mes called ‘the great Bundahis.’ There also exists a Sad- dar Bundahis, or Bundahis of a hundred chapters, which is a comparatively
modern compilation, detailing the chief customs and religious laws of the Parsis in a hundred sections,
INTRODUCTION. XXIil
us that the actual name of the treatise was Zand-AkAs, ‘knowing the tradition.’
The work commences by describing the state of things in the begianing; the good spirit being in endless light and omniscient, and the evil spirit in endless darkness and with limited knowledge. Both produced their own crea- tures, which remained apart, in a spiritual or ideal state, for tliree thousand years, after which the evil spirit began his opposition to the good creation under an agreement that his power was not to last more than nine thousand years, of which only the middle three thousand were to see him successful. By uttering a sacred formula the good spirit throws the evil one into a state of confusion for a second three thousand years, while he produces the arch- angels and the material creation, including the sun, moon, and stars. At the end of that period the evil spirit, encouraged by the demons he had produced, once more rushes upon the good creation, to destroy it. The demons carry on conflicts with each of the six classes of creation, namely, the sky, water, earth, plants, animals represented by the primeval ox, and mankind represented by Gayé6- mard; producing little effect but movement in the sky, saltness in the water, mountains in the earth, withering in plants, and death to the primeval ox, and also to Gayémard after an interval.
Then follows a series of chapters describing the seven regions of the earth, its mountains and seas, the five classes of animals, the origin of mankind, generation, the five kinds of fire and three sacred fires, the white H6ém tree and the tree of many seeds, the three-legged ass, the ox Hadhayos, the bird XaAmrés, and other birds and animals opposed to the evil creation, the rivers of the world, the seventeen species of liquids, the lakes, the origin of the ape and bear, the chiefs of the several kinds of creatures and creations, the calendar, lineal measures, trees and plants, the cha- racteristics of various demons, the spiritual chiefs of the various regions of the earth, and the resurrection and future existence; all which descriptions are given on the authority of the Din, which may have been some particular
XXIV PAHLAVI TEXTS.
book, or revelation generally. The concluding chapters give the genealogies of the legendary Persian kings and heroes, and of Zaratist and certain priests, together with an epitome of Persian chronology from the creation to the Muhammadan conquest.
