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Pahlavi Texts, Part II (SBE18), E.W. West, tr. [1882], at sacred-texts.com
1. As to the forty-third question and reply, that which you ask is thus: There is a man who is super-intending (avar-mândakakŏ) and skilful, in whom great skill as regards religion is provided, and the high-priest's duty and officiating priest's duty (magôpatîh) are performed by him; or they are not performed by him, but in him great skill as regards
religion is provided. 2. In a place of that district there is no one who rightly knows the commentary and 'the proper and improper 1,' so that he comes forth into a place of such decay (sapakhân); and the people of the district--who constantly order all the religious rites (dînô 2) of many sacred ceremonies from any poor man of the various persons from other districts whose skill and superintending are not like his, but they constantly come to that district--shall constantly receive from him all the many religious rites and many sacred ceremonies. 3. And that man, who is revered and skilful, proceeds not undejectedly (lâ anaskandîhâ) and bashfully to his own superintending position, the position of the religion and position of the skill which are his; he does not demand any employment in the district or any award (dînâ) from the district, and does not know how to provide any other employment or award, in which there would be any fitness for him, 4. Are the people of the district--on account of the skill and activity which that man has exercised in religion, due to the performance of all the religious rites and sacred ceremonies which they constantly order--
thereupon to prepare that man a stipend (bâhar) 1, and is it necessary for them to give a stipend to that man, or how is it necessary to act; and is 'it necessary for them to collect it for him, or not? 5. And of the much advantage of all the religious rites and work is it necessary to speak thus 'Until the time that thou hadst come it was not possible for us to order except of him who is inferior to thee,' or how is it to be done? 6. Is it necessary to collect a stipend for him on account of the benefit and reasoning thought (vîrmatŏ) on other subjects, of which he was the means, or how is it necessary for the superintendent of our people to collect such stipend of skill, position, and religion?
7. The reply is this, that a man of such description as written above, and superintending the exercise of skill and provision of ability, is very worthy of a stipend and courtesy (khûpîh); also, through good management of all religious rites and the ceremony of the sacred beings, he is very confident in any uncertainty. 8. Therefore it is necessary to consider that he manages more openly and better than those whose skill and ability are not like his; and also as regards stipend and reasoning thought, owing to the worthiness of the ceremony of the sacred beings, his are more whose skill, ability, and activity in religion are greater. 9. And as to a man who is as written above--when all those religious rites and ceremonies are well-managed by him, and his repeated direction and right continuance of proper duties are an accumulation of his own reasoning
thought and great capability, and are ordered of him with great solicitude--one is also to consider him a stipendiary 1 thereby, and a thriving acquirement of ample reasoning thought. 10. And as to him, moreover, who is less skilled than he, and of inferior position, by as much as he is not so worthy, his custom is therefore to produce a want of himself again.
II. But he who has much skill should have 2 a great stipend, and he of medium ability should have 2 a medium one, he having less means of benefiting worthily, maturely, and necessarily. 12. And the value is as it is said in revelation thus: 'The stipend they should announce to him who is an upholder of religion is two shares, and to him who is mediocre only one, to him whose lot is inferior.'
13. That man is a master and high-priest 3 whose usage also (âîn-îkŏ) is wise, and in ability, goodness, and skill is the best of those of the religion of the Mazda-worshippers, which is the religion of wise upholders. 14. And the exercise of his religious disposition--originally possessing a religious stipend--which they shall order of him in that place, and that of the other worthy ones and applicants in the place and coming applying to the place, as much
as it is worth and happens to be their own want, one is to altogether thoroughly well consider for him. 15. Good destiny is not fulfilled by granting to those applying, but through forward ability, the forward, kind-hearted 1, and extreme skill provided, and grand position he is worthy of much stipend, and it is important to make them stipendiary in their own gradation of applying. 16. For the observance of moderation and the granting of applications are mutually destructive, and it is discriminatively said that the high-priest Gâmâsp of the Hvôvas 2 considered, in that mode, the much skill of that good superintendent being without a stipend as not disproportionate, but most justly very moderate.
17. Moreover, to collect for all except for one skilful man, and to provide a stipend for any other applicants, is not right; and the limits should be 3 moderate, for each one really shares the moderate apportionments according to his own want, apart even from the sacred ceremony. 18. But to collect for such a man, who has kind-heartedly superintended by rule during reasoning thought, is a greater good work than to approve even him who is superintending much more authoritatively. 19. And he who has himself requested is to obtain everything last; for, except in that case when a virtuous doer has in any
mode begged a livelihood 1 and is not capable of earning it--so that something even of the righteous gifts 2 of clothing is begged by him--to live in idleness is not the way to be assisted; but he who has not himself requested, and is wise, is to beg a suit of clothes (rakht-hanâ).
