pahlavi codices of the nirangistan

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T H EEXTANT PAHLAYI CODICES

OF THE

NIRANGISTAN.A PAPER READ BEFORE THE BOMBAY

BRANCff OF THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY,(24th NOVEMBER 1893)

BY

DARAB DASTUR PESHOTAH SAHJJHA, B.A.

Under the kind Patronage of the Trustees of theSir Jamshedjee Jeejeebhar Translation Fund,

^ if^-'

UiNTI;:i) AT THIO KDUCATIOX S( M ' 1 ll'l' V's S'1'1:A.M I'liKSS.


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/^^^/^yTHE

EXTANT PAHLAYI CODICESOF THE

NIRANGISTAN.A PAPER READ BEFORE THE BOMBAY

BRANCH OF THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY,(24th NOVEMBER 1893)

BY

DARAB DASTDR PESHOTAN SAKJASA, B.A.

Under the kind Patronage of the Trustees of theSir Jamshedjee Jeejeebhai Translation Fund,

PRINTED AT THE EDUCATION SOCIETY'S STEAM PRESS.

1894.


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IDAN STACK


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/-

THE EXTANT CODICES OF THE PAHLAYIKIRAKGISTAN.

A Paper read before the B. B. Royal Asiatic Society.(24M Novemher 1893.)

The Palilavi literature that has survived to moderutimes, is far more extensive than the sacred Avestafragments now extant. It may be classed under threeheads:I. The Pahlavi versions of the Avesta. 11. Thetexts treating of subjects closely relating to religion.III. The texts relating to history, mythology andtradition. The Avesta-Pahlavi text of the NirangUtdnbelongs to the first category, wherein are includedthe existing fragments of the sacred Avesta Nashswhich are translated and commented upon in Pahlavi.These comprise the Zand-l-Avista of the Yasna,Vendidddj Visparadj Airpatastdn, Nirangistdn,Yishtdsp-YasM, Vazarlcard-I-Dhii, Hdddkht-Nash^Aogamadatchd, Chide-Avistd'i-Gdsdni, Farhang-i-Oim-Aeuak, Shuze ; Auharmazd, Ameshaspand, Srosh{Edd6kht)y Behrdm, Khurshed and Mdh Yashts ; theJSfydyesh-l-Khurshidy Avdn, and Atash ; the Afringdn-t--Dahmdn, Gdthd and Qdhamhdr. The existing Avestafragments, therefore, form only one-fifth of the originalScripture. Of these the largest and most impor-tant books are the Yasna, the Yendidad, and theNirangistan.

The Pahlavi text, properly speaking, the Zand-i-Avista text, of the manuscripts now extant in Indiaand Europe, contain two different books instead of theone commonly known as the Nirangistan. It may be


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given in the Eightli Book of tte Dinkard, tLat one-eighth of the fragments or folios 1-27 of the MS.belonging to Shams-ul-Ulama Dastur Dr. HoshangjiJamaspji of Poona, contain the Airpatastdn section ofthe Husparam Nask. It can also be shown from thecontents mentioned above, that the text of theAirpatastan is incomplete at the beginning as wellas at the end. The first two folios and a largenumber of the final ones have been lost. Thefragments now extant seem to be about one-fifth ofthe original work.The text of the Nirangistan opens at folio 27 of the

oldest Bombay MS., belonging to Dastur Hoshangjiof Poona, w4iich is photozincographed for publicationby the Victoria Jubilee Pahlavi Text Committee.It appears as though the first folios of theAirpatastan and the old MS, of the Nirangistan hadbeen combined by an ignorant owner or copyist. Thetwo MSS. have been copied as a single work withoutany regard to want of connection or dislocation.Hence the present error of entitling the two Zand-Avesta works by one ordinary name 'Nirangistan.'The text of the Nirangistan as is given in the MSS., isalso incomplete at the end. It contains the first twofargards and a portion of the third. Originally, theNirangistan section of the Husparam Nask containedmore than three fargards according to its contentsgiven in the Dinkard. It contained five fargards ac-cording to the statement of the Dadastan-i-Dini,Chapter LXVI, 1. (Cf. S.B.E., Pahl. Texts, Pt. IV.)The known MSS. of the Nirangistan existing in

India and Europe, excepting the Iranian copy belong-


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of one and the same original MS. wi^iiicli was firstbrought by Dastur Jamasp Vilayati from Iran to Indiain A. D. 1 720. Probably it was the MS.


