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266
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[NOVEMBER, 1880.
if it were not for the fact that the names it contains are the same as those in the second inscription.
With the assistance of that inscription it may be read, line for line, as follows' :
Pavan shem-i yazato. Pavan tag mûrvâk va nadůko dadak den.
man shnat 300 70 8.1 Yazdakardo bidana Mitro yôm Allharmazd hamdin ikan val denman jinak
yâtûnd hômand Yazdân-pânak va Máh-aiyyâr-i Mitra-aiyyâr;* Panj-bûkhto va Padar
bûkhto-i Mâh-aiyyâr, Mardan-shadi Hirido-Bahram va Hirad-Bahrâm-i Mardan-shad, Mitra
aiyyâr-i BAbram-pankh va Bahram-panah-1 Mitra
aiyyâr, Falan-zâdo va Zâd sparham-Âtûr-mahân, Nak-mában va Din Bahram va Bajůrg
atur va Hiråd-mard va Bôh-zâdo-1 Måh.....
This inscription is evidently incomplete, as it stops in the middle of a name, and also omits. the names contained in the last two lines of the next inscription. Nearly the whole of the first two lines have been broken away and removed since 1870, and the copy of them could not, therefore, be corrected in 1875; 80 that the reading of so much of the second line as does not occur in the next inscription, is doubtfal.
The next date, which is only forty-five days later, occurs in the inscription in the recess over the water tank alongside the cave. This inscription, though likewise cut faintly, is much more distinct than the last, and is numbered with the Pahlavi cipher for "two" preceding the invocation in its first line. It contains the
same names as the last inscription, with a few others added at the end to complete the list, and may be read as follows:
2. Pavan shem-i yazato." Shnat 300 va 70 8-i Yazdakardo bidana
Avâno va yộm Mitrô hamdinikán val denman
jinak yâtûnd hômand Yazdán-pânak va Mah-aiyyår-i Mitra-aiyyâr, Panj.bûkhto va Padar-bukhtoMâh-aiyyâr, Mardân-shadi Hirad-Babrâm va Hîrad-Bahram-i Mardan-shậd, Mitra
aiyyâr-i Bahrâm-pankh va Bâhrâm-panah-i Mitra
aiyyår, Falan-zâd va Zâd-sparham-i Âtûr-mâhân, Nûk-mahan va Din-Bahram va Bajúrg-âtûr va Hirâd-mard va Bêh-zâdo-1 Mah-bâzâe, Bahram-panah-i Mitra-bandad. Mâh Âtûr Adharmazd-i Avân bandad murd. 19
The third inscription in point of time is that on the left-hand pilaster of the verandah, and is numbered with the Pahlavi cipher for three" preceding the invocation in its first line. It is dated twelve years later than the preceding inscriptions, and contains a different list of names, in which only four of the names in the previous inscriptions occur. It is fairly legible, and may be read as follows:
3. Pavan shem-1 yazdan. Bidana Mitrô va yôm Dinô shnat 300 90-i
Yazdakardó min Airân" val denman jinak yatûnd hômand Mah-Frôbag va Mah-aîygår. i Mitra-aiyyâr, Panj-bûkhtõi Mâh-aiyyår, Mardân-shad-1 Hîrád-Bâbrâm, Bêh-zâd-i Mitra-vindâd," Jâvidîn-bûdõ-i Bahrâm-Gûshnaspo, Bajørg-Atûr-i
As some sounds are written more ways than one in Pahlavi, italics are used to express such variants, thus, d is used for d written like t, for j written like y, landr for l and written either like n or like an Avesta o, vand > for vand written like ch.
• Alyydr is merely a provisional reading for the Pahlavi equivalent of Pers. ydr, until its true sound is ascertained. In the second inscription it is always circumflexed, as if to be read aldbar.
• Or, perhaps, KMrdd or afr-al, as the final a (not being d) is doubtful after a vowel.
• In the second inscription the 1 is distinctly noted by a diacritical mark, otherwise it would be better to read Farukh-a4d, a common Pahlavi name.
Hitherto I have generally read this word atard direct from the Avesta, but it occurs in Sasanian inscriptions, not only in a form which can be read either atard or dtúr, but also in another form which must be read atar, it is also transcribed by Syrino writers M dder or ddur. The second
part of the name is here written mahan, but is ndhan in the next inscription and in the next name here.
* This word is illegible, but is assumed to be the same as in the preceding inscription. The se in yazat, like the ed in vardan and Adharmad, and the ada in Yardalards is written like 4 or ho, as it always is in Pahlavi MSS.; but this is merely a graphical variant, as these words are written with za, zd, and adı in Sasanian Pahlavi.
The last syllable is circumflexed, but can hardly contain the letter d.
10 The last letter is doubtful, and the word looks more like mür, but this would be unintelligible. This last line is evideutly an addition to the inscription after the list of names was finished.
1. These last two words are doubtful, min being nearly all cut away, and Afrin hardly legible; they occupy the place of the doubtful word handinikan in the first two inscriptions,
"Possibly the same name as the Mitra-bandad of the first two inscriptions.
