Dinka<I>r</I><I>d</I>. Book III, Chapter CLXV

Pahlavi Texts, Part IV (SBE37), E.W. West, tr. [1892], at sacred-texts.com

CHAPTER CLXV.

1. About the purport of the evidence of the three codes of the Mazda-worshipping religion, one as regards the other, there is verbal evidence of the Gâthic from the Hadha-mãthric and the Law, and about the Hadha-mãthric and the Law from the Gâthas. 2. The purport, too, of the statement that occurs is this of a ruler putting aside the commands of an enemy—which are declared, in many passages (dîvâk) of the Hadha-mãthric and even of the Legal, to be worthiness of death—the purport being in the words of a Gâthic phrase (nisang) that is

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even this:—'He who is a good ruler is a desire and bringing on of fortune for me (valam) ¹.' 3. All rulers also for the world have arisen for their own, and for maintaining him who is high-priest; they are submissive, and any one accomplishing their commands—which are putting aside the commands of their enemy—is, owing to their submissiveness, authorisedly maintaining his own person and wealth in the world thereby, and in the world there is no place, nor yet a share of anything therefrom, on account of which he becomes offended by the world.

4 The evidence of the Hadha-mãthric and of the Legal about a Gâthic statement is the purport of these words in a Gâthic phrase, that 'not for him who is rightly proceeding is there further ruin ²;' and the evidence from the Hadha-mãthric is even this which states that 'rectitude assists a man like a regiment a thousand strong ³;' also for the proportion of rectitude in his possession there is no disturbance whatever, and from the hurtful (vinâsîgânŏ) from without he is thus protected, because fully-worshipping (pûr-yazân) performance is freedom from danger from the want of freedom from wickedness (a-adarvandîh) of the enemy, as regards benefit, through the doing of injury by him.

5. And on account of the superior knowledge of the spiritual existence, moreover, for the Gâthas, above the intermediate Hadha-mãthric and the lower knowledge of the Law, the purpose of the Gâthic was for the statements of the Legal and the Hadha-mãthric, and the provision of the Hadha-mãthric

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and the Legal was evidently for the statements of the Gâthas.

CHAPTER CXCVII.

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6. One ¹ is that, on account of him who gave the Legal, and is also the protector of a priestly master who is given over to the Hadha-mãthric, and the Gâthic, through which the purity of the good creations arises, one is more steadfastly to aggrandise and develope them.     .     .     .     .     .     .

Footnotes

408:1 See p. 407, n. 2.

408:2 Compare Dk. VIII, Chap. I, 13, 14.

409:1 Pahl. Yas. L, 1 a.

409:2 Pahl. Yas. XXIX, 5 C.

409:3 Dk. IX, Chap. XX, 4.

410:1 This is the fourth of 'the ten admonitions of the righteous Sênôv about the law of the Mazda-worshipping religion.' In the seventh book of the Dinkard it is stated that as regards the high-priests this, too, is said on the subject of Sênôv, that one hundred years of the religion elapse when Sênôv is born, and two hundred years when he passes away; he was also the first Mazda-worshipper with a life of a hundred years (100 khayâ), and who walks forth upon this earth with a hundred disciples.' This last clause clearly identifies him with the 'Saêna, son of Ahûm-stud, who first appeared upon this earth with a hundred pupils,' as stated in Yt. XIII, 97 (see Darmesteter, Textes pehlvis relatifs au Judaisme, première partie, p. 3, n. 2).