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Pahlavi Texts, Part IV (SBE37), E.W. West, tr. [1892], at sacred-texts.com
Sakâdûm Nask.
1. One section is miscellaneous: about having sought an assistant who is brought, that is, in what mode it is proper; and the payment of an assistant who is a member of the community (dâhm) 1, and also that of a foreigner (an-Aîr), in the same affair. 2. About how the coming of a man to confinement and fettering is through his own wealth, and whatever is on the same subject. 3. About confession through one, two, and three statements; and whatever is about it. 4. About the contempt of a disciple for a priestly master, which is an annoyance to him; the property belonging to the master, and the squandering that occurs in it.
5. The sin that is its own penalty through being liable to penalty, and the transgressor whose penalty is owing thereto; when they would unlawfully bring a penalty upon one liable to penalty, or one thereby inflicts a penalty upon him, of which one is aware that he is not capable (patûkŏ); and the time which one liable to penalty has for the payment of that penalty of his is until his attaining to opulence, when, after the appointment about the penalty, he becomes capable of an atonement. 6. About the accumulation (gangîh) of sin through the expedients of the wrathful (garmakân), which are connected with much destruction of the righteous. 7. About the sin owing to which, among those that are wrathful, he who has drunk from a well on a road, or path, conceals the water for the sake of concealment.
8. About the sin of a judge who pronounces the sinner to be in innocence, and the innocent to be in some sinfulness. 9. About a judge acquainted with the law 1 for ten years, him who is for eleven, him who is for twelve, him who is for thirteen, him who is for fourteen, and him who is for fifteen; that is, their decisions, each separately, on several specially prominent objects of acquaintance with the law, as regards decision and judgment.
10. About a daughter whose religious control, during the life of her father, resides in her mother for the joint life of the mother, but for 2 the authorised giving her away there is the father. 11. About a daughter who is unprovided with a husband, and
who has no father and no mother, nor yet any of the brothers of the departed parents, and it is not even allowable to give herself away into guardianship by a husband.
12. About property which is bequeathed by will on passing away; that is, how it is when given, and how it is when it does not exist. 13. About the privilege of a father in giving property to his children according to his wish, and a son who is irreverent towards his father, so that 1 some of the property of the father goes to the worthy mother; also when they would make irreverence towards the father the imputed characteristic (bâkht nîsânŏ), where a decree about the property of the father is decided upon; and whatever is on the same subject, as regards the extent of irreverence of the son towards the father, and the sin of it.
14. About the sin of a son 2 who is accepted, when he recoils from that acceptance; the accepter of a living, or even a departed, father is so because it is the will of the people, and also for the worldly fame of a soul of the departed; and the ceremonial and obeisance are, moreover, for those of them within their own dwelling, owing to letting forth their generosity, and they shall provide them.
15. About the production and arising of even that property which a liberal person has not seen, if there be any one who 3 has not lived liberally.
[paragraph continues] 16. About the production and arising of something of the property of a damsel, even when she gives it by design only to him who is worthy.
17. About a damsel whom an idolator (dêvîyast) carries off from her own master, and would give. to a Mazda-worshipper; that is, how it is justifiable for the Mazda-worshipper, having had that damsel in his possession, to seek a son by her, so long as the guardianship of the woman is with that man. 18. About a mother being guardian over a living father, owing to their having a son. 19. About the proper completion of a provision—that was for the decision of the supreme judge, on various statements, and was never otherwise—which is the provision of him who is a high-priest of the religion.
20. About the sin of a father through not satisfying the menstrual excitement of a daughter who has attained the capability of having a son (berman radîh); what it is when, through not satisfying the menstrual excitement of the daughter, he is sinful; and how it is when the daughter herself is sinful; also the symptoms of attaining the capability of having a son.
21. About where and which is that sin on the committal of which inadvertently one attains to deliverance thus, when it comes to his knowledge it is through a determined renunciation it goes away from its source; also which is that committal inadvertently which does not occur through him who is intelligent. 22. About the four more heinous forms of demon-service (sêdâ-yazakîh), and the three worst sins wherein they shall perform them; the ten existences that are furtherances, and the nine that are destroyers, of the world.
23. About a true statement through which, when one utters it, he is wicked and worthy of death. 24. About driving the bestowable benefit of the spiritual existence away from the world, when he who is destroying a righteous man walks openly in the world; how one section of the spirit's earth is that of a people 1 destroying the righteous man, and the complaint of the spirits of fire, water, and plants, owing thereto; also how the bestowal of the allotment of a leading man is upon his inferiors. 25. About the three kinds of righteous men; one that is greater than water and earth, animals and plants, one that is equal to them, and one that is less; and what is the arrangement of—as it were—the conjoined formation of those who are somewhat outside of the three kinds.
26. About the grievous bridge-judgment for carrying forth dead matter to water, or to fire, with which there is evidence; and the heaviness of the spirit due to dead matter in the water. 27. The good work of him who brings the dead matter 2 of man or dog,
or that of the serpent or frog, out of the water. 28. About the destruction of the serpent and frog, and other aquatic noxious creatures, in the water when it is only thus possible, and carrying them out from it when it is possible. 29. About the gratification of the spirit of the world, and the vexation of the demons, owing to the destruction of them.
