SBE 05: Pahlavi Texts, Part 1 (E. W. West) — page scans

* There is no doubt whatever that the writer of the preface is referring to M6, although his description is incorrect. M6 was written at Bhroé in India a. ¥. 766 by Péshétan Ram Kamdin Shaharyar Néryésang Shahmard Shaharyar Bahram Adrmazdyaér Ramyar; but some portion of it (probably not the Bun- dahis) was copied from a MS. written a.y, 618 (A.D. 1249) by Riistam Mihir- Apan Marzapan Dahisn-ayar, who must be the copyist mentioned in the preface to the Gugarati translation.

’ This is probably the copy derived from M6, and mentioned in p. xxx as being now in the library of Dastar Jamaspji Minochiharji.

xliv PAHLAVI TEXTS.

improve the work by collecting all the further ‘nformation he could find, on the various subjects, in many other Pahlavi works. The result of all this labour is not so much a mere translation of the Bundahis, as a larger work upon the same subject, or a paraphrase more methodically arranged, as may be seen from the following summary of its contents :—

The headings of the fifty-nine chapters, which form the first part of the work, are:—Ahuramazd’s covenant, account of the sky, of the first twelve things created, of Mount Alborg, of the twelve signs of the zodiac, of the stars, of the soul, of the first practices adopted by the creatures of the evil spirit Ahereman, of Ahereman’s first breaking into the sky, of Ahereman’s coming upon the primeval ox, of Ahereman’s arrival in the fire, of Ahere- man’s coming upon Gaiomard, of the coming of Ahura- mazd and Ahereman upon Gaiomard at the time of his creation, of the lustre residing in both spirits; further account of the arrangement of the sky, another account of all the mountains, of depressions for water, of great and small rivers, of the eighteen rivers of fresh water, of the seven external and seven internal liquids in the bodies of men, of the period in which water falling on the earth arrives at its destination, of the three spiritual rivers, of the star Tehestar’s destroying the noxious creatures which Ahereman had distributed over the earth, of the prophet Zarathost’s asking the creator Ahuramazd how long these noxious creatures will remain in the latter millenniums, of driving the poison of the noxious creatures out of the earth, of the divisions of the land, of the creator Ahura- mazd’s placing valiant stars as club-bearers over the heads of the demons, of all the things produced by the passing away of the primeval ox, of the 282 species of beasts and birds, of the bird named Xamros, of the bird named Karsapad and the hellow of Vargamkard, of the birds who are enemies opposed to the demons and fiends, of the bitter and sweet plants among the fifty-five kinds of grain and twelve kinds of herbs, of the flowers of the thirty days, of the revolution of the sun and moon and stars, and how

INTRODUCTION. xlv

night falls, and how the day becomes light, of the seven regions of the earth, of depressions, of the creatures of the sea, of the flow and ebb of the tide, of the three-legged ass, of the Gahambars, of Rapithvan, of the revolution of the seasons, of the production of mankind from the passing away of Gaiomard, of the production of offspring from the seed of men, of all fires, of all the clever work produced in the reign of King Jamshed and the production of the ape and bear, of the production of the Abyssinian and negro from Zohak, of the splendour and glory of King Jamshed, of the soul of Kersasp, of Kersasp’s soul being the first to rise, of the names of the prophet Zarathost’s pedigree, of his going out into the world, of his children, of the orders given by Ahereman to the demons when the creator Ahuramazd created the creatures, of the weeping and raging of the evil spirit Ahereman, of the weeping of the demon of Wrath in the presence of Ahereman when the prophet Zarathost brought the religion, of the compu- tation of twelve thousand years.

The headings of the thirteen chapters, which form the second part, are: — Account of the last millenniums, of the appearance of Hosedar-bami, of his going out into thie world, of the appearance of Hosedar-mah, of Sosios, of the fifty-seven years, of giving the light of the sun to men on the day of the resurrection, of the rising again of the whole of mankind on that day, of the resurrection, of the means of resurrection, of the annihilation of the evil spirit Ahereman and the demons and fiends on the day of resurrection, of the creator Ahuramazd’s making the earth and sky one after the resurrection, of the proceedings of all creatures after the resurrection.

The third part contains an abstract of the contents of
the hundred chapters of the Sad-dar Bundahis, and con-
cludes with an account of the ceremonial formula practised
when tying the kusti or sacred thread-girdle.

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4. THE SELECTIONS OF ZAD-SPARAM.

In some manuscripts of the Dadistan-i Dinik the ninety- two questions and answers, which usually go by that name, are preceded and followed by Pahlavi texts which are each nearly equal in extent to the questions and answers, and treat of a variety of subjects, somewhat in the manner of a Rivdyat. Of the texts which follow the questions and answers the following are the principal :—

Incantations for fever, &c.; indications afforded by natural marks on the body; about the hamistakdn (‘the ever-stationary,’ or neutral state of future existence) and the different grades in heaven; copy of an epistle’ from Herbad Maniskihar son of Ydidan-Yim*, which he ad- dressed to the good people of Sirkan*, about the decisions pronounced by Herbad Zad-sparam son of Yidan-Yim ; copy of a letter from Herbad Mantsfihar son of Yidan- Yim to his brother, Herbad Zad-sparam, on the same subject, and replying to a letter of his written from Nivshapaihar; copy of a notice by Herbad Mandstihar, son of Yidan-Yim and high-priest (rad) of Pars and Kirman, of the necessity of fifteenfold ablution on account of grievous sin, written and sealed in the third month A.yY. 250 (A.D. 881); memoranda and writings called ‘Selections of Zad-sparam son of Yidan-Yim,’ the first part treating of many of the same subjects as the Bundahis, together