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MS. is in the library, of Prof. J, Darmesteter, bothare recent copies of Indian MSS,

Consequently, the two original MSS. of theNirangistan are the independent copies owned byDastur. Hoshangji of Poona and Ervad Tehmuras ofBombay. It would be interesting to describe thepresent condition of these two MSS. in detail.The Iranian text of Ervad Tehmuras, which has been

in his possession for the last 20 years, and which Ishall call TD., is much more perfect at the beginningthan that contained in the Dastur's MS., and suppliesseveral passages which arc wanting in this Poona text,hereafter named HJ. - The last one-seventh of thetext of the Nirangistan surviving in HJ., is lost in it.TD. is of great importance to a student of Pahlavi,supplying, as it does, many omissions in H.J.defects which make the first five folios oi DasturHoshangji's MS. almost unintelligible. The Iraniancopy contains 224 octavo pages, each having 16 to 17lines.

The budget of Pahlavi folios in the possession ofMr. Tehmuras begins with an Iranian copy of hiscomplete Bundahesh, which runs over 206 pages.Then commences in page 207 the text of the Atrpatas-fan, thus :


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TD. being more incomplete than HJ., breaks offat page 468, with the words :

W ^ -0^ -^1^005 3^?^_)LJ^occurring in the 168ch folio, 11. 15 19.Though TD. supplies very many words or passages

which are wanting in HJ., still I observe thatin this older text vacant spaces are left between words,which indicate omissions or damage of some words inthe original from which TD. is descended. But thisregrettable fact does not take away very much fromits share of usefulness, for, as I have already pointedout above, HJ, would have been quite obscureat the beginning had it not been for the existence ofthis Iranian copy. The two copies TD. and HJ.undoubtedly help to correct and complete each other.A copy of TD. belongs to the Mulla Firuz Library

at Bombay. It is a neatly written copy and is datedA. Y. 1251 (= A. D. 1 8R1 )^^^^^_^^^^__^_^^_^^

1. The -Is in all MSS., is pF9j]^i]^-^n e^;(or.' '^' SEP PUNCH f>


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6The MS. HJ. needs no description, as it i9=

pliotozincographedby the V. J. PahlaviText CommitteerThe various omissions, damage, or words wanting in itsoriginal, will be clear from the passages a/nd expression*which are supplied from T'D. under Collation s.The only fact I have to draw the attention of thestudent to, is thie important omission in HJ. of aboutthree folios after the words j-Cyiff -**15 ^ ^^ ^^''11th line of the 6th folio, and of about one folio afterthe words jO^i^Q^SiiXI^ ^^asju*^ in line 30 offolio 153; also to the inadvertence of the copyist ofHJ. in giving in the 48th folio a duplicate transcriptof the 47th folio beginning from line 5,

^)))^ )))^^ )f is^** 5) .....

.

It may be remarked from- the Collations that TD.is not free from blunders, such as we find in HJ., bu*tthe former seems to me to be more correct than thelatter. As in all other cases of two MSS.. descendedfrom one distant oi'iginal through different lines ofcopies, the two MSS. mutually correct each .pther_,.though neither is wholly correct in itselL It is gene-rally believed that TD. and HJ. are- both copies of two-independent MSS. descended from- very old fragmentsof the two sections of the Husparam Nask, which wereevidently dislocated and incomplete at both endsrHence Dr. West remarks '* that the task of editingthe Pahlavi text is likely to be one of no small


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Kegarding the ag^e of HJ., it is evident from- thecolophon given in folio 195, that this MS. was copiedby Mar/tipat Jdmdsp Asd^ inhabitant of Nausari, inthe year A. Y. 1097 ( := A. D. 1727), less thnn sevenyears after Dastar Jam^sp, surnamed Vilayati, firstbrought the Nirangistan to India, Dastur MullaFiruz, alluding to him in his Avtjeh Dhi, states thatDastur Jamasp Vilayati left Iran for India about theend of A. D. 1720, Probably the- Nirangistan MS,that he brought from Iran may haye been the onewritten by Shahpubr Jamasp in A. Y. 840 (=A. D,1470) as stated in the colophon at the beginning of allcopies of HJ. According to the Ravayat, ShahpuhrJamasp Shehryar was the writer of the letter broughtfrom Iran to India by Nariman Hoshang in A.Y. 847,which was signed by his father Jamasp Shehryar a,ndthree others.As to the older MS. TD., which is incomiplete, it is

difficult to fix its date in the absence of any colophon orintroduction. Its 112 folios are bound up with thecomplete Iranian Bundabesh, though written byanother hand. The fact of its having been copiedby another hand, does not allow us to fiiX an exactdate for TD. However, there are good reasons to con-clude from the first colophon to the Bundahesh thatTD. may not have been written later than A. J). 170O.Consequently, it is the oldest MS. extant of theAirpatastan and the Nirangistan sections of the sacredHusparam Nask,

I have mentioned at the outset that the Airpatastanand the Nirangistan texts of the Avesta of the Huspa-ram Nask, form an important part of the Avesta


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8ning, comprehend the text of the Airpatastan, whichis dislocated at -^X^^^^ -^ in liue 19, folio27. Itis very incomplete in HJ. and TD., also defective atthe beginning.

