* This appears to be another name for Garédmén, ‘ the abode of song,’ which is the highest heaven, ur dwelling of Adharmazd. The lower heaven is here called Vahist, which is a general term for heaven in general. AV.VII-X, XVI, 27, and Mkh. VU, 9-12, 20, 21 describe four grades in heaven and four in hell, besides the intermediate neutral position of the Hamistakén (AV. VI, Mkh. VII, 18, 19). The four grades of heaven, proceeding upwards, are Hamat for good thoughts in the station of the stars, Hkht for good words in the station of the moon, Hfvarst for good deeds in the station of the sun, and Gar6¢man where Aftharmazd dwells (Vend. XIX, 121). And the four grades of hell, proceeding downwards, are Dfis-hdmat for evil thoughts, Das-haikht for evil words, Das-hfivarst for evil deeds, and the darkest hell (Vend. XIX, 147) where the evil spirit dwells. The pdhlim ahvan of
Chapter Vi, 3-6. 295
formed’. 4. Sdshyans? said that to come into that
best existence it is not necessary to perform the
ceremony, for when his good works are one® Tana-
pihar more than the sin he attains to the best
existence, and no account is éaken of performing his
ceremony; because in the heavenly existence (ga-
rédmanikih) it is not necessary to perform a
ceremony, for an excess of good works must attain
Garéddmin‘*. 5. As Sdshyans said, in heaven
(vahist) he who is below is elevated to him who is
above; avd it says thus: ‘ Happy indeed art thou,
O man! who art in any way near unto that im-
perishable existence °.’
6. Kiashtand-bigéd*® said that an infidel (ak-
dind)", when zs good works are one Tandpthar
more than Azs sin, is saved from hell.
nn ne
the text is merely the Pahlavi form of Av. vahistem ahim
(Vend. VII, 133, XVIII, 69, XIX, 120, Yas. IX, 64), whence the
term vahist (Pers. bahist) is also derived.
1 That is, when his surviving relatives have performed the proper religious ceremonies after his death.
$ Reading aé, ‘one,’ and supposing that this Paz. form has been substituted for an original Huz. khadfik, ‘one.’ This supposition being necessary to account for the aé@ preceding its noun, instead of following it; and without it we ought to read ‘three’ instead of ‘one,’ which seems, however, hardly reconcileable with the context (but compare Pahl. Vend. VII, 136). This is an instance of the ambiguity occasioned by aé, ‘one,’ and the cipher 3 being often written alike in Pahlavi, as already noticed in p. 289, note 3. The word might also be taken as the conditional verbal form aé, ‘shall be,’ but in that case it is likewise misplaced.
4 See note on pahlim ahvan in § 3.
5 A somewhat similar exclamation to that in Vend. VII, 136.
* See Chap. I, 4, note.
7 That is, one of another religion; not an apostate, nor an atheist.
296 SHAYAST LA-SHAYAST.
7. Of a pure law (dad) are we of the good reli-
gion, and we are of the primitive faith; of a mixed
law are those of the Sinik congregation’; of a vile
1 It is not easy to identify this Sinik vaskardih, but Professor J. Darmesteter suggests that the term may have been applied to the Manicheans settled in eastern Turkist4n and western China, whence they may have been called Sintk (the country of the Séni, Av. SAini, being identified with Aintstén or China in Bund. XV, 29, because 7'Sin is the Arabic name of the latter). This is con- firmed, to some extent, by a passage in the Dinkard (see Dastfir Péshétan’s edition of the Pahlavi text, p. 27), where three foreign religions are mentioned, that of the Jews from Arfim, that of the Messiah from the west, and that of M4nih from Turkistén. Dar- mesteter further points out the following passages in Barbier de Meynard’s French translation of Mas’afidi, which show that the Manicheans had considerable influence in eastern Turkistén as late as A.D. 944 :—
(Meynard, I, 268): ‘... the Turks, the Khuzlug, and the Ta- _ghazghaz, who occupy the town of Kfisan, situated between Khuraésén and China, and who are now (a.p. 944) the most valiant, most powerful, and best governed of all the Turkish races and tribes. Their kings bear the title of irkh&n (“ sub-khan?”), and they alone, among all these nations, profess the religion of Mani.’
Again, after stating that the Chinese were at first Samanians (Buddhists), it is added (Meynard, II, 258): ‘Their kingdom is contiguous to that of the Taghazghaz, who, as we have said above, are Manicheans, and proclaim the simultaneous existence of the two principles of light and darkness. These people were living in simplicity, and in a faith like that of the Turkish races, when there turned up among them a demon of the dualist sect, who showed them, in tempting language, two opposing principles in everything that exists in the world, such as life and death, health and sickness, riches and poverty, light and darkness, union and separation, connection and severance, rising and setting, existence and non-existence, night and day, &c. Then, he spoke to them of the various ailments which afflict rational beings, animals, children, idiots, and madmen; and he added that God could not be re- sponsible for this evil, which was in distressing contradiction to the excellence which distinguishes his works, and that he was
Chapter Vi, 7—Vii, I. 297
law are the Zandik', the Christian (Tarsak), the Jew (Yahfd), and others of this sort (san6d)*.
CuaptTer VII.
1. The morning sun it is necessary to reverence
(yastan6) till midday, and that of midday it is
necessary to reverence till the afternoon time, and
that of the afternoon time it is necessary to re-
verence till night*; whenever ove is quite prepared
above any such imputation. By these quibbles, and others like them, he carried away their minds, and made them adopt his errors.’
