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M53
TH E
NIRANGISTAN.
A PAPER READ BEFORE THE BOMBAY BRANCff OF THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY,
(24th
NOVEMBER
BY
1893)
B.A.
Under
the
if^-'
UiNTI;:i)
AT THIO KDUCATIOX
S( M
'
ll'l'
V's
S'1'1:A.M
I'liKSS.
lS9-i.
/^^^/^y
THE
NIRANGISTAN.
A PAPER READ BEFORE THE BOMBAY BRANCH OF THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY,
(24th
NOVEMBER
BY
1893)
B.A.
Under
IDAN STACK
/-
(24M Novemher
1893.)
The
times,
moderu
far
sacred Avesta
fragments
heads:
now
may be
I.
The Pahlavi
The
and
The
texts relating
history,
mythology
tradition.
The Avesta-Pahlavi
first
text of the
NirangUtdn
belongs to the
category,
Yasna,
Vendidddj
Visparadj
Nirangistdn,
Yishtdsp-YasM,
Vazarlcard-I-Dhii,
Hdddkht-Nash^
Farhang-i-
Aogamadatchd,
Chide-Avistd'i-Gdsdni,
Mdh
;
Yashts
the
the Afringdn-t-
-Dahmdn, Gdthd and Qdhamhdr. The existing Avesta fragments, therefore, form only one-fifth of the original Scripture. Of these the largest and most important books are the Yasna,
the Yendidad, and the
Nirangistan.
The Pahlavi
now
extant in India
different
may be
747
given in the Eightli Book of tte Dinkard, tLat oneeighth of the fragments or folios 1-27 of the
MS.
belonging to Shams-ul-Ulama
Husparam Nask.
mentioned
is
It
contents
above,
the text
of
the
Airpatastan
as at
the
end.
The
final
first
two
to
folios
and a large
lost.
number
of the
ones
have
been
The
be about one-fifth of
The
oldest
to Dastur
Hoshangji
Committee.
of
for publication
by the Victoria
It
appears
as
though
the
first
folios
the
Airpatastan
of the Nirangistan
had
as a single
any regard
to
want
of
connection
or
Hence the present error of entitling the two ZandAvesta works by one ordinary name 'Nirangistan.' The text of the Nirangistan as is given in the MSS., is
also incomplete at the end. It contains the first
two
the
Originally,
contents
the
Dadastan-i-Dini,
Chapter LXVI,
1.
existing in
wi^iiicli
was
first
720.
Probably
in
it
Shahpuhr iamasp
A.Y.
as
stated
in
the
made
found
the
in India.
Iran by
in India,
Jamaspji
derived
is
t<lie
principal
source
from
wliich
are
theMSS.
of the
work
in Indian
and European
shotanji
Parsee scholars.
to
Europe. One
is
Bombay by
Bombay
text, written
by Mobad
= 10th
February 1836).
John Wilson.
in
Another MS.
State
is
No. 8 of the
Haug
Collection
the
Library at Munich,
taken from
in 1866.
Bombay by
is
Haug
text,
This
a copy
Bombay
written by
of Fredun,
in the
son of
of
Dm,
month
Amn
May
is
most
be correct,
third
1167.
MS;
W. West, and
a fourth
MS.
is in
Darmesteter,
both
MSS,
original
Consequently,
the
two
MSS.
of
the
Nirangistan are
Dastur. Hoshangji of
Bombay.
It
MSS.
in detail.
The Iranian
in his
shall call
text of
TD.,
is
much more
Poona
text,
hereafter
named HJ.
The
last
one-seventh of the
it.
TD.
is
supplying,
defects
as
it
does,
many
first
omissions in
five
H.J.
folios oi
Dastur
Hoshangji's
MS.
almost unintelligible.
The Iranian
The budget of Pahlavi folios in the possession of Mr. Tehmuras begins with an Iranian copy of his
complete
Then commences
fan, thus
:
))w3e)
3^-^^e)
J^'ioc**^
Jie)
-K)^
ik^'^
off
W
Though TD.
which are wanting
^ -0^ -^1^005
folio,
11.
3^?^_)LJ^
or passages
15
19.
I
supplies very
in
many words
still
HJ.,
observe that
between words,
TD.
is
descended.