' This long epistle contains one statement which is important in its bearing upon the age of certain Pahlavi writings, It states that Nishahpfhar was in the council of Andshak-ribién Khiisré, king of kings and son of Kavad, also that he was Mobad of Mobads and a commentator. Now this is the name of a commentator quoted in the Pahlavi Vend, III, 151, V, 112, VIII, 64, and very frequently in the Nirangistan ; it is also a title applied to Ard&-Viraf (see AV. J, 35). These facts seem to limit the age of the last revision of the Pahlavi Vendidad, and of the composition of the Pahlavi Nirangistén and Arda-Viraf- namak to the time of King Khisr6é Néshirvén (a.p. 531-579). The statement depends, of course, upon the accuracy of a tradition three centuries old, as this epistle must have been written about a. p. 880,

? Some Parsis read this name Gdshnajam, others Y{idan-dam.

* Mr. Tehmuras Dinshawji thinks this is the place now called Sirgan, about thirty parasangs south of Kirman, on the road to Bandar Abbas, which is no doubt the case,

INTRODUCTION. xl vii

with legends regarding Zaratdst and his family ; the second part about the formation of men out of body, life, and soul; and the third part about the details of the renovation of the universe. The last part of these Selections is in- complete ‘in all known MSS., and is followed by some fragments of a further series of questions and answers regarding the omniscient wisdom, the evil spirit, Kangdez, the enclosure formed by Yim, &c.

A translation of so much of the Selections of Zad-sparam as treats of the same subjects as the Bundahis, has been added as an appendix to the translation of that work in this volume, because the language used in these Selections seems to have an important bearing upon the question of the age of the Bundahis. The time when the Selections themselves were written is fixed with considerable precision by the date (A. D. 881), when their author's brother, Mana- skihar, issued his public notice, as mentioned above. But Zad-sparam uses, in many places, precisely the same words as those employed in the Bundahis, interspersed with much matter written in a more declamatory style; it is, there- fore, evident that he had the Bundahis before him to quote from, and that work must consequently have been written either by one of his contemporaries, or by an older writer. So far the Selections merely confirm the information already obtained more directly from TD (see p. xxxviii); but the involved style of their language seems to prove more than this. In fact, in none of the text of the Dadistan-i Dinik and its accompaniments is there much of the simplicity of style and directness of purpose which are the chief cha- racteristics of most of the language of the Bundahis. So far, therefore, as style can be considered a mark of age, rather than a mere personal peculiarity of a contemporary writer, the contrast between the straightforward language of the Bundahis and the laboured sentences of Manisfihar and Zad-sparam, sons of Yidan-Yim, tends to prove that the bulk of the Bundahis was already an old work in their days, and was probably saved from oblivion through their writings or influence. That this original Bundahis or Zand- Akds was an abridged translation of the Avesta of the

xl viil PAHLAVI TEXTS.

DAmdad Nask appears pretty evident from Zad-sparam’s remarks in Chap, 1X, 1, 16 of his Selections.

The first part of these Selections consists of ‘sayings about the meeting of the beneficent and evil spirits,’ and the first portion of these ‘sayings’ (divided into eleven chapters in the translation) is chiefly a paraphrase of Chaps. I-X VII of the Bundahis (omitting Chaps. II, V, and XVI). It describes the original state of the two spirits, their meeting and covenant, with a paraphrase of the Ahdnavar formula; the production of the first creatures, including time; the incursion of the evil spirit and his temporary success in deranging the creation, with the reason why he was unable to destroy the primitive man for thirty years; followed by the seven contests he carried on with the sky, water, earth, plants, animals, man, and fire, respec- tively, detailing how each of these creations was modified in consequence of the incursion of the evil spirit. In the account of the first of these contests the Pahlavi translation of one stanza in the Gathas is quoted verbatim, showing that the same Pahlavi version of the Yasna was used in the ninth century as now exists. The remainder of these ‘sayings,’ having no particular connection with the Bundahis, has not been translated.

With regard to the Pahlavi text of the Selections, the present translator has been compelled to rely upon a single manuscript of the Dadistan-i Dinik, brought by Wester- gaard from Kirman! in 1843, and now No. 35 of the collec- tion of Avesta and Pahlavi MSS. in the University Library at Kopenhagen; it may, therefore, be called K35. This MS. is incomplete, having lost neafly one-third of its original bulk, but still contains 181 folios of large octavo size, written fifteen to seventeen lines to the page; the first seventy-one folios of the work have been lost, and about thirty-five folios are also missing from the end; but the whole of the ninety- two questions and answers, together with one-third of the

' That is, so far as the late Professor Westergaard could remember in 1878, when he kindly lent me the MS, for collation with my copy of the text, already obtained from more recent MSS, in Bombay, the best of which turned out to be a copy of K35.

INTRODUCTION. xlix

— a eee ee ee re

texts which usually precede them, and three-fifths of those which usually follow them, are still remaining. This MS. has lost its date, but a copy! of it exists in Bombay (written when it was complete) which ends with a colophon dated A.Y. 941 (A.D. 1572), as detailed in p. xxxiii; this may either be the actual date of that copy, or it may have been merely copied from K35, which cannot be much older. The latter supposition appears the more probable, as this colophon seems to be left incomplete by the loss of the last folio in the Bombay copy, and may, therefore, have been followed by another colophon giving a later date.