The name of Zand-Avesta belongs, among the books published by Anquetil, exclusively to those the original of which is truly Zand; these alone are canonical; they are five in number, all theological, for the most part liturgical, namely: 1. the Izechné, “elevation of the soul, praise, devotion;” called also the little Avesta; 2. the Vispered, “the chiefs of the beings there named;” 3. the Vendidad, which is considered as the foundation of the law (these three are called together the Vendidad Sadé, “to combat Ahriman”) 4. the Yeshts Sades, or “a collection of compositions and of fragments, more or less ancient;” 5. the book Siroz, “thirty days,” containing praises addressed to the Genius of each day: it is a sort of liturgical calendar. These are the Zand-books existing in our days; the originals of them are said by the learned Foucher to have been composed under the reign of Gushtasp, whom he places before the time assigned to Darius Hystaspes, whilst Anquetil and other modern authors identify under these names a king of Persia, who lived about the middle of the sixth century before our era. We may reasonably believe that the Zand-books were written at a time when the Zand was a living, nay the dominant language, in those countries where these books first appeared; that is, in Georgia, in Iran, and in Azerbijan. Now, if it be admitted that the Zand was in these countries quite a dead language already, under the Ashkanian dynasty of Persia (the Arsacides), the first of whom, Aghush, began to reign 310 years B. C., it will follow, that the Zand-books were written long before that time, that is, most likely at least, so early so the sixth century before the Christian era.
Besides the original Zand-books, Anquetil translated also from the modern Persian the Bun-Dehesh. This is a collection of treatises upon several points, ranged under 34 sections—a sort of encyclopædia, theological, cosmological, historical, and political. This work is written in Pehlvi, and believed to be the translation of a Zand original no more to be found in India. It is the most ancient of the modern works of the Parsees, and was written probably about the seventh century of our era.
What may confirm us in the opinion that these books, still in the hands of the Parsees, are truly derived from much more ancient works is, that their contents agree in a great number of principal points with the doctrine attributed to the Magi and to Zoroaster by ancient Greek authors, of whom the later Parsees had certainly not the least knowledge, whilst their Zand-books contain the names of the first and most ancient kings of the Medes and Persians, and no other but those, of whom the Greeks knew nothing. No king and no private person, after Gushtasp and Zoroaster, are mentioned in the Zand-books.
Sixty years had elapsed since the publication of the Zand-Avesta by Anquetil, when M. Eugène Burnouf undertook a revision and commentary of that part of the Zand-works which the first had translated and published, under the Pehlvi name of Iseshné, and which, in Zand, is entitled Yasna. Among the manuscripts which Anquetil had brought from India was a Sanskrit translation, made towards the end of the fifteenth century by a Dostur called Neriosengh, probably from a Pehlvi version of a Zand original. M. Eugène Burnouf, to give a better interpretation of the Zand text, not only availed himself of the double translation, executed by Neriosengh and Anquetil, but also, independently of both, applied the principles of comparative philology to the analysis of many Zand-words, the true signification of which he fixed, and by various judicious observations, interspersed in his commentary, threw light upon the geography, history, and religion of ancient Persia. He published in 1833 the first volume of his work, under the title “Commentaire sur le Yasna:” he had before (1829) published the lithographed Zand text of it in one folio volume. In 1836 appeared, at Bombay, a lithographed edition of the same Zand text.”—A. T.
[392] Mina, semen virile.
[393] The quarrel between Zartusht and his father, and the death of the head magician, as well as what preceded—these facts are related nearly in the same manner in the Zerd. Nam., ch. 12-15.—A. T.
[394] Anquetil du Perron states that this expanse of water was the river Araxes (t. 1. 2. P. p. 19).
[395] The month of February, the last month of the year.—A. T.
[396] Anquetil du Perron, quoting the Zerd. Nam., c. 18, says, an army of serpents, perhaps tribes of Nâgas, which came from the North.—A. T.
[397] Mediomah, cousin to Zardusht, the first who embraced the law; he meditated on it profoundly, published and practised it: he confers happiness on cities.—D. S.