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xxviii
PAHLAVI TEXTS.
year of the religion, the death of Alexander must have occurred in its 273rd year, according to the Bundahis.
54. But this has to be reconciled with the statement in Zs. XXIII, 12, that, after its 300th year, the religion is disturbed and the monarchy is contested;' which statement is expressed more definitely by AV. I, 2-6, when it asserts that the religion remained in purity for 300 years, but then Alexander came to Irân and destroyed the monarchy. If these statements be accepted literally, they imply that Alexander invaded Irân either in the zooth year of the religion, or shortly after that date, but certainly not before it. We cannot place Alexander's invasion of Irån itself at a later date than the battle of Gaugamela (B.C. 331); and if this were the 300th year of the religion, the death of Alexander (B.C. 323) must have occurred in its 308th, instead of its 273rd year, and the coming of the religion would have to be put back thirty-five years. This may be done with some plausibility by assuming an omission of thirty-five years between the reigns of Hûmâî and Dârâî, where the Bundahis passes from traditional to historical personages. Alexander's invasion must also have been a good and sufficient reason for the dissolution of the hundreddiscipledom, or priestly college, established by Sênô, which lasted only till the zooth year, as Zs. XXIII, 11 informs us.
55. If we now adopt the abbreviations A. R. for 'anno. religionis' and B. R. for 'before the religion,' we are prepared to compile the following synopsis of Zoroastrian Chronology according to the millennial system of the Bundahis, extended to the end of time, but dealing only with traditional matters, combined with the European dates of the same events, deduced from the synchronism of A.R. 300 with B. C. 331, as stated above in $ 54:
B. R. 9ooo, B. C. 9630. Beginning of the first millennium of
Time; and formation of the Fravashis, or primary ideas of the good creations, which remain insensible and motionless for
3000 years (Bd. I, 8; XXXIV, 1). , 6000, B. C. 6630. Beginning of the fourth millennium, when
the spiritual body of Zaratūst is framed together, and remains 3000 years with the archangels (Dk. VII, ii, 15, 16), while
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