The tenets of the Manicheans ought, no doubt, to have been considered by the Zoroastrians as a mixture of truth and error, just as those of the Sinik congregation are represented to be in our text; but such tenets being an heretical offshoot of Zoroas- trianism, it argues unusual liberality in the priests if they preferred Manicheans to Christians, that is, heretics to infidels.
K2o has altered stnik vaskardih into nisinik (or vidinik) sikaftth, which appears to be an attempt to bring the words within the limits of the writer’s knowledge, without paying much attention to their collective meaning.
? A sect which (according to its name) probably adhered’ to a certain heretical interpretation (za nd) in preference to the orthodox Avesta and Zand. Nérydsang, in his Sanskrit version of Mkh. XXXVI, 16, explains a Zandik as one who ‘thinks well of Ahar- man and the demons.’
2 Unless this paragraph be a continuation of the quotation from Kiishtand-bfiigéd’s commentary, which seems unlikely, its contents have an important bearing upon the age of the Shayast la-shayast. As it does not méntion Muhammadanism by name it could hardly have been written after the fall of the Sasanian dynasty, when that new faith had become much more important, in Persia, than those of the Christians and Jews.
’ Referring to the recitation of the Kharshéd Nyayis, or ‘ saluta- tion of the sun,’ which should be performed thrice a day, in the Havan, Rapitvin, and Afizérin Gahs, or periods of the day (see
298 SHAYAST LA-SHAYAST.
for activity (khvéskarih), and shall then do rever-
ence, it is proper. 2. And when anything of that
happens which zzazcates when it is not proper to
wash the hands, and about this he considers that
when he does not reverence the sun it will stop’, a¢
the time previous 40 ¢ha¢ in which it occurs the sun
is to be fully reverenced by him, and, afterwards,
when Azs hands are washed, it is to be reverenced
again; and when he does not reverence 2z¢, except
when innocent through not reverencing z¢’, then it
becomes irreverence (14 yast) of the sun for him®.
3. As to the sun it is better when ove reverences
zt every time at the proper period (pavan gas-i
nafsman); when he does not reverence z¢ for once
z¢ is a sin of thirty stirs‘. 4. Reverencing the sun is
every time a good work of one Tanapfihar®; and so
‘of the moon and fire zz like manner ® 5. When on
account of cloudiness the sun is not visible (pé@ak),
and oxe shall reverence 2¢, it is proper.
Bund. XXV, 9); a few sentences in the Ny4yis, or formula of salutation, are altered to suit the particular Gah in which it is recited,
1 Kao has, ‘it will protect z/,’ having read netrfinéd instead of ketrfinéd in its original. To pray with unwashed hands would be sinful (see Pahl. Vend. XIX, 84).
* That is, except when the omission is to avoid a worse evil, as in the instance just mentioned.
* Or, perhaps, ‘it does not become a Khirshéd Yast (“a formula of praise in honour of the sun”) for him.’ This Yast forms a part of the Nydyis.
‘ That is, an Aredfs sin (see Chap. I, 2). M6 has, ‘when he does not reverence ?/ again,’
® That is, a good work sufficient to counterbalance a Tanapfhar sin, which puts the performance of a Nyayis on the same footing as the consecration of a sacred cake or drén (see Chap. XVI, 6).
* The moon and fire have each a separate Nyayis.
Chapter Vii, 2-8. 299
6. And while oxe does not reverence the sun, the
good works which they do that day are not their
own; some say that of the good works which they
do within the law (d4q@) of the good religion he has
no share. 7. While they do not wash dirty hands
any good work which they do is not their own, for
while ove does not utterly destroy corruption (na-
sis)! ¢here is no coming of the angels to his body,
and when ¢herve is no coming of the angels to his
body he has no steadfastness in the religion, and
when he has no steadfastness in the religion no
good work whatever reaches unto him.
8. When oxe wishes to perform the propitiation
(shndman)? of fire, it is allowable to perform one
‘athré’ by itself, and, when two and the ‘mad vis-
paéibyé Aterebyd, these three are thus the pro-
pitiation everywhere*; some say that it would be
proper to perform z¢ while allowable, except that of
the heterodox.
1 That is, the demon of corruption, who is supposed to enter and reside in all filth of the nature of dead matter, until expelled or destroyed by cleansing.
2 A shndman or khshnimané (Av. khshniman) is a short formula of praise, reciting all the usual titles of the spirit intended to be propitiated by it, and is used for dedicating the prayers or ceremony specially to his service (see Chaps. III, 35, X, 2, XIV, 3). The propitiatory formulas for the thirty angels and arch- angels who preside over the days of the month constitute the Strézah, or form of prayer ‘relating to the thirty days.’
’ The propitiation of fire (as given in Siréz. I, 9, Atas Nyayis 5, 6) consists of five sentences, each beginning with the word Athré, ‘of the fire,’ and the last sentence also contains the words mad vispaéiby6 atereby6, ‘ with all fires.’ The meaning of the text appears to be that it is allowable to use only one of these sentences (probably the last), but if two are used besides the last they are amply sufficient for practical purposes.
300 SHAYAST LA-SHAYAST.
9. Whoever shall extinguish? a fire, by him ten
fires are to be gathered together, by him ten punish-
ments are to be endured, by him ten ants are to be
destroyed ?, and by him holy-water (zéhar) is to be
presented to the sacred fire (Atas-i VAhram).
Cuapter VIII.
1. Sin which affects accusers * is to be atoned for (vigdrisn) among the accusers, and that relating to
? Literally, ‘kill,’
* The ant being a creature of the evil spirit, on account of its carrying away corn.