20. They give to the good provider of gifts much praise, and for the preservation of the perfect giver are many religious friends 3, and the position of the upholders of religion 4; so it is necessary to give, and to consider it as provided for the great female whom revelation greatly celebrates 5, that patron spirit (ahû) connected with religion, as it is said that in the opinion of Hûmân 6, the high-priest, the propitious religion is, as it were, the way of saving their souls 7.
21. About upholders of religion, and a more particular rule how the lawful computation should be for glorifying with moderation, a chief of the priests 1 has spoken thus: 'Shouldst thou be our father in wealthiness, I am thy protector in body, and thou becomest thy protector in soul 2.'
22. The same collection 3 is the way of the friends of religion for begging from the upholders of religion the preservation of the soul, and for well considering, extremely gracefully and fully reverently, the advantage and pleasure of the position 4 of the upholders of religion, so that they shall properly collect for the preservation of souls by the mode of going to collect thoroughly with great gain.
146:1 From this it would appear that' a treatise called 'Shâyast Lâ-shâyast' existed a thousand years ago, which probably bore some resemblance to Sls., the work which now bears the same name.
146:2 The words hamâk dînô, translated 'all the religious rites' both here and elsewhere, are a technical term which (as I am informed by Dastûr Peshotanji Behramji, the high-priest of the Parsis in Bombay) is applied to 'those obligatory religious rites and festivals that every Parsi is bound to observe by performing certain ceremonies, in his or her name, with the assistance of priests engaged for the purpose. These rites and festivals include the Rapithvan, the Gâhâmbârs, the Fravardîgân, the monthly festivals, &c.'
147:1 Literally 'a share' of the produce of the district, analogous to tithes.
148:1 Literally 'a shareholder.'
148:2 Assuming that the adverbial suffix -îhâ may he taken here (as it can be probably in all cases) as the Pâz. conditional form hâê of the verb 'to be,' equivalent to the more usual forms aê, âe, and the Huz. hômanâe (see Chap. XLVIII, 23).
148:3 Or, rad dastôbar may mean 'an awarding high-priest,' as he is called rad, 'master, chief,' in virtue of his power of sentencing sinners and governing the religious body, and he is called dastôbar, 'upholder of customs,' in virtue of his control over rites and ceremonies.
149:1 Literally 'good-hearted.'
149:2 The Av. Gâmâspa Hvôgva (or Hvôva) of Yas. XLV, 17, L. 18, Fravardîn Yt. 103. He was high-priest and prime minister of Kai-Vistâsp; but probably the opinion of some much later Gâmâsp is here erroneously attributed to him, much in the same way as the comparatively modern Book of Enoch is attributed to Enoch, 'the seventh from Adam,' in Jude, 14.
149:3 Reading hâê instead of -îhâ, as in § 11.
150:1 M14 has zîvisnŏ, and K35 has zîvandân.
150:2 Charitable donations given to the priesthood and poor for the purpose of acquiring religious merit on certain solemn occasions; they often consist of clothing, and are then supposed to furnish the giver, or the person in whose name they are given with garments in the other world after the resurrection (see Bd. XXX, 28).
150:3 The angels who assist his soul after death, such as Srôsh, Mitrô, Rashnû, Âstâd, and the good Vâê (see Chaps. XIV, 3, 4, XXX, 2-4).
150:4 That is, he will occupy the same grade in heaven as the priesthood.
150:5 Referring to the maiden spirit supposed to meet the good soul after death and to conduct it over the Kinvad bridge to heaven (see Chaps. XXIV, 5, XXXVII, 117). She is described in Vend. XIX, 98-101, and more fully in Hn. II, 22-32 and the later Pahlavi works. Her beauty is said to be proportional to the religious merit of the soul, and she is here identified with the ahû or patron spirit.
150:6 Probably some one nearly contemporary with the author, such as Âtûr-pâd son of Hêmîd (see Bd. XXXIII, II), who is called hû-manô, 'well-meaning,' and styled 'the leader of the people of the good religion' in the Dînkard (III, ccccxiii).
150:7 The maiden spirit, being developed by religious actions, is p. 151 called the soul's 'own religion' in AV. IV, 23; it is, therefore, that spirit's assistance which is probably meant here, when speaking of religion saving the soul.
151:1 A môbad of môbads.
151:2 Meaning that the wealthy man can easily protect his own soul by a proper expenditure of his wealth on good works. The connection of this with the first part of the sentence is rather obscure.
151:3 Mentioned in §§ 17, 18.
151:4 In heaven (see § 20). To induce the laity to collect ample property for paying the priesthood they are promised a share of the priest's happiness in heaven.