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Parallel Versions of Vīdēvdād 11

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Abstract

The Pahlavi literature of the Sasanian and post-Sasanian periods preserves not only many fragments of Pahlavi translations of lost Avestan texts, but also parallel versions of those attested in the extant Avestan manuscripts. Their differences are generally interpreted on the assumption of the existence of an underlying common Avestan text. However, the structural comparison between the Pahlavi translation of Vīdēvdād 11 in the Pahlavi text Zand ī Fragard ī Juddēwdād and its Avestan text in the Vīdēvdād Sāde and the Pahlavi Vīdēvdād manuscripts could point to the existence of two or even three different Avestan versions of the same chapter (fragard).

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The International Society for Iranian Studies 2012

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References

1 Raffaelli, Enrico G., “Bundahišn 26 and the Pahlavi Sīh-rōzag: Comparative Notes,Ancient and Middle Iranian Studies: Proceedings of the 6th European Conference of Iranian Studies, Held in Vienna, 18–22 September 2007, ed. Macuch, Maria, Weber, Dieter and Durkin-Meisterernst, Desmond (Wiesbaden, 2010), 161–77.Google Scholar

2 Cantera, Alberto, Studien zur Pahlavi-Übersetzung des Avesta (Wiesbaden, 2004), 200, 221–27.Google Scholar

3 L4 is available on-line and has been indexed in the Avestan Digital Archive: see Cantera, Alberto, “The Avestan manuscript L4 (Pahlavi Vīdēvdād) of the British Library,http://www.avesta-archive.com (accessed May 16, 2011). K1 was published in facsimile edition in Keith Barr and Hugo Ibscher, eds., The Avesta Codices K3a, K3b and K1: Containing Portions of the Vendidad with Its Pahlavi Translation and Commentary …, 2 vols. (Copenhagen, 1941–42).Google Scholar

4 Geldner, Karl F., ed., Avesta: The Sacred Books of the Parsis, 3 vols. (Stuttgart, 1886–96), 1: xviii–xix.Google Scholar

5 Jamasp, Hoshang, ed., Vendidâd: Avesta Text with Pahlavi Translation and Commentary and Glossarial Index, 2 vols. (Bombay, 1907).Google Scholar

6 Westergaard, Niels L., ed., Zendavesta or the Religious Books of the Zoroastrians (Copenhagen, 1852–54; repr., Wiesbaden, 1993), 79.Google Scholar

7 B2 is available on-line and has been indexed in the Avestan Digital Archive: see Juan José Ferrer, “The Avestan Manuscript B2 (Vīdēvdād Sāde) of the Bombay University Library,” http://www.avesta-archive.com (accessed May 16, 2011).

8 Götz König, “Der Pahlavi-Text Zand ī Fragard ī Juddēvdād,” Ancient and Middle Iranian Studies, 115–31. The manuscript TD2 was published in facsimile edition in Asa, Kaikhusroo M. Jamasp, Nawabi, Y. Mahyar, and Tavousi, M., eds., Ms. TD2. Iranian Bundahišn, vols. 54–55 (Shiraz, 1979).Google Scholar Until a complete study of this Zand appears, the electronic transcription that Prods O. Skjærvø kindly sent to me and the facsimile edition of page 433, line 3–673, line 3 of TD2 were at my disposal to prepare this article. V. 11 begins at p. 651.

9 König, “Der Pahlavi-Text,” 119.

10 Its Latin text is reproduced by Watkins, Calvert, How to Kill a Dragon: Aspects of Indo-European Poetics (New York, 1995), 199200.Google Scholar

11 Watkins, How to Kill a Dragon, 202–3.

12 Geldner, Avesta, 3: 83–86.

13 Jamasp, Vendidâd: Avesta Text, 431–33.

14 The PT of V. 11.1–2 is repeated in Namāgīhā ī Manušcihr 1.7.10–11 with only some lexical variations and the addition of Phl. cīyōn pad anagr rōšn as gloss to Phl. cīyōn pad ān ī asar rōšnīh.

15 Cf. V. 9.52 u-š guft ohrmazd kū ān ī ast ahlaw zarduxšt ahlamōγ ī anahlaw kē andar axw ī astōmand abar āhanjēd ān ī nē andar dānēd dēn ī mazdēsn yōjdāsrgarīh [kū nērang nē dānēd] And Ohrmazd said: “O righteous Zarduxšt, that who is a heretic, the unrighteous, who in this material life draws (water), that who does not know the purification of the Mazdaean religion [that is, he does not know the ritual formulas].”

