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PAHLAVI TEXTS.
Bombay copy of K35, though it has lost about fourteen folios at the end. This MS. must be either the original from which K35 was copied, or an independent authority of equal value, but it has not been available for settling the text of the Selections for the present translation.
5. THE BAHMAN YAST.
The Bahman Yast, usually called the .Zand of the Vohūman Yast,' professes to be a prophetical work, in which Adharmazd gives Zaratûst an account of what was to happen to the Iranian nation and religion in the future.
It begins with an introduction (Chap. I) which states that, according to the Stadgar Nask, Zaratust having asked A dharmazd for immortality, was supplied temporarily with omniscient wisdom, and had a vision of a tree with four branches of different metals which were explained to him as symbolical of four different periods, the times of Vistasp, of Ardakhshîr the Kayânian, of Khasrô Nôshirvân, and of certain demons or idolators who were to appear at the end of a thousand years. It states, further, that the commentaries of the Vohman, Horvadad, and Astad Yasts mentioned the heretic Mazdak, and that Khûsro Nôshirvån summoned a council of high-priests and commentators, and ordered them not to conceal these Yasts, but to teach the commentary only among their own relations.
The text then proceeds (Chap. II) to give the details of the commentary on the Vohůman Yast as follows:-Zaratûst, having again asked Adharmazd for immortality, is refused, but is again supplied with omniscient wisdom for a week, during which time he sees, among other things, a tree with seven branches of different metals, which are again explained to him as denoting the seven ages of the religion, its six ages of triumph in the reigns of Vistasp, of Ardakhshîr the Kayânian, of one of the Askânian kings, of Ardakhshîr Pâpakân and Shahpår I and II, of Vahram Gôr, and of Khûsro Nòshirvân, and its seventh age of adversity when
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