These hypotheses, regarding the threefold origin of the present form of this Yast, derive some confirmation from the inconsistencies in its chronological details; especially those relating to the periods of the invaders’ reign and of Hashédar’s birth. The Zoroastrians have for ages been expecting the appearance of Hishédar, the first of their last three apostles, but have always had to postpone their expectations from time to time, like the Jews and other interpreters of prophecy; so that they are still looking forward into the future for his advent, although his millen- nium has long since expired according to the chronolog adopted in the Bahman Yast. This chronology, of course, represents the expectations of Zoroastrians in past times, and seems to express three different opinions. First, we have the statement that the last great battle of the demon- races is to take place at the end of Zaratdst’s millennium (see Chap. III, 9), when the wicked will be so destroye | (compare III, 22, 23) that none will pass into the next millennium (III, 11), which is that of Hdshédar (III, 43). And that the reign of evil is to precede the end of Zaratist’s millennium is evidently assumed also in Chap. II, 41, 63. Such opinions may reasonably be traced to the original Avesta writer, who must have expected only a short reign of evil to arise and fall near the latter end of Zaratist’s millennium, which was still far in the future, and to be followed by the appearance of Hishédar to restore the ‘good’ religion. Secondly, we are told (I, 5, II, 22, 24, 31) that the invasion of the demon-races, with its attendant evils, is to take place when Zaratist’s millennium is ended ; on their appearance Hishédar is born (III, 13), and when he is thirty years old (compare III, 14 with III, 44) Vahram the Vargavand is also born, who at the age of thirty (III, 17) advances into Iran with an innumerable army to destroy the invaders. Such statements may be attributed to the original Pahlavi translator and commentator who, writing about A.D. 570-590, would have before his eyes the disastrous
lvi PAHLAVI TEXTS.
reign of Adharmazd IV, the son and successor of Khisrdé Noshirvan, together with the prowess of the famous Persian general Bahram X épin, which drove out all invaders. This writer evidently expected the reign of the demon-races to last less than a century, but still at some period in the near future; merely illustrating his theme by details of the disasters and wars of his own time. Thirdly, we find it stated (III, 44) that Haishédar will be born in 1600, which seems to mean the sixteen hundredth year of Zaratist’s millennium, or six hundredth of his own (say A.D. 1193- 1235), also that the reign of the demon-races is to last a thousand years (III, 34), and that Péshyétani does not come to restore the religion till near the end of the millen- nium (III, 51); it also appears (III, 49) that Vargavand occupies a prominent position when Hashédar comes from his conference with Adharmazd at thirty years of age (III, 44, 45). Such details were probably inserted by the com- piler of the epitome, who had to admit the facts that the reign of the demon-races had already lasted for centuries, and that Hishédar had not yet appeared. To get over these difficulties he probably adopted the opinions current in his day, and postponed the advent of Hishédar till the beginning of the next century in his millennium, and put off the destruction of the wicked, as a more hopeless matter, till near the end of the millennium. Both these periods are now long since past, and the present Zoroastrians have still to postpone the fulfilment of the prophecies connected with their last three apostles, or else to understand them in a less literal fashion than heretofore.
INTRODUCTION, lvii
and whether any copy of it exists, independent of K20, is
doubtful.
The Pazand version is more common in Parsi libraries, but contains a very imperfect text. Of this version two modern copies have been consulted; one of these occupies fols. 38-62 of a small manuscript, No. 22 of the Haug col- lection in the State Library at Munich ; the other is a copy ofa manuscript in the library of the high-priest of the Parsis in Bombay. Both these MSS. are evidently descended from the same original, which must have been a very imper- fect transliteration of a Pahlavi text closely resembling that of K20, but yet independent of that MS., as a few words omitted in K20 are supplied by these Pazand MSS. (see B.Yt. II, 13, 14, 22, &c.) To a certain extent, therefore, these Pazand MSS. are of some assistance in settling the text of a few sentences, but the greater part of their con- tents is so imperfect as to be utterly unintelligible; they not only omit Chaps. I, 1-8, IT, 17, 30-32, 40, III, 9, 12, 17- 44, 58-63 entirely, but also words and phrases from nearly every other section of the text. Adhering scrupulously to the Pahlavi original for a few consecutive words, and then widely departing from it by misreading or omitting all difficult words and passages, this Pazand version is a com- plete contrast to the Pazand writings of Nérydsang, being of little use to the reader beyond showing the extremely low ebb to which Pahlavi learning must have fallen, among the Parsis, before such unintelligible writings could have been accepted as Pazand texts.
There is also a Persian version of the Bahman Yast, a copy of which, written A.D. 1676, is contained in a large Rivayat MS, No. 29, belonging to the University Library at Bombay. According to the colophon of this Persian version it was composed in A.D. 1496 by Rustam Isfendiyar of Yazd, from an Avesta (Pazand) MS. belonging to his brother Jamshéd. This Persian version contains less than three per cent of Arabic words, and is more of a paraphrase than a translation, but it adheres very closely to the meaning of the Pahlavi text from Chaps. I, 1 to III, 9, where a dis- location occurs, evidently owing either to the displacement
lviii PAILAVI TEXTS.
of two folios in an older MS., or to the second page of a folio being copied before the first, so that §§ 10-14 follow §§ 15-22. From the middle of § 22 the folios of the older MS. seem to have been lost as far as the end of Hiishédar’s millennium (§ 51), to which point the Persian version leaps, but the remainder of this paraphrase is much more diffuse than the Bahman Yast, and is evidently derived from some other Pahlavi work.
