Saddharma Pundarika

SR No.: 007677
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: H Kern
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1884
Total Pages: 2546
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 46 MB

Page 1365

xviii
PAHLAVI TEXTS.
tions seem to be rather paraphrases than accurate translations of the original texts.
Of the original Pahlavi text of the Dînâ-î Maînôg-î Khirad only two manuscripts are yet known to exist; one of these (K43) is contained in No. 43 of the Iranian manuscripts in the University Library at Kopenhagen, and the other (TD2) belongs to Mr. Tehmuras Dinshawji Anklesaria of Bombay.
The manuscript K43 is a small quarto volume of 178 folios, of which the Dînâ occupies fols. 2–37, written fifteen lines to the page. The first and second folios also contain the conclusion of the larger Bundahis, of which the first 129 folios are missing from this codex, as described in SBE, vol. v, introd. pp. xxxix-xli. And the latter part of the codex contains about one-fifth of the Dînkard, in several detached fragments, and four-fifths of the Bahman Yast. This manuscript was brought from Persia by the late Professor Westergaard in 18431, and the Pahlavi text of the Dînâ, which it contains, was published in facsimile by Andreas in 1882 ?
In this codex the text of the Dînâ-î Maînôg-î Khirad begins in the middle of Chap. I, 28; but, as the copyist has prefixed an introductory heading to this imperfect text; it is evident that he, or some predecessor of his, must have copied the work, in this imperfect state, from some manuscript whose first folio had been lost. Besides this deficiency, ten folios of the text have been lost from this particular codex; nine of these were occupied by Chaps. XIV, 1XXVII, 49, and the tenth contained Chaps. XXXIX, 31XL, 17. At the end of the work, Chap. LXIII is followed by a colophon to the following effect :- Completed in peace and pleasure and joy on the day Shatvairô of the month Âvân of the year 938 of Yazdakard, king of kings, [26th May 1569]. I, Mitrôâpân Anôshak-růbân Rustam Shatrô-îyâr, wrote it for my own possession. From the copy
i See Zend-Avesta, or the Religious Books of the Zoroastrians, edited by N. L. Westergaard (Kopenhagen, 1852-54), vol. i, introd. p. 8, note 3.
The Book of the Mainyô-i-Khard, also an old fragment of the Bundehesh, edited by F. C. Andreas (Kiel, 1882).
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