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INTRODUCTION.
xxix
made. The result of this enquiry can be best understood from the details collected, but it may be stated in general terms that, though 'marriage among kinsfolk' might fairly represent the varying meaning of khvêtûk-das in different ages, its usual signification in Pahlavi literature is more accurately indicated by 'next-of-kin marriage.'
Some apology is perhaps due to the Parsi community for directing attention to a subject which they consider disagreeable. But, by the publication of a portion of the Dinkard, they have themselves placed the most important passage, bearing on the subject, within the reach of every European Orientalist; thus rendering it easy for any prejudiced translator to represent the practice of such marriages as having been general, instead of their being so distasteful to the laity as to require a constant exertion of all the influence that the priesthood possessed, in order to recommend them, even in the darkest ages of the faith. To avoid such one-sided views of the matter, as well as to hinder them in others, has been the special aim of the present translator in trying to ascertain the exact meaning of the obscure texts he had to deal with.
The translations from the Pahlavi Vendidâd, regarding the Bareshnûm ceremony and the purifications requisite after finding a corpse in the wilderness, will be found necessary for explaining many allusions and assertions in the Epistles of Mânûskîhar.
The text followed in all passages translated from the Dînkard is that contained in the manuscript now in the library of Dastur Sohrâbji Rustamji, the high-priest of the Kadmi sect of Parsis in Bombay. It was written A. D. 1669, and was brought from Persia to Surat by Mullâ Bahman in 1783. All other known copies of the Dînkard are descended from this manuscript, except a codex, brought from Persia by the late Professor Westergaard in 1843, which contains one-fifth of the Dînkard mostly written in 1574, and is now in the University Library at Kopenhagen.
For translations from the Pahlavi Vendidâd the text adopted, wherever available and not evidently defective, has been that of L4, a manuscript of the Vendidâd with
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