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

p. 448 p. 449

THAT ARE

STILL EXTANT.

p. 450 p. 451

EXTANT FRAGMENTS ¹.

I. SÛDKAR NASK ².

Dk. IX, Chap. II, 3-15, referring to the useful effect of reciting the Yathâ-ahû-vairyô as a spell, on various occasions, is quoted in Sls. XIX, 1-14, and also in the Persian Rivâyat of Bahman Pûngyah ³, with some slight variations.

Dk. IX, Chap. VI, 2, refers to the passage thus mentioned in Sls. IX, 2, 3:—'The priest who passes away in an out-district (aûzdehîkîh) thou hast considered as desolate (vîrân); and there is a high-priest who is of a different opinion, there is one who says it is as a non-Irânian (anâîrân) country. It is declared that, when a supreme high-priest (zaratûstrotûm) passes away in an out-district, an apostate will be born in that dwelling, and this calamity is only (aêvâk) mentioned as to the supreme high-priest ⁴.'

Dk. IX, Chap. VIII, 1-6, refers to Zaratûst's

p. 452

prophetic vision of the golden, silver, steel, and mingled-iron periods of his millennium, quoted at length in Byt. I, 1-5, with variations indicative of the date of the Bahman Yast being later than that of this Nask.

Dk. IX, Chap. X, 3, refers to the detailed account of the seven most heinous evil-doers, quoted in Dd. LX XII, 3-9,

Dk. IX, Chap. XV, refers to the supplication of the soul of Keresâsp for admittance into heaven, on account of his heroic deeds, quoted at length in the Dâdistân Pahlavi Rivâyat and the Persian Sad-darband-i Hûsh (see S.B.E., vol. xviii, pp. 373-381).

Dk. IX, Chap. XVIII, 2, refers to the passage thus quoted in Sls. X, 8:—'For in the Stûdgar it is said, concerning those who have unlawfully slaughtered animals, the punishment is such that each hair of those animals becomes like a sharp dagger (têkh), and he who is unlawfully a slaughterer is slain.'

No allusion has been noticed in Dk. IX to another passage which is thus quoted in Sls. XII, 32: 'In the Stûdgar it says thus: "What prepares sneezing? that is, through what process (kâr) does it come?" And Aûharmazd spoke thus: "Hungry living, O Zaratûst! moreover, the remedy for its existence is the Ahunavair, O Zaratûst! and the Ashem (aharâyîh)."'

Footnotes

451:1 Only the Pahlavi versions of these fragments are extant, unless it be otherwise stated.

451:2 The detailed account of this Nask, in Dk. IX, contains about 5,400 Pahlavi words, and, if these represent the same proportion of original text as those in the accounts of the first three fargards of the Bakŏ Nask do, they would indicate about 4,700 words of Avesta text and 10,500 of Pahlavi version as the original extent of this Nask.

451:3 See p. 418, n. 3.

451:4 This translation has been corrected in accordance with 178, n. 2.