The names of the Nosks given by Hyde (343, 345), partly from the dictionary Farhang Ichangiri, partly from other sources not mentioned, are not correct nor rightly explained.
Three additional Nosks are to be brought into the world by three posthumous sons of Zoroaster. See in a subsequent note their miraculous origin and actions.
The Persian text of another Notice upon the Nosks, somewhat more complete than that published by Anquetil in Roman letters, has been edited by Messrs. Julius Mohl and Olshausen, of Kiel (see Fragmens relatifs à la Religion de Zoroastre, extraits des manuscrits persans de la Bibliothèque du Roi, 1829).—A. T.
[430] शङ्कराचर्य “Sankara acharya,” upon whose age different opinions are entertained.
[431] According to another tradition Gushtasp himself had travelled in India, and had been instructed by the Brahmans. In the Desátir (English transl., Comment, pp. 185, 186), we read that, when Sekander conquered Iran, Sásán, the son of Darab, went to India, where he practised the worship of Yezdan in a cavern, and where he died. He left a son named Jivánasp, who is known as the second Sásán, equal to his father, and who took his abode in Kabulistan. Ardeshir (the son of another Sásán, of the Kayanián race, a relative of the Saint), admonished by a dream, went to Kabulistan, and by his entreaties prevailed upon the second Sásán to follow him to Istakhar, where Ardeshir erected, for the habitation of the saint, an immense monastery adorned with figures of the stars, and having fire-temples on its different sides. These and other traditions afford the inference that, in early times, a religious intercourse had taken place between India and Persia.—A. T.
[432] In the Desátir (English translat., p. 120) the Greek philosopher is called Tútíanush. We are at a loss even to guess at the Greek to whom these names may be applied. We may however remember that St. Clement of Alexandria places Pythagoras about the 62nd Olympiad, or about 528 years B. C., and says that he was a zealous follower of Zoroaster, and had consulted the Magi. Jamblicus, in his life of Pythagoras (cap. 4) states, that this philosopher was taken prisoner by Cambyses and carried to Babylon, where, in his intercourse with the Magi, he was instructed in their modes of worship, perhaps by Zoroaster himself, if Zabratus and Nazaratus, mentioned as his instructors by Diogenes and Alexander, can be identified with the Persian prophet. Now, the long reign of Lohrasp (of 120 years) is supposed by some chronologers to comprehend the reigns of Cambyses and of Smerdis. Upon this uncertain chronological ground, Pythagoras may be placed in the times of Gushtasp, to whom, as was before said, Foucher with others assigns an epocha more remote than that of Darius Hystaspes of the Greeks. It is known that Alexander, by the conquest of Persia, accomplished, to a certain degree and for a certain time, his glorious project to connect the East with the West; an open intercourse took place between the Asiatics and the Greeks, whose language was widely spread in Asia. The Macedonian conqueror is there generally believed to have been the son of Darab (Darius), and the brother of Báhmán Isfendiar. He received, says the Desátir (p. 123), from the hands of his Persian spouse Pari-dokht Roshenak (Parysatis Roxana), “the bright daughter of the fairy,” a book of Zardusht addressed to him, and forming a part of the Desátir. Alexander ordered the Persian books to be translated into Greek, called the Nurakhi language, in the Desatir, in which is also said (p. 124): “Hence the sect of Internal Illumination will arise among the Nurakhis, as well as that of Reason.” To this passage the Commentary subjoins: “The sect of Gúshtaspians of Iran and Yunán is a medium between the Illuminated and the Rationalist. When Sekander came to Iran, he found that the Gúshtaspians of Iran were the better and wiser; and he found that they had such power that, when they pleased, they left the body, which they treated as a garment. And besides them he saw another class of men in Irán, who, by means of reason and meditation (nurnu´d) discovered the real nature of things as they actually exist; and there was no such class of men in Yunán. Having collected all their books, he translated them into the Yunáni and Rúmi tongues. He then gave his prime minister (Dostur) and teacher the title of the chief Mobéd and Sage, and made him the head of the Nirnúdis. From this time forward the sect of Rationalists prevailed among the Yunanis and Rúmis.” Alexander’s prime minister is supposed by the Asiatics to have been Aristotle; we know that this philosopher had an accurate knowledge of Zoroaster’s doctrine. Although the history, religion, and science of the Asiatics have certainly not been neglected by the inquisitive Greeks, Alexander’s companions, among whom was Callisthenes, a relation of Aristotle, yet we find in the western histories no particular notice corroborating the account just quoted of the Desátir. Unfortunately we may be more positive about the destruction of ancient monumental works in Persia by the son of Philip; it is for having burnt the Nosks that he is said by the Persians to be burning in hell (see Anquetil, vol. II. p. 338).—A. T.
[433] व्यास, “Vyasa,” a sage of that name occurs in the chapter upon the Hindus and elsewhere.
In the Desátir, published at Bombay, there is “the book of Shet the prophet Zirtu´sht” (Engl. transl., pp. 116-145), in which the interview between Hertushád, son of Hereofetmad (Zortu´sht), the Yúnan philosopher and the Indian sages is related.
Here ends the principal part of the historical account which the Dabistán gives of Zoroaster’s life. I shall add, according to Anquetil (Zend-Av., t. I. 2. P. pp. 60-62), a summary account of its principal events in chronological order.
Anquetil supposes Zoroaster born 589 years B. C. At the age of 30 years he goes to Irán, through which country he only passes. He disappears then to the eyes of the Persians during ten years. His followers say that he was transported before the throne of God. It was in this interval of time that he terminated several works which he had perhaps already begun upon mount Alborz, or in Chaldæa. The mountains afforded him retirement. The twenty years which he is said to have passed in the deserts were, probably, from his twentieth to his fortieth year.