Madhuvidya

SR No.: 006525
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: S D Laddu, T N Dharmadhikari, Madhvi Kolhatkar, Pratibha Pingle
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 2001
Total Pages: 762
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Literature, & Philosophy
File Size: 17 MB

Page 228

SOME REMARKS ON MIHIR VAST (YAST X)
By
M. A. MEHENDALE.
(1) radwya ciora hacimno
In Yast X. 67 we are told that Mira comes, driving in a chariot, from the eastern continent Arǝzahi to the splendid continent Xanirada. At the end of the verse occur the following lines:
radwya Fiora halimno
armaŋhača mazdabāta verbraĭnača ahurabata
These lines are rendered by Gershevitch' as follows: "(Miora comes) equipped with prompt energy, Mazdah-created fortune, and Ahura-created victoriousness," This would mean that Mi@ra, when he comes to the people of the splendid continent X'anirafa, brings with him three things, (i) energy, (ii) fortune, and (iii) victoriousness. But the use of ča only twice, with aranah and varǝoraTua, and the close parallelism in the last two lines, where we find the use of very similar attributes mazdabäta and ahurabala, will indicate that Mira comes equipped with only two things, fortune and victoriousness, and not three,
As regards the reading tiora, Gershevitch notes that it was Geldner's emendation which he himself abandoned in the Addenda to his edition in favour of taxa (Commentary, p. 217). The manuscripts give čixra, rendered by čaxia Bartholomae as Tatkraft, Energie', or čaxrawheel. Gershevitch accepts the reading ixra, only because it is a lectio difficilior', and the meaning assigned to it by Bartholomae and translates the above lines accordingly. He is, however, required to give somewhat unusual meaning prompt to rawya in order to make it agree with energy'.
It seems preferable to accept Geldner's reading taxra and interpret it as standing for a time-cycle. The line rabwya taxra hakimno may be translated as "(Miora comes) associating himself, i.e. according to, the circle of fixed time. " The idea conveyed is that Mira visits the continent X'aniraбa at appointed times which are looked upon as moving in a circle,
(2) alpi v70ili jala
1. I. Gershevitch: The Avestan Hymn to Mithra, Cambridge, 1959. 2. One ms. has also caerahe.
Madhu Vidya/203