Contents
CONTENTS.
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| INTRODUCTION. |
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| 1. | General Remarks | |
| 2. | The Dâdistân-î Dînîk | |
| 3. | The Epistles of Mânûskîhar | |
| 4. | The Appendix | |
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| Abbreviations used in this volume | |
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TRANSLATIONS. |
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| DÂDISTÂN-Î DÎNÎK | |
| 1. | Introductory | |
| 2. | Why a righteous man is better than all creatures, spiritual or worldly | |
| 3. | Why a righteous man is created, and how he should act | |
| 4. | Why a righteous man is great | |
| 5. | How temporal distress is to be regarded | |
| 6. | Why the good suffer more than the bad in this world | |
| 7. | Why we are created, and what we ought to do | |
| 8. | Whether good works done for the dead differ in effect from those ordered or done by themselves | |
| 9. | How far they differ | |
| 10. | The growth of good works during life | |
| 11. | Whether the growth of a good work be as commendable as the original good work | |
| 12. | Whether it eradicates sin equally well | |
| 13. | Whether one is made responsible for all his sins and good works separately at the last account, or only for their balance | |
| 14. | The angels who take account of sin and good works, and how sinners are punished | |
| 15. | The exposure of a corpse does not occasion the final departure of life, and is meritorious | |
| 16. | Whether the soul be aware of, or disturbed by, the corpse being gnawed | |
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| 17. | Reasons for the exposure of corpses | |
| 18. | How the corpse and bones are to be disposed of | |
| 19. | Whether departed souls can see Aûharmazd and Aharman | |
| 20. | Where the souls of the righteous and wicked go | |
| 21. | The Dâîtih peak, the Kinvad bridge, and the two paths of departed souls | |
| 22. | Whether the spirits are distressed when a righteous man dies | |
| 23. | How the life departs from the body | |
| 24. | Where a righteous soul stays for the first three nights after death, and what it does next | |
| 25. | Where a wicked soul stays for the first three nights after death, and what it does next | |
| 26. | The nature of heaven and its pleasures | |
| 27. | The nature of hell and its punishments | |
| 28. | Why ceremonies in honour of Srôsh are performed for the three days after a death | |
| 29. | Why Srôsh must be reverenced separately from other angels | |
| 30. | Why three sacred cakes are consecrated at dawn after the third night from a death | |
| 31. | How a righteous soul goes to heaven, and what it finds and does there | |
| 32. | How a wicked soul goes to hell, and what it finds and suffers there | |
| 33. | The position and subdivisions of hell | |
| 84. | The two ways from the Dâîtih peak; that of the righteous to heaven, and that of the wicked to hell | |
| 35. | The continuance of mankind in the world till the resurrection | |
| 36. | The preparers of the renovation of the universe | |
| 37. | The contest of the good and evil spirits from the creation till the resurrection, and the condition of creation after the resurrection | |
| 38. | The effect of doing more good works than are necessary for attaining to the supreme heaven | |
| 39. | Reasons for wearing the sacred thread-girdle | |
| 40. | On the sacred shirt and thread-girdle, grace before and after eating, and cleansing the mouth before the after-'grace | |
| 41. | The sin of apostasy, and how to atone for it | |
| 42. | The good works of him who saves others from apostasy | |
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| 43. | The distance at which the fire can be addressed, the use of a lamp, and the proper order of the propitiatory dedications, when consecrating a sacred cake | |
| 44. | Whether a skilful priest who is employed to perform ceremonies, but is not officially the priest of the district, should be paid a regular stipend | |
| 45. | The separate duties of priests and disciples | |
| 46. | When a priest can abandon the priesthood to obtain a livelihood | |
| 47. | Whether a priest who knows the Avesta, or one who understands the commentary, be more entitled to the foremost place at a sacred feast | |
| 48. | The advantage and proper mode of celebrating the ceremonial | |
| 49. | Whether it be lawful to buy corn and keep it long, so as to raise the price for the sake of profit | |
| 50. | Whether it be lawful to sell wine to foreigners and infidels | |
| 51. | The sin of drunkenness, and what constitutes immoderate drinking | |
| 52. | Whether a man who bargains to deliver wheat in a month, and takes a deposit, is bound to deliver the wheat if its market-price has risen enormously | |
| 53. | Whether it be lawful to sell cattle to those of a different religion | |
| 54. | Whether a man without a son can give away his property to one daughter on his death-bed; the laws of inheritance, and when an adopted son must be appointed, in such a case | |
| 55. | Whose duty it is to order the ceremonies after a death | |
| 56. | The laws of adoption and family-guardianship | |
| 57. | Those who are fit, or unfit, for adoption | |
| 58. | The three kinds of adoption | |
| 59. | The least amount of property that requires the appointment of an adopted son | |
| 60. | The sin of not appointing an adopted son, or of appointing a dishonest one | |
| 61. | The merit and demerit of family-guardianship | |
| 62. | The laws of inheritance | |
| 63. | Whether it be lawful to seize property from foreigners and infidels | |
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| 64. | The origin of Gâyômard, Mashyâîh, and Mashyayôîh | |
| 65. | The origin of next-of-kin marriage | |
