Questions of King Milinda Part 02

SR No.: 007682
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: T W Rhys Davids
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1894
Total Pages: 2240
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 38 MB

Page 490

CHAPTER I, 14-21.
is a symbol of the existence of the pure influence of the Gathic lore upon the first spiritual state—that which exists likewise at last—and of the rejunction of the worldly existence to the spiritual, because it came down from the spiritual to exist at present.
18. And the reason of the twenty-one-fold partition of the three divisions of the reckoning of revelation is in the distinction which is evident from their composition; also in the three metrical lines of the Ahunavair, which is the basis of the reckoning of revelation, there are twenty-one words (marik). 19. As the three metrical lines of the Ahunavair, which is the basis of the reckoning of revelation, are an emblem of the triple division of the reckoning of revelation ; so the twenty-one words of the three lines indicate the twenty-one-fold partition of these three divisions; as it is declared that He who is the omniscient creator produced a discourse from every single word.'
20. As to the sections of the parts, such as the Hâs and Fargards in the Nasks, it is known there were one thousand?, from the testimony and knowledge of the religion owing to the teaching of Zaratast-whose guardian spirit is reverenced—in the country of Irân. 21. And after the devastation occurred, owing to the evil-destined and raging villain Alexander, there was not so much of them
1 The term Hå (hâd, Av. hâiti) is applied to the chapters of the Yasna, and the term Fargard (Av. fra+kereta) to the chapters of the Vendidad and most of the other Nasks.
* Combining the information given in the Persian Rivâyats with that in the Dînkard we find only 905 chapters enumerated, of which 180 are said to have been lost, from the philosophical Nasks, during the Greek rule.
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