Chapter XVI

CHAPTER XVI.

0. In the name of God (yazdân) I write a paragraph (babâ) where the sins which are as it were small are mentioned one by one.

1. The least sin is a Farmân; and a Farmân is three coins of five annas 2, some say three coins. 2. An Âgerept is, as regards whatever weapon (snês) men strike with in the world, whenever the weapon is taken in hand; and taken up by any one four finger-breadths from the ground it is the root 3 of an

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[paragraph continues] Âgerept for him;. and the retribution and punishment for an Âgerept should be fifty-three dirhams (gûgan) 1. 3. When the weapon turns downwards it is the root of an Avôîrist for him, and his sentence (dînâ) is to be changed; his retribution and punishment should be seventy-three dirhams 2, which is when anything further occurs. 4. When he shall lay the weapon on any one it is the root of an Aredûs for him, and his retribution and punishment are thirty stîrs; if the wound thereby made by him be one-fifth of a span (dîst) 3 it is no root of an Aredûs for him, and his retribution and punishment are the same thirty stîrs.

5. I write the degrees of sin:—A Srôshô-karanâm 4 is three coins and a half, a Farmân is a Srôshô-karanâm, an Âgerept is sixteen stîrs, an Avôîrist is twenty-five stîrs, an Aredûs is thirty, a Khôr is sixty, a Bâzâî is ninety, a Yât is a hundred and eighty, and a Tanâpûhar is three hundred 5.

6. The good works which are in the ceremonial

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worship of the sacred beings (yazisn-i yazdân):—Consecrating a sacred cake (drôn) 1 is a good work of one Tanâpûhar 2; a form of worship (yast) 3 is a hundred Tanâpûhars; a Visparad 4 is a thousand Tanâpûhars; a Dô-hômâst 5 is ten thousand; a Dvâzdah-hômâst is a hundred thousand, and the merit (kirfak) of every one which is performed with holy-water is said to be a hundred to one; a Hâdôkht 6 is two thousand Tanâpûhars, and with holy-water it becomes a hundred to one 7.

Footnotes

379:2
Reading 3 nûmâî-i 5 ânak, but this is uncertain, and if correct must have been written in India, as the anna is an Indian coin worth nearly three halfpence. The coin of five annas was probably a dirham, as the dirham being about fifty grains of silver (see note on gûgan in Chap. I, 2), and the rûpî having formerly been less than 180 grains in Gugarât, the former would be nearly five-sixteenths of the latter, that is, five annas. It may, therefore, be assumed that the amount of the Farmân is here taken at three dirhams, as in Chap. XI, 2; but in § 5 it appears to be 3½ dirhams, and in Chap. I, 2 as much as sixteen dirhams.
379:3
See Chap. II, 69, note.
380:1
§ 5 says sixteen stîrs, which, if equivalent to these fifty-three dirhams, would imply 3 5/16 dirhams to the stîr, instead of four as usually stated. (see Chap. I, 2). The amounts mentioned in Chaps. I, 2, XI, 2 are very different.
380:2
§ 5 says twenty-five stîrs, which, at 3 5/16 dirhams to the stîr (as in the case of Âgerept), would be very nearly eighty-three dirhams, which is probably the number we ought to read in the text, and also, possibly, in Chap. XI, 2.
380:3
The dîst is a span of ten finger-breadths (about 7½ inches) between the thumb and middle finger (see Bund. XXVI, 3, note).
380:4
See Chap. IV, 14, note. Comparing the amount here mentioned with that of the Farmân in § 1, the Srôshô-karanâm, which is here made equal to the Farmân, appears to amount to 3½ dirhams, which agrees very nearly with the statement in Chap. X, 24, but differs from that in Chap. XI, 2.
380:5
For similar scales of degrees, see Chaps. I, 2, XI, 2.
381:1
See Chap. III, 32. The Persian Rivâyats explain that this is when the proper ritual is merely recited, without using the sacred twigs and other ceremonial apparatus; when the twigs are used the merit is ten times as great.
381:2
That is, sufficient to counterbalance a Tanâpûhar sin (see Chap. I, 1, 2).
381:3
A Yast is a formula of praise in honour of some particular angel; when recited with all the accessories of sacred twigs and other ceremonial apparatus, the merit is ten times as great as is mentioned in the text.
381:4
The Visparad service includes the Yasna, and when performed with the use of the sacred twigs, holy-water, and other ceremonial apparatus the merit is ten times as great as here stated; some authorities say it is a hundred times as great.
381:5
This kind of Hômâst is not mentioned in Dastûr Jâmâspji's explanation of this species of religious service (see B. Yt. II, 59, note); it occurs, however, in the Nîrangistân as a distinct kind, though called merely Hômâst in the Persian Rivâyats.
381:6
See B. Yt. III, 25.
381:7
The merits of other prayers and ceremonies are detailed in the Persian Rivâyats; thus, that of the ordinary recital of a Vendidad (which includes both Yasna and Visparad) is sixty thousand Tanâpûhars, and when with sacred twigs and holy-water it is a hundred thousand; that of the recital of any Nyâyis (see Chap. VII, 4), or of taking and retaining a prayer (vâg, see Chap. III, 6) inwardly, is one Tanâpûhar.

CHAPTER XVI.

Footnotes

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