XVII. Hûspâram Nask

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

XVII. HÛSPÂRAM NASK ³.

A small portion of this Nask is still preserved and known by the name of Nîrangistân. The last seven-eighths of this text corresponds with the description of the Nîrangistân section of the Hûspâram,  given in Dk. VIII, Chap. XXIX, 1-17, although a few folios of its commencement are probably lost. And

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the earlier portion of the text begins with a fragment of a passage; which appears to correspond with part of the description of the Aêrpatistân section, given in Chap. XXVIII, 1; but also contains passages that are difficult to trace in any part of that description. The Nîrangistân portion of this text is divided into three fargards, and Dd. LXVI, 1 mentions 'five fargards of the Avesta of the correct law of the Nîrangistân, which are easy through the Zand;' so that the missing portion of this section of the Nask, described in Chap. XXIX, 18-25, must have contained two fargards. With regard to the unidentified passages, preceding the Nîrangistân portion of the extant text, it may be remarked that they include several of the statements about 'unseasonable chatter' contained in Sls. V, 3-6, where they are differently arranged.

Dk. VIII, Chap. XXIX, 2, refers to a passage which may have contained the statement thus mentioned in Sls. XII, I:—'Of the merit of a threefold consecration of the sacred cake the high-priests have specially taught in the Hûspâram that it is as much as that of a lesser form of worship.'

Dk. VIII, Chap. XXIX, 8, refers to the passage which probably contained the statement thus quoted in Sls. XII, 31:—'Of the ceremonies which go to the bridge as sin it says this in the Hûspâram, that they are the non-celebration of the rites of the season-festivals, the Rapîtvîn, the three nights after a death, the days of the guardian spirits, and the sun. and moon.'

Dk. VIII, Chap. XXXII, 1, refers to the passage which must have contained the statement thus mentioned in Sls. XIII, 17:—'The six hot ordeals

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which, in the Hûspâram, are effected by kathrayâim âthraiãm ¹.'

Dk. VIII, Chap. XXXIII, 4, refers to the passage which must have contained the statement thus mentioned in Pahl. Vend. XV, 67:—'What is as to the sick dog in the Hûspâram is, "when several doors are together, it is just if the nourishment at each one be only for three nights, and then, when opulence is manifest, the delivery be unto that opulent one, and when not, the delivery be unto him who is good."'

Dk. VIII, Chap. XXXV, 2, probably refers to the passage which contained the statement thus mentioned in Sls. XII, 7:—'In the twentieth ² of the Hûspâram it is shown that over the soul of him who works in the dark there is more predominance of the evil spirit.'

Dk. VIII, Chap. XXXVI, 7, or 13, probably refers to the passage thus mentioned in Dd. LXI, 3:—'Nearer details of the family guardianship which is proper and which is not proper for an adopted son's duty, of the child of the good religion with whose business it is connected, and of the fathers for whom a family guardian is to be appointed, are in the recital of five fargards ³ of the Hûspâram.'

Dk. VIII, Chap. XXXVI, 8-12, probably refers to the passage which contained the statement thus quoted in Sls. X, 21, XII, 14:—'In the fourteenth ⁴

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of the Hûspâram Nask the high-priests have taught thus: "My son is suitable even as thy son, but my daughter is not suitable even as thy daughter."'

No allusion has been noticed in Dk. VIII, Chaps. XXVIII-XXXVII, to the two passages in Pahl. Vend. IV, 35, V, 73, referring to this Nask, which have been already quoted as also referring to Nask XV.

Footnotes

476:1 The very long account of this Nask, in Dk. VIII, contains 2,179 Pahlavi words, from which the extent of its original text may be estimated (in the same way as in the case of Nask XVII) at about 28,000 Avesta and 251,500 Pahlavi words.

476:2 So as to include the nine months’ existence, before birth, in the prescribed fifteen years.

476:3 As the 212 Pahlavi words in Dk. VIII, Chap. XXIX, 1-17, represent about 2,722 words of the original Avesta text of this Nask, with 24,472 of its Pahlavi version, it may be fairly assumed that the 3,496 Pahlavi words of the whole account of the Nask in Chaps. XXVIII-XXXVII, must represent about 44,900 Avesta and 403,600 Pahlavi words of original text. And the same proportion probably holds good with regard to the other Legal Nasks, XV, XVI, XVIII, of which very long accounts are given.

478:1 This corrupt Avesta means probably 'fourfold fire.'

478:2 The first section mentioned of these twenty is that described in Chap. XXXII.

478:3 See Dk. VIII, Chap. XXXVI, 1 n.

478:4 That is, in one of the last fourteen sections of the Nask. If it were not for this number, and the fact that the passage is understood to apply to the children of a concubine, it might be connected with Chap. XXXIV, 4, 5.