Book Title: Sacred Laws of Aryas
Author(s): Gorge Buhler
Publisher: Oxford


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Page 986
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CHAPTER I, 27-II, 4.
2. First he produced the celestial sphere, and the constellation stars are assigned to it by him; especially these twelve whose names are Varak (the Lamb), Tôrâ (the Bull), Dô-patkar (the Two-figures or Gemini), Kalakang (the Crab), Sêr (the Lion), Khûsak (Virgo), Tarâzûk (the Balance), Gazdûm (the Scorpion), Nîmâsp (the Centaur or Sagittarius), Vahik1 (Capricornus), Dûl (the Waterpot), and Mâhik (the Fish); 3. which, from their original creation, were divided into the twenty-eight subdivisions of the astronomers, of which the names are Padêvar, Pêsh-Parviz, Parviz, Paha, Avêsar, Besn, Rakhvad, Taraha, Avra, Nahn, Miyân, Avdem, Mâshâha, Spûr, Husru, Srob, Nur, Gêl, Garafsa, Varant, Gau, Goi, Muru, Bunda, Kahtsar, Vaht, Miyân, Kaht 3. 4. And all his original creations,
II
planet,' which is in the zodiac, but apart from the constellations. The meaning of akhtar, most suitable to the context here, appears to be the general term 'constellation.'
1 Written Nahâzîk here, both in K20 and M6, which may be compared with Pers. nahâz,' the leading goat of a flock;' but the usual word for 'Capricornus' is Vahîk, as in Chap. V, 6. None of the other names of the signs of the zodiac are written here in Pâzand, but it may be noted that if the ah in Vahik were written in Pâzand (that is, in Avesta characters), the word would become the same as Nahâsîk in Pahlavi.
* Literally, 'fragments of the calculators,' khurdak-i hâmârîkân. These subdivisions are the spaces traversed daily by the moon among the stars, generally called 'lunar mansions.'
All these names are written in Pâzand, which accounts for their eccentric orthography, in which both K20 and M6 agree very closely. The subdivision Parviz is evidently the Pers. parvên, which includes the Pleiades, and corresponds therefore to the Sanskrit Nakshatra Krittikâ. This correspondence leads to the identification of the first subdivision, Padêvar, with the Nakshatra Asvinî. The Pâzand names are so corrupt that no reliance can be placed upon them, and the first step towards recovering the true
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