There appears to be every probability that one ortwo folios of the commencement of the Nirangistan,too, are wanting. Its text begins in the middle ofthe 19th line of the 27th folio of HJ. with theAvesta:

"Jo^"^?*^^2) -x^>^**/ d^"^^ .îîîi/ .-ii?^

From this passage down to the end of HJ. thetext agrees very closely with the contents of theNirangistan described in the Eighth Book of theDinkard. I have been able to identify the whole ot:the work, and to conclude with certainty thatnearly the last half or at least one-third of theoriginal text is still missing. The sixty-sixth sectionof the Dadastan-i-Dini tells us that the originalwork contained five fargards of the Avesta. Anidentification of the Pahlavi with the sketch of itssubstance given in the Dinkard, proves that the extanttext ends at the subject of ** gathering and tying thesacred haresma.*' The remaining text, relating to thepurport of the contents that follow, is, therefore,


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9

By a critical examination and digest of the Avestapassages contained in the Airpatastfm and the Nirang-istan I am led to believe that in spite of the fact thatthree-fourths of the Pahlavi is filled with explanatoryglosses by the translators or commentators, most ofthe Avesta, after deducting untranslated citations orquotations, is a continuous Avesta textas continuousas is afargard of the Vendidad or a hd of the Yasna.We can easily trace from the Nirangistan Wester-gaard's fragments VI. and VII. (Cf. Darmesteter, LeZend Avesta, vol. Ill, Paris.)At the present stage of Iranian research, it is very

difficult to ascertain the exact period or epoch of timewherein the Nasks had been committed to paper. Thespeculative scholar runs through the arduous fieldwithout attaining to any satisfactory result. It hasbeen believed by scholars who profess to be itsadherents that the Parsee Scripture must have been inexistence when the Indian Vedas were composed,ii: not very older. As to its Pahlavi version and glosswe have enough materials to trace its beginning duringthe Arsacian monarchy, in the reign of Narsih orValgash of the Dinkard, ( according to Greek writersVologeses I. ) and its completion in the illustrioussovereignty of Khusro Noshirwan, the son of Kobad.As to the age of our present text this may be easilytraced back to the same time as that of the Tasnaand the Vendidad. It mentions the same commenta-tors as the Pahlavi Vendidad does. Besides thenames of Afarg, Gogoshasp, Soshyans, Medyo-mah,Dad-Auharmazd, Dad-farukh, Kiishtan-bujid, Mah-goshasp, Nishahpuhr, Parik, Roshan, which are


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10didad. These commentators are Pisliaksar, Atar-Auharrmazd, Narsih, Atar-pat, son of Dad-farukh, Baro-shau-i-Auharmazd, Fariakh, Mard-bud and Veh-dost.According to the Pahlavi epistle of Manushchihr, theauthor of the Dadastan-i-Dini, it was in tiie reignof Anoshirawan the Just, that all ike books and com-mentaries referring to the Avesta were collected andrevised after the downfall of Mazdak. This may havebeen the last revision, at all events, the kst great one,for small emendations may have been made later*Alluding to this point, Dr. West observes that '^ themention of Nishahpuhar in Ep. I., iv 15, 17, asthe supreme officiating priest and councillor ofking Khusro Noshirwan (A. D. 531-579), engaged:appai'ently in writing commentaries on the Avesta,''and as a commentator in the Pahlavi versions of theendidad and the Nirangistan, leads us to infer thatthese works must have been revised since themiddle of the sixth century.At all events the Husparam Nask which corre-

spouds to the seventeenth word -"' in the AliunaVairya stanza, or the different sections pertaining toit, were very familiar to the famous Pahlavi commenta-tors on the Vendidad, as is evinced by two references inthe glosses attached to Fargard IV. 10 and V. 25.In the last the writer manifestly points to a passagein the Nirangistan.

Besiddes the Pahlavi version of the Vendidad, theDinkard, the Dadastani-Dini, and the Epistles ofManAshchihr, references to our text are found in


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11

It lias been already noted tlie the first edition ofthe HJ. manuscript, which contains two Pahlavibooks, and is inadvertently called the '* Nirangistan/'would reveal to the student o Pahlavi the discoveryof the codex of a new Zand-A vesta work alreadyexisting. It is copied and bound with the fragmentsof the Nirangistan at the beginning. It is the codexof the Airpatastan section of the Huspfiram Nask.


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pahlavi codices of the nirangistan

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