30. Where and what are the tokens of the good 1 management and well-operating drinking-party (tôstîh) of a neighbour not of the same district (ahamshatrô nazd). 31. About the sin of him who, after joining a drinking-party from sunset (hû-frâshmôkdâdŏ), pulverizes the road (râh tekhnunêdŏ), keeps the door opened, and would unlawfully make an uproar.
32. About Aûharmazd having produced the bodies and members of animals—through having created the body of the sole-created ox with satisfaction, as assistance for mankind—because they are repeated for protection, and also for the ceremonial for sacred beings specially declared. 33. About the reason of making offerings (aûstôfrîdŏ) to the sacred beings, for the increase of power of the allotters of destiny in the allotment of destiny; the connection of that acknowledgement (padîrisnŏ) and of the benefit and advantage of the recompense thereof; the proper maintenance of that acknowledgement, through the means and efficacy of the spiritual bridge-judgment of sin, and the fear of worldly disaster and harm from not properly maintaining the perpetual acknowledgement in force
[paragraph continues] (dên patûkîh), and from the setting up even of ruin thereby; the reasonable control of the offering to each one of the sacred beings therein is for the skilful member of the community (hûnarîk dâhm) of whatever kind, and is not produced by intrusting the consecration to the violent, more particularly to those whom one specially enumerates; the sin and retribution owing to having given it to those who are of that class; and more upon the same subject.
34. About the damage and injury of the world owing to greed (âzŏ) and its fellow-miscreations, and him who is their supporter and abettor, the idolator (dêvîyastô), also the wolf of many kinds and noxious creatures of various species; because the occurrence of their fiendishness is due to the original fiend, and the means for strengthening their fiendishness are derived from the destruction of all mankind and the other primary worldly creations which are aiding mankind. 35. Advice to mankind about smiting and destroying the evil domination (dûskhshasarînîdanŏ) of the world by those injurers, and the merit manifest for themselves therein; the object and spiritual reward for smiting and killing each one of the wolves and noxious creatures, and, as regards the same reward, the perfection of that for destroying a two-legged wolf 1; and whatever is on the same subject.
36. About advice as to not reverencing the evil spirit and demons, whereby the observing (var’zŏ) of the several ceremonies and gratifications of the sacred beings would be more particularly irregular in any manner whatever, and the damage and
harm owing to those who are irregular and ill-observant, through being inclined for that irregularity and ill-observance, would become an oppressive presidence (padgahîh) of the demons over the creatures; also the vice of clamorous talking (drâyân gôgîh) 1 and the damage owing thereto, and the pleasure of the demons due to the same and other things which are irregular. 37. Advice about the reason, habit, and primitive practice of not chattering, and other good customs, during eating and drinking; the gratification of the sacred beings owing to that primitive practice of good customs by mankind, and the unself-devoting (a-khvês-dâk) is he who is not maintaining it.
38. Through the ceremonial of which sacred being is the greater welcome (mâhmânŏtarîh) of a high-priest and of any good work of each one of the five periods of the day and night; the reward and advantage owing to celebrating the ceremony of each of them separately in its own period, and also other means and regulations in the same statement.
39. It is righteousness that is perfect excellence.
145:1 The contradistinction here indicated between dâhm and an-Aîr is an important confirmation of Geldner's definition of Av. dahma as 'Vollbürger oder Mitglieder' (see Studien zum Avesta, 1882, p. 14).
146:1 See Chaps. XX, 74, XXII, 2r.
146:2 Reading râî instead of lâ, 'not.'
147:1 As aêgh also means 'where,' it is rather uncertain whether the irreverence is supposed to be the cause, or the effect, of the special provision for the mother which afterwards becomes a source of litigation.
147:2 An adopted son must be meant.
147:3 Supposing that min stands for mûn.
149:1 Some neighbouring nation of unbelievers is probably meant, such as the Byzantines; as we must always recollect that the compiler is summarizing the contents of the Pahlavi commentary written in Sasanian times (see Chap. I, 3).
149:2 See Chap. XXVII, 4. It appears from this section that the dead matter of an evil creature, such as a snake or frog, was considered to pollute the water as much as that of a good creature. § 28, however, admits the expediency of killing noxious creatures in the water when it is impossible to take them out beforehand; and this is in accordance with Vend. V, 35-38 (W.) which teaches that an apostate defiles no one when dead (any more than a dried-up frog that has been dead a year), because he defiles while living. This rule was evidently intended to remove all scruples as to killing such creatures, but it applies to them only when recently killed; hence the necessity of removing them, from any place liable to p. 150 pollution, as soon as possible after death, common sense being preferable to logical consistency.
150:1 Supposing that vûp stands for khûp.
151:1 A term applied to an idolator.
152:1 Whereby the devotions are disturbed, or rendered ineffectual.