. What things happen ee destiny, base ville dough
exertion
. The seven heinous sinners, ava the dob a wisidias
him who commits unnatural intercourse .
. Whether the stench of such intercourse reaches the me ; . Whether that stench disturbs the archangels . Whether the angels raise such a sinner from the dead at
the. resurrection
. Whether it be a good arta to kill sia a sinner
. Why such intercourse is a heinous sin .
. Why adultery is heinous, and how one can atone oe it:
. The sin of not repeating the full grace before drinking
(when one is able to do and how one can atone for it
. Regarding him who joes not iden ceremonies
. About the ceremonies for the living soul
. About him who pays for ceremonies and him who takes
the money without performing them
. Whether a priest must undertake all religious rites . Whether gifts to the priesthood for ceremonies can be
diminished or increased .
. The advantages of increasing such gifts
. The harm of diminishing such gifts
. Why it is good to give such gifts
. About the cost of religious rites in Pars
. Whether when a man has once resolved to go into
Pars, with gifts for the priesthood, it be lawful for him to send another man with the gifts
. The seven immortal rulers in the region of roe
before the coming of the good religion
. The nature and material of the sky
The course and benefit of the water of Aveledniiaga’ :
CHAP, . Tistar’s seizing of water from the ocean to rain it upon
Io,
Il.
the earth, and his conflict with Apadésh
. Conclusion a . : : ’ ‘ ‘ i
Episttes OF MAnOsxitHAR : :
EpistteE I. To the good people of Sirkan.
. Introductory compliments, ackaowledging bias of a
complaining evistle : : : ?
. Deploring the false opinions in circulation, see to the
fiend, about the purification ceremonies . : :
. Excusing any Getece in this epistle for various reasons
detailed ‘ : , : ' ‘ ;
. Deprecating the disuse of sie Bareshntim ceremony, as
decreed by his brother; such disuse being contrary to scripture and the commentaries . ‘ ‘ ;
. Alluding to the one-sided view of the opinions of the
commentators adopted by the decree they had sent .
. Discussing the different statements of the commentators
as to the number of purifiers and washings
. Discussing the proper quantities of ee to be are)
and the 300 pebbles , : . . ‘
. Regarding the stirring up of the bull's 1 urine when fetid,
as mentioned in the Saka4dim Nask
. Deciding that the commentary which teaches the most
efficient mode of purification is to be followed, when
there are no special reasons for acting otherwise.
Reserving other matters for special instructions to the
priests, but warning them not to obey the decree now
denounced . : : ; ‘
Arranging for the snterhwniatt éf his decision, until he
can write further, or come himself; and concluding
with benediction and date. ‘ F ‘ :
EpistteE II. To his brother, Z4d-sparam.
. Acknowledging receipt of a former epistle, and announc-
ing the arrival of cere? about his brother’s reprehensible decree °
. Disapproving of the decree and its + mode of Geaking with
the commentaries, whose exact agreement is as un-
likely as the simultaneous occurrence of several
particular conjunctions of the planets
Sia
ww
Ww
—_
Xi CONTENTS.
CHAP. 3. Exhorting him not to seek for new rules, but to adhere
strictly to the old customs . .
4. Reasserting his opinions, and Botan aedtnie’ the
notion that the decree was in accordance with the
practice of all the purifiers in Iran .
5. Commenting upon the secrecy with which the neers
had been prepared, and the evil consequences re-
sulting from it . : °
6. Persuading him to remain ateddciet™ in the faith, a threatening him if he should not .
7. Explaining that he had previously written to Sirkén, ie
would shortly come there himself; but ordering the
appointment of proper purifiers ; ° :
8. Mentioning his general epistle to all of the good relipioh
in Iran, and describing the evil consequences of
continued disobedience, including the possibility of
his own retreat to foreign lands :
g. Giving further instructions for satisfying the diseontetnees
and opposing the heterodox; and concluding with-
out date
EpisttE III. To all of the good religion in Iran. For-
bidding the substitution of a fifteenfold washing for the
Bareshnim ceremony; and dated a.y.250(a.D. 881). x
APPENDIX sos sc vor -. ny 0d beeen ane
I. Legends relating to Keres4sp
II. The Nirang-i Kustf ; é
III. The meaning of Khvétik-das_ . : ‘
IV. The Bareshnfim ceremony . “ : ,
V. Finding a corpse in the wilderness
INDEX n ; CORRECTIONS . .
Transliteration of Oriental Alphabets adopted for the Translations of the Sacred Books of the East . ;
INTRODUCTION.
I. GENERAL REMARKS.
THE Pahlavi texts selected for translation in this volume are disti-gu’shed from all others by the peculiarity that both the name and station of their author and the time in which he lived are distinctly recorded.
His name, Mandskihar, son of Yddan-Yim (or Gisn- dam), is .nentioned in each of the headings and colophons to the Dadistan-i Dinik and the three Epistles attributed to him. He is styled simply aérpat, or ‘priest,’ in the head- ings of Eps. I and II, and aérpat khd@4i, or ‘priestly lordship, in that of Ep. III; but he is called the rad, ‘pontiff, or executive high-priest,’ of Pars and Kirman, and the farmaZdar, ‘director,’ of the profession of priests, in the colophons to Dd. and Ep. II; and we learn from Dd. XLV, 5 that the farmadar was also the pesfipai, or ‘leader’ of the religion, the supreme high-priest of the Mazda-worshipping faith.
