Text of Confucianism Part 02

SR No.: 007676
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: James Legge
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1882
Total Pages: 2405
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 43 MB

Page 1373

392
APPENDIX
the good work. Thus, Pahl. Yas. XIII, 28 merely states that it is 'declared about it that it is requisite to do it;' Pahl. Vistâsp Yt. 171 asserts that the duty of Khvêtûk-dás is said to be the greatest good work in the religion, that, owing to it, Aharman, the demon of demons, is becoming hopeless, so that the dissolution of Khvêtûk-das is worthy of death;' and Pahl. Vend. VIII, 36 speaks of 'the two who are a Khvêtāk-dat man and woman”, that is, it is done by them.'
Another reference to Khvêtūk-das in the Pahlavi translations of the Avesta occurs in Pahl. Yas. XLIV, 4, as follows :—Thus I proclaim in the world that (which he who is Adharmazd made his own] best [Khvêtuk-das] By aid of righteousness Adharmazd is aware, who created this one* [to perform
· The age of this Pahlavi version of the Vistâsp Yast is doubtful, and it is even possible that it may have been composed in India The only MS. of it that I have seen belongs to Dastûr Jamáspji Minochiharji, who kindly gave me a copy of it, but seemed doubtful about the age of the translation. He was aware that his MS. was written some forty years ago, but he did not know from what MS. it was copied. This version is, however, mentioned in the list of Pahlavi works given in the introduction to Dastûr Peshotanji's Pahlavi Grammar, pp. 18, 31, so that another MS. of the Pahlavi text probably exists in the library of the high-priest of the Parsis in Bombay.
. Or, perhaps,'man and wife;' as gabrâ, man,' is occasionally used for 'husband,' though shùi is the usual word, and nêsman means both woman' and 'wife.'
: Written Khvêtvadas or Khvêtūdas in the very old MS. of Dastûr Jâmâspji Minochiharji, the text of which is followed in this translation. The phrases in brackets have no equivalents in the original Avesta text, and, therefore, merely represent the opinions of the Pahlavi translators.
Spendarmad apparently, as indicated by the sequel.
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