deposited them in the libraries of Dizh-i Nipisht and Ganj-i Shapigan.[1] One of these copies perished in the flames when Alexander burned the royal palace at Persepolis.[2] The other copy, tradition maintains, was taken by the conquering hordes to their own country^ where it was rendered into Greek.[3]
The collection of the scattered texts was begun under the last of the Arsacids and completed in the early Sasanian period. The twenty-one original Avestan Nasks were artificially made to correspond to the twenty-one words of the Ahuna Vairya formula. The holy Manthra is made up of three lines and the twenty-one Nasks were, likewise, divided into three equal parts of seven each to correspond with them. These three divisions are classified under the headings: Gasanik, that is, pertaining to the Gathas or devotional hymns, the Hadha Mansarik, which as Dinkard[4] says, is intermediary between the Gathik and the last division, namely the Datik, which is that pertaining to law."[5] It is estimated that the twenty-one volumes contained about 345,700 words of written text.[6]
This canonical compilation has suffered heavily during the last thirteen centuries since the downfall of the last Zoroastrian empire in the seventh century. The entire collection of the Avestan texts that has reached us consists of about 83,000 words,[7] that is, about one-fourth of the original twenty-one Nasks. The Vendidad is the one Nask that has survived the ravages of time in its complete form. Some of the lost Nasks are preserved in part in the Yasna, Yashts, and Nirangistan. We shall draw upon this Avestan material in our discussion of the Gathic and Avestan periods.
The Pahlavi, Pazend, and Persian sources. During the chaos that prevailed in Iran after the downfall of the Achaemenian empire, the Avestan language began to decay. When it grew unintelligible to the people, the learned priests undertook translations and explanations of the Avestan texts into Pahlavi,
- ↑ Dk., vol. 9, p. 577.
- ↑ Diodorus, 17. 72; Curtius, 5. 7; Dk., vol. 9, p. 569.
- ↑ Dk., vol. 9, p. 569.
- ↑ Dk. 8, 1, 7.
- ↑ See Geldner, Avesta Literature, tr. by Mackichan in Avesta, Pahlavi, and Ancient Persian Studies in honour of Dastur Peshotanji B. Sanjana, p. 31.
- ↑ So West in SBE., vol. 37, Introd. p. 45.
- ↑ See Geldner, ib., p. 30.