Regarding his family we learn, from Ep. I, iii, 10, vii, 5, that his father, Yidan-Yim, son of Shahpfhar, had been the leader of the religion before him; and his own suc- cession to this dignity indicates that he was the eldest surviving son of his father, who, in his declining years, seems to have been assisted by his advice (Ep. I, iii, 11). We also learn, from the heading of his second epistle, that Zad-sparam was his brother, and this is confirmed by the language used in Ep. II, vi, 1, ix, 6, and by Zad-sparam being a son of the same father (Eps. I, heading, III, 2); that he was a younger brother appears from the general tone of authority over him adopted by M4n(dsfihar in his epistles. Shortly before these epistles were written, Zad- sparam appears to have been at Sarakhs (Ep. II, v, 3), in
X1V PAHLAVI TEXTS.
the extreme north-east of Khurdsan, where he probably came in contact with the Tughazghuz (Ep. II, i, 12) and adopted some of their heretical opinions, and whence he may have travelled through Nivshahpthar (Ep. II, i, 2, note) and Shiraz (Ep. II, v, 3, 4) on his way to Sirkan to take up his appointment as high-priest of the south (Eps. I, heading, II, i, 4, v, 9, vii, 1, viii, 1, Zs. I, 0). Soon after his arrival at Sirkan he issued a decree, regarding the cere- monies of purification, which led to complaints from the people of that place, and compelled his brother to interfere by writing epistles, threatening him with depriva.ion of office (Ep. I, xi, 7) and the fate of a heretic (Eps. II, viii, 2, 3, III, 17-19). That Zad-sparam finally submitted, so far as not to be deprived of his office, appears from his still retaining his position in the south while writing his Selec- tions (Zs. I, o), which must have been compiled at some later period, free from the excitement of active and hazardous controversy.
His writings, therefore, represent the state of the Zoroas- trian religion a thousand years ago; and it may be presumed, from the importance and influentialness of his position, that his representations can be implicitly relied upon. To detect any differences there may be between the tenets and reli- gious customs he describes, and those upheld by Zoroas- trians of the present time, would require all the learning and experience of a Parsi priest; but, so far as a European can judge, from these writings and his own limited know- ledge of existing religious customs among the Parsis, the change has becn less than in any other form of religion during the same period.
The manuscripts containing the writings of Mandsfihar
Introduction. Xv
The codex K35, which was brought from Persia by the late Professor Westergaard in 1843, is one of the most impor- tant manuscripts of the former class, and now consists of 181 folios; but it is incomplete at both ends, having lost seventy-one folios at the beginning and about thirty-five at the end. It still includes, however, the whole of the Dadistan-i Dinik and the Epistles of Manisihar; though its date has been lost with its last folios. But this date can be recovered from an old copy of this codex existing in India (here called BK) and still containing a colophon, probably copied from K35', which states that the manuscript was
* One reascn for supposing that this colophon was so copied is that K35 does not seem older than the date mentioned in it. Another reason is that the loss of the end of this colophon in BK allows us to assume that it was followed by another colophon, as is often the case in copies of old MSS. A colophon that extends to the end of the last folio of a manuscript can never be safely assumed to belong to that manuscript, because it may have been followed by others on further folios.
XV1 PAHLAVI TEXTS.
A third manuscript of the first class, which may be even more important than K35, was brought to Bombay from Persia about fifteen years ago, and belongs to Mr. Teh- muras Dinshawji Auklesaria, of Bombay, but it has not been available for settling the texts translated in this volume. It is here called TK, and is described as still consisting of 227 folios, though seventy folios are missing at the beginning and about fourteen at the end. In its present state, therefore, it must begin very near the same place as K35, but it extends much further, so as even to supply nearly half the contents of the eleven folios missing from BK; it does not, however, include the contents of the last three folios of BK. According to a Colophon appended in this manuscript to the ‘Sayings of ZAad-sparam, son of Yadan-Yim, about the formation of men out of body, life,
INTRODUCTION. XVil
and soul’ (see Zs. XI, 10, note), some copy of thes? ‘sayings’ was written by Gdopatshah Ristém Bandar Malka-mardan in the land of Kirman. This Gépatshah was evidently a brother of Vahrom, the grandfather of the Marzapan who wrote the colcphon found in BK and supposed to have been copied from K+55 (see pp. xv, xvi). If, therefore, this colophon in TK has not beer copied from some older MS., it would indicate that TK is two generations older than K35.
z\ recent copy of TK exists in the library of the high- priest -f the Parsis in Bombay, to whom I am indebted for the information that its text does not differ from that of K35, at the two points (Dd. XCIII, 17 and Ep. III, 11) | where some omission of text may be suspected.
The manuscripts of the second class appear to be all descended from an old, undated codex brought to Bombay from Persia about sixty-five years ago}, and recently in the library of Mr. Dhanjibhai Framji Patel of Bombay. From what is stated, concerning the contents of this codex, it appears to commence with about three-fourths of the miscellaneous religious writings, found at the beginning of BK; and these are followed by the altered text of the Dadistan-i Dinik, as appears from the copies described below, but how the codex concludes is not stated. It may, however, be supposed that it contains as much of the third series of writings as is found in the manuscript J, a copy of this codex which ends in Ep. I], vi, 2.
This manuscript J belongs to the library of Dasttr JamAspji Minochiharji in Bombay; it commenced originally at the same point as the codex just described, and, so far as it has been examined, it contains the same altered text of the Dadistan-i Dinik. There is, therefore little doubt that it was originally copied from that codex, but a considerable
