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 934

EXTANT FRAGMENTS.
453
III. Bako Nask. Dk. IX, Chaps. XLVII—XLIX, describe the contents of the first three fargards of this Nask, which are still extant in the Avesta text of Yas. XIX-XXI, whose Pahlavi version may be translated as follows :
Pahl. Yas. XIX = Bakó I. The beginning of the Ahunavair of the Bakân 2.
1. Zaratůst enquired of Adharmazd thus : 'O Adharmazd, propitious spirit, creator of the world of embodied existences, and righteous 4! (2) which were those words, O Adharmazd! that were spoken by thee for me, (3) before the sky, before the water, before the earth, before the (well-yielding) cattle, before the plants, before the fire which is Adhar
9,600 Pahlavi words, and, if these represent the same proportion of original text as those in the accounts of the first three fargards of the Bako Nask do, they would indicate about 8,300 words of Avesta text and 18,500 of Pahlavi version as the original extent of this Nask.
1 As the detailed account of the first three fargards of this Nask, in Dk. IX, contains about 840 Pahlavi words, and represents about 730 words of the original Avesta text in Yas. XIX-XXI, with 1630 in its Pahlavi version, it may be assumed that the detailed account of the whole Nask, extending to nearly 11,000 words, indicates about 9,500 words of Avesta text and 21,200 of Pahlavi version as the total extent of this Nask.
$ The heading of this first hâ is given in J2, Pt4, Mf4 which have been consulted by the translator in addition to Spiegel's text representing K5. The division into sections is that adopted by Spiegel, and the passages in parentheses have no equivalents in the Avesta text.
* Sp., J2 insert 'good and!
* Ja adds '(this is, Adharmasd the creator is righteous; the rest is through the praise which says the creator is righteous);' compare Pahl. Vend. II, 1.
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