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 950

EXTANT FRAGMENTS.
469
steel knife requires the whetstone, and the wisest man requires counsel."'
XIII. SPEND Nask! Dk. VIII, Chap. XIV, 1, probably refers to the passage that contained the statement thus quoted in Sls. X, 4, XII, 11:— It is revealed in the Spend that towards Dakdâv, the mother of Zaratast, when she was pregnant with Zaratūst, every night for three nights a leader with a hundred and fifty demons rushed (or came) for the destruction of Zaratůst, yet, owing to the existence of the fire in the dwelling, they knew no means of accomplishing it.'
Dk. VIII, Chap. XIV, 8, probably refers to the passage that contained the statement alluded to in AV. XXXII and thus quoted in Sls. XII, 29 :*As in the Spend it was shown to Zaratast about one man, that all his limbs were in torment, but one foot was outside ; and Zaratust enquired of Adharmazd about the cause of it; and Adharmazd said that he was a man, Davâns 2 by name; he was a ruler over thirty-three districts, and no good work was ever practised by him, except one time when fodder was conveyed by him to a sheep with that one foot.'
1 The short account of this Nask, in Dk. VIII, contains 347 Pahlavi words, which would represent about 20,500 words of Pahlavi version, according to the proportion guessed in the case of Nask XII. But, this being a Gathic Nask, the proportion of Avesta to Pahlavi ought to be that calculated for the Gathic Nasks I, II, III, XXI, which would give about 9,900 words of Avesta text for this Nask. The seventh book of the Dinkard, whose contents are very similar to those attributed to the Spend Nask, contains about 16,000 Pahlavi words.
* A personification of the Av. davãs of Yas. XXXI, 10 c.
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