But
this
much from
obscure
share of usefulness,
for,
out
above,
HJ,
would
have
been
quite
at the beginning
this
had
it
Iranian copy.
undoubtedly help
to correct
The two copies TD. and HJ. and complete each other.
to the
A
at
Bombay.
(
It is a neatly written
dated
A. Y. 1251
1.
= A.
in all
D.
8R1
)^^^^^_^^^^__^_^^_^^
'^'
The
-Is
MSS.,
is pF9j]^<3>i]^-^n e^;(or.'
SEP PUNCH
f>
2.
c,;..p.....o>.iorlfl^Hs^.TH^^
6
The
description,
as
it
i9=
pliotozincographedby the V.
PahlaviText Committeer
its
which
student
are
from
T'D.
under
Collation s.
The only
fact I
to,
is thie
^^
^^''
folio,
folio after
jO^i^Q^SiiXI^ ^^asju*^
in line
30 of
HJ.
48th
folio
a duplicate transcript
^)))^ )))^^ )f
is^**
5)
.....
It
is
may be remarked
me
to
As
through different
the two
is
MSS.
though neither
It is gene-
are-
both endsr
Hence
the
Pahlavi
likely
be one of no small
it is
difficulty
undertaken. .''
Kegarding the
colophon given
ag^e of
HJ.,
it
is
in folio
MS. was
copied
in
to
India,
Dastur
Mulla
alluding to
him
end
of
A. D. 1720,
Probably
Iran
Nirangistan
MS,
the one
(= A. D,
all
HJ.
According
to the Ravayat,
Shahpuhr
brought
letter
a,nd
As
to the older
is
incomiplete,
it is
introduction.
Its 112
complete
Iranian
Bundabesh,
fact of its
though
another hand.
The
that
170O.
the
oldest
MS. extant
of
the
Husparam Nask,
I have mentioned at the outset that the Airpatastan
and the Nirangistan texts of the Avesta of the Husparam Nask, form an important part of the Avesta Scripture. The first 27 folios of HJ. from the begin-
8
ning, comprehend the text of the Airpatastan, which
is dislocated at
is
-^X^^^^ -^
It
the beginning.
There appears
to
two
the
folios of the
commencement
Its text
the Nirangistan,
in the
too, are
wanting.
line
begins
folio
middle of
19th
of the
27th
of
Avesta:
"Jo^"^?*^^2)
-x^>^**/
d^"^^
.^i^i^ii/
.-ii?^
From
this passage
down
to
the end
of
HJ. the
of the
ot:
text agrees
contents of the
Eighth
with
Book
Dinkard.
the
whole
work,
and
to
conclude
at
certainty
that
least
one-third of the
sixty-sixth section
missing.
tells
The
us
of
the
Dadastan-i-Dini
five
that
the
original
work contained
fargards
of the
Avesta.
An
its
sacred haresma.*'
The remaining
that
purport
of the contents
follow,
therefore,
evidently lost.
By
istan I
critical
am
with explanatory
by the translators or
is
commentators,
most of
as continuous
Wester-
We
Le
research,
it is
very
The
field
scholar runs
It has
who
profess
to
be
its
when
the
Indian
to its
Vedas
were composed,
As
we have enough
materials to trace
beginning during
Vologeses
I.
and
its
As
may
be easily
It
as
the
Pahlavi
Vendidad does.
Besides
the
names of Afarg, Gogoshasp, Soshyans, Medyo-mah, Dad-Auharmazd, Dad-far ukh, Kiishtan-bujid, Mahgoshasp,
Nishahpuhr,
Parik,
Roshan,
which
are
we
10
didad.
These
commentators
Fariakh,
are
Pisliaksar,
Atar-
shau-i-Auharmazd,
epistle of
was
reign
all
been the
for
small emendations
the
as
mention
the
of Nishahpuhar in
officiating
iv
15,
17,
supreme
priest
and
councillor
of
king Khusro
:appai'ently in
engaged
and as a commentator
these
works
must have
been
revised
since
the
At
all
events the
corre-
the
Aliuna
to the
by two
references in
the
and V. 25.
Besiddes
the
Dinkard, the
and the
III.
Epistles
of
in
are found
29) and
Bahman Yasht
(II.
37,
in the
Shayast-la-Shayast (XII.
1, 31).
11
It lias
tlie
the
first
edition
of
the HJ.
which
contains
'*
two
Pahlavi
books, and
Nirangistan/'
discovery
already
would reveal
of
existing. It
the codex of a
is
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