16 This gloss is not preserved in the PV.

17 Cf. the PT of Y. 49.1a in Dhabhar, Ervad Bamanji Nusservanji, ed., Pahlavi Yasna and Visperad (Bombay, 1949), 213:Google Scholar ēdōn man hamē tā ō ān ī bēdom zamān pānagīh mahist [kū-m tā tan ī pasēn hamē pānagīh ī dāmān ōh kunišn] (Thus I (will) always (be) to the end of the time the greatest protection [that is, I must always provide protection to the creatures till the Future Body]). For the comparison between the PTs of these Old Avestan texts in Vīdēvdād, Yasna and other parallels, see Cantera, Alberto, “Die Pahlavi-Übersetung altavestischer Texte in der Pahlavi-Übersetzung des Vīdēvdād,Studia Iranica, 35 (2006): 3568.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

18 Cf. the PT of Y. 36.1a in Dhabhar, Pahlavi Yasna, 169: ēdōn ō ēd ī tō ātaxš pad warzišn fradom bē rasam ohrmazd [pad pahrēz ud šnāyēnīdārīh].

19 Cf. the PT of Y. 38.3a in Dhabhar, Pahlavi Yasna, 171: āb ēdōn yazam maēkaiṇti [paššing ī pad urwar abar ēstēd miznē] haēbuuaṇt [garān tazišn] ān-iz frauuāz [ī wārānīg] (Thus I worship the water(s) maēkaiṇti [exudation which lays on the plants, dew], haēbuuaṇt [strong flowing] and frauuāz [rainy] too).

20 Cf. the PT of Y. 38.1a in Dhabhar, Pahlavi Yasna, 171: ēn zamīg abāg mādagān ēdōn yazam (I worship thus this earth together with the women).

21 Cf. the PT of Y. 35.4a in Dhabhar, Pahlavi Yasna, 166–67: ān ī gōspandān dahišn [āb] ān ī awēšān kunišn [pahast <ī> awēšān mardōmān ī andar ēn gēhān kār ī] pahlom framāyišn (The gift for the cows [water], this deed for them [the fold of these men in this world] must be ordered as the best [deed]).

22 Cf. the PT of Y. 48.6a in Dhabhar, Pahlavi Yasna, 211: ēdōn pad ān ī ōy tarsagāhīh [ka gāw ī ēkdād tan bē dād] ohrmazd urwar waxšēnīd [kū-š bē abzāyēnīd] (Thus because of his reverence to it [when he created the cow of the sole-created body], Ohrmazd made the plants grow [that is, he made them increase]).

23 Cf. the PT of Y. 54.1 in Dhabhar, Pahlavi Yasna, 235: ān ērmān xwāhišnīh ō rāmišn ras ō narān <ud> nārīgān <ī> zardušt [kū-šān pad rāmišn bē kun] wahman rāmišn-iz [tō-z ēn kār ōh kunišn] kū ka ān ī dēn kāmag [ī dēn-burdār] arzānīg bawēd pad mizd [mizd ī mēnōg] ān ī ahlāyīh tarsagāh [hāwišt] xwāstār hānd [hāwišt ī nēk] pad ān xwāhišn ān ī ohrmazd mehīh kunānd [kū-m dēn pad paywand bē rawād būd kē mowbedān mowbedīh guft] (Come, desirable Ērmān, to please Zardušt's men and women [that is, please them], to please Wahman too [you must do this deed too], so that, if he [the believer] loves the religion, will deserve a reward [spiritual reward]. May the reverent ones [the disciples] be eager [the good disciples] for the Truth, may they fulfil with the prayer Ohrmazd's supremacy [so that in connection my religion may come. There was (a commentator) who said: “the highest priesthood”]).

24 This PT, which corresponds to Av. (aθa.) imą. vacō. drəṇjaiiōiš. yōi. aŋhən. vārəθraγniiōtəməmca. baēšaziiōtəməmca. is absent in the PV.

25 ZFJ <plm'ykl>. Cf. Dēnkard 6E.38e framān-kardarīh (commander's action). The ZFJ attests Phl. bē purdēnam framā-gar ī jud-kardag (I fight the breakaway commander) where the PV should include a PT of Av. pərəne. mūiδi. pərəne. kapastiš (I fight Mūiδi, I fight Kapasti). Apart from the fact that the ZFJ includes a PT lacking in the PV, it is noteworthy that it does not correspond with the same Avestan text, insofar as this PT only translates one syntagm with pərəne. I cannot specify, however, if it translates Av. pərəne. mūiδi, Av. pərəne. kapastiš or any other syntagm with pərəne.

26 It is interesting to compare the lexical difference between the PV and the ZFJ in the same gloss. While the former attests Phl. uzdēs paristagīh (idolatry), the latter includes Phl. dēw-ēzagīh (devil-worship).