| 66. | Regarding the cost of religious rites, and whether a priest's tot fees can be reduced when others will take less | |
| 67. | The cause of the rainbow | |
| 68. | The cause of the phases of the moon | |
| 69. | The cause of eclipses | |
| 70. | The causes of river-beds | |
| 71. | What things happen through destiny, and what through exertion | |
| 72. | The seven heinous sinners, and the necessity of avoiding him who commits unnatural intercourse | |
| 73. | Whether the stench of such intercourse reaches the sky | |
| 74. | Whether that stench disturbs the archangels | |
| 75. | Whether the angels raise such a sinner from the dead at the resurrection | |
| 76. | Whether it be a good work to kill such a sinner | |
| 77. | Why such intercourse is a heinous sin | |
| 78. | Why adultery is heinous, and how one can atone for it | |
| 79. | The sin of not repeating the full grace before drinking (when one is able to do so), and how one can atone for it | |
| 80. | Regarding him who does not order ceremonies | |
| 81. | About the ceremonies for the living soul | |
| 82. | About him who pays for ceremonies and him who takes the money without performing them | |
| 83. | Whether a priest must undertake all religious rites | |
| 84. | Whether gifts to the priesthood for ceremonies can be diminished or increased | |
| 85. | The advantages of increasing such gifts | |
| 86. | The harm of diminishing such gifts | |
| 87. | Why it is good to give such gifts | |
| 88. | About the cost of religious rites in Pârs | |
| 89. | Whether when a man has once resolved to go into Pârs, with gifts for the priesthood, it be lawful for him to send another man with the gifts | |
| 90. | The seven immortal rulers in the region of Khvanîras before the coming of the good religion | |
| 91. | The nature and material of the sky | |
| 92. | The course and benefit of the water of Arekdvisûr | |
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| 93. | Tîstar's seizing of water from the ocean to rain it upon the earth, and his conflict with Apâôsh | |
| 94. | Conclusion | |
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EPISTLES OF MÂNÛSKÎHAR | |
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| EPISTLE I. To the good people of Sîrkân. |
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| 1. | Introductory compliments, acknowledging receipt of a complaining epistle | |
| 2. | Deploring the false opinions in circulation, owing to the fiend, about the purification ceremonies | |
| 3. | Excusing any defects in this epistle for various reasons detailed | |
| 4. | Deprecating the disuse of the Bareshnûm ceremony, as decreed by his brother; such disuse being contrary to scripture and the commentaries | |
| 5. | Alluding to the one-sided view of the opinions of the commentators adopted by the decree they had sent | |
| 6. | Discussing the different statements of the commentators as to the number of purifiers and washings | |
| 7. | Discussing the proper quantities of liquids to be used, and the 300 pebbles | |
| 8. | Regarding the stirring up of the bull's urine when fetid, as mentioned in the Sakâdûm Nask | |
| 9. | Deciding that the commentary which teaches the most efficient mode of purification is to be followed, when there are no special reasons for acting otherwise | |
| 10. | Reserving other matters for special instructions to the priests, but warning them not to obey the decree now denounced | |
| 11. | Arranging for the enforcement of his decision, until he can write further, or come himself; and concluding with benediction and date | |
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EPISTLE II. To his brother, Zâd-sparam. |
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| 1. | Acknowledging receipt of a former epistle, and announcing the arrival of complaints about his brother's reprehensible decree | |
| 2. | Disapproving of the decree and its mode of dealing with the commentaries, whose exact agreement is as unlikely as the simultaneous occurrence of several particular conjunctions of the planets | |
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| 3. | Exhorting him not to seek for new rules, but to adhere strictly to the old customs | |
| 4. | Reasserting his opinions, and protesting against the notion that the decree was in accordance with the practice of all the purifiers in Irân | |
| 5. | Commenting upon the secrecy with which the decree had been prepared, and the evil consequences resulting from it | |
| 6. | Persuading him to remain steadfast in the faith, and threatening him if he should not | |
| 7. | Explaining that he had previously written to Sîrkân, and would shortly come there himself; but ordering the appointment of proper purifiers | |
| 8. | Mentioning his general epistle to all of the good religion in Irân, and describing the evil consequences of continued disobedience, including the possibility of his own retreat to foreign lands | |
| 9. | Giving further instructions for satisfying the discontented, and opposing the heterodox; and concluding without date | |
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EPISTLE III. To all of the good religion in Irân. Forbidding the substitution of a fifteenfold washing for the Bareshnûm ceremony; and dated A.Y. 250 (A.D. 881) | |
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APPENDIX | |
| I. | Legends relating to Keresâsp | |
| II. | The Nîrang-i Kustî | |
| III. | The meaning of Khvêtûk-das | |
| IV. | The Bareshnûm ceremony | |
| V. | Finding a corpse in the wilderness | |
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| INDEX | |
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| CORRECTIONS | |
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| Transliteration of Oriental Alphabets adopted for the Translations of the Sacred Books of the East | 481 |