This conclusion of the Persian version describes how adversity departs from the world, and ten people are satisfied with the milk of one cow, when Hiashédar-mah appears and his millennium commences. On his coming from his conference with Atharmazd the sun stands still for twenty days and nights, in consequence of which two- thirds of the people in the world believe in the religion. Meat is no longer eaten, but only milk and butter, and a hundred people are satisfied with the milk of one cow. Hishédar-mah destroys the terrible serpent, which ac- companies apostasy, by means of the divine glory and Avesta formulas; he clears all noxious creatures out of the world, and wild animals live harmlessly among mankind ; the fiends of apostasy and deceit depart from the world, which becomes populous and delightful, and mankind abstain from falsehood. After the five-hundredth year of Hdshédar-mah has passed away, Sdshyans (Sdsan) appears, and destroys the fiend who torments fire. The sun stands still for thirty days and nights, when all mankind believe in the religion, and the year becomes exactly 360 days. Dahak escapes from his confinement, and reigns for a day and a half in the world with much tyranny ; when Séshyans rouses S4m Nariman, who accepts the religion and becomes immortal. SAm calls upon Dahak to accept the religion, but the latter proposes that they should together seize upon heaven for themselves, whereupon Sam _ kills him. All evil having departed from the world mankind become like the archangels, and the resurrection takes place, which is described with many of the same details as are mentioned in Bund. XXX,
Accompanying this Persian version in B2g is another
INTRODUCTION. lix
ee
ee ee
fragment from the same source, which treats of the same subjects as the third chapter of the Bahman Yast, but is differently arranged. It confines itself to the millennium of Htiishédar, and may possibly be some modification of the contents of the folios missing from the version described above. After some introductory matter this fragment con- tains a paraphrase (less accurate than the preceding) of Chap. III, 23-49 of the Bahman Yast; it then proceeds to state that Haishédar destroys the wolf race, so that wolves, thieves, highway robbers, and criminals cease to exist. Wher Hiashédar’s three-hundredth year has passed away the winter of Malkdés arrives and destroys all animals and vegetation, and only one man survives out of ten thousand ; after which the world is repeopled from the enclosure made by Yim. Then comes the gathering of the nations to the great battle on the Euphrates, where the slaughter is so great that the water of the river becomes red, and the sur- vivors wade in blood up to their horses’ girths. Afterwards, the Kayan king, Vargavand, advances from the frontiers of India and takes possession of Iran to the great delight of the inhabitants, but only after a great battle; and then Péshydtani is summoned from Kangdesz to restore the religious ceremonies.
A German translation of some passages in the Bahman Yast, with a brief summary of the greater part of the re- mainder, was published in 1860 in Spiegel’s Traditionelle Literatur der Parsen, pp. 128-135.
6. THE SHAYAST LA-SHAYAST.
Another treatise which must be referred to about the same age as the Bundahis, though of a very different cha- racter, is the Shayast la-shayast or ‘the proper and impro- per.’ It is a compilation of miscellaneous laws and customs regarding sin and impurity, with other memoranda about ceremonies and religious subjects in general. Its namie has, no doubt, been given to it in modern times’, and has pro-
‘ But perhaps before the compilation of the prose Sad-dar Bundahis, or Bundahis of a hundred chapters, which seems to refer to the Shayast la-shayast
lx PAHLAVI TEXTS.
bably arisen from the frequent use it makes of the words shayad, ‘it is fit or proper,” and 14 shayad, ‘it is not fit or proper.’ And, owing to its resemblance to those Persian miscellanies of traditional memoranda called Rivayats, it has also been named the Pahlavi Rivdyat, though chiefly by Europeans. |
It consists of two parts, which are often put together in modern MSS., and bear the same name, but are widely separated in the oldest MSS. These two parts, consisting respectively of Chaps. I-X and XI-XIV in the present translation, are evidently two distinct treatises on the same and similar subjects, but of nearly the same age. That they were compiled by two different persons, who had access. to nearly the same authorities, appears evident from Chaps.. XI, 1, 2, XII, 11, 13-16, 18, 20 being repetitions of Chaps. » I, 1, 2, X, 4, 20-23, 7, 31, with only slight alterations ; such repetitions as would hardly be made in a single treatise by the same writer. Minor repetitions in the first part, such as those of some phrases in Chaps. I], 65, IV, 14, repeated in Chap. X, 24, 33, might readily be made by the same writer in different parts of the same treatise. To these two parts of the Shayast laé-shdyast a third part has been added in the present translation, as an appendix, consisting of a number of miscellaneous passages of a somewhat similar character, which are found in the same old MSS. that con- tain the first two parts, but which cannot be attributed either to the same writers or the same age as those parts.
The first part commences with the names and. amounts of the various degrees of sin, and the names of the chief commentators on the Vendidad. It then gives long details regarding the precautions to be taken with reference to corpses and menstruous women, and the impurity they occa- sion; besides mentioning (Chap. II, 33-35) the pollution
in its opening words, as follows:—‘ This book is on ‘the proper and im- proper” which is brought out from the good, pure religion of the Mazda- yasnians ;’ though this term may possibly relate to its own contents. There is also a Persian treatise called Shayast na-shdyast, which gives a good deal of information obtained from the Persian Rivayats, and copies of which are contained in the MSS. Nos. 56 and 116 of the Ouseley collection in the Bodleian Library at Oxford,
