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DÎNKARD, BOOK IX.
the formation of mankind by slow increase, and, when they live on for fifty years, their slowly becoming dust; the coming of death even to him who is very pleasantly living, as regards mankind, at the climax (barino) of his life; and the happiness of the worldly existence is given only to the worthy, on account of their love of righteousness; the rest are passed by2. 2. And also this, that he who is produced by the demons, or is proceeding to the
existences, therefore, Ahuramazda was better cognizant, through righteousness in worship, and of whatever females, both those males and those females we reverence.'
The Pahlavi version explains it as follows:- Whoever of those existing is thus in worship as regards a good being (that is, shall celebrate a ceremonial for that good being who is Adharmasd the lord], Adharmazd is aware of it, owing to the accompaniment of righteousness (and being acquainted with the reward and recompense of whatever are, severally, the duty and good works that any one has performed, he grants them). I reverence those of the assembly, males and females (the archangels; because the male of them are good, and the female of them.'
The Pahlavi translator evidently read vanghô in the first line of the text, as printed above, and not in the second, as in the present MSS.
1 So in K, but B has seventy.' The text seems to allude to the beginning of old age, of which three grades are mentioned in the Avesta (Vend. III, 19, 20): the hand, zaururô, and pairistakhshudrô. The Pahlavi version defines the age of each grade, but the ciphers given are corrupted in the MSS. extant. The Far. Oîm, p. 5, 11. 9, 10, gives fifty years as the age of the zarmân (Av. zaururo), seventy years as that of the hân (Av. hanô), and ninety years as that of the pâdîrâno-shûsar (Av. pairistâ. khshudrô); but whether this arrangement of the ages is compatible with the different order of these epithets in the Avesta is doubtful, though it shows that old age was considered to begin at the age of fifty years.
• Reading sakî-a îto according to K, though the word can also be read segi-aito, are ruined ;' in B it can be read gadâîgiaîtě, are impoverished.'
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| SR No. | 007682 |
| Book Title | Questions of King Milinda Part 02 |
| 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 |