DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22901#0175
CHAP. III.]
THE RAVAYETS.
i59
desolate the royal court. And this religion, that is
all the books of Avesta and Zend, written with gold
ink upon prepared cow-skins, was deposited in the
archives of Stakhar (Istakhar or Persepolis) of Papak.
The accursed, wretched, wicked Ashmogh (destroyer
of the pious) Alexiedar, the evil-doer, took them (the
books) out and burnt them."
Although the volumes in question are now lost, a
description of their contents is given in the Pehlevi
Dinkard (vols. viii. and ix.) and in the Persian
Ravayets, which are the miscellaneous writings in
Persian of the " dasturs" after the overthrow of
the Persian monarchy. These volumes are reported
to have contained at one time about two million
verses. They seem to have formed the whole of the
Avesta literature, religious and scientific, current at
the time, because, as Dr. Haug says,. " they treated
not only of religious topics, but of medicine, astro-
nomy, agriculture, botany, philosophy, etc." This
statement will be borne out by the perusal of the
following short sketch of their contents collected from
the well-known Persian Ravayet by Burzo Kamdin,
and by the epitome of their contents - given by Dr.
Haug in his essays and by Professor Harlez in his
" Introduction a l'Etude dc 1'Avesta et de la Religion
Mazdecnne" (Introduction to the Study of the
Avesta and of the Mazdayasnan Religion).
1. The first book, called Sudkar, contained twenty-
THE RAVAYETS.
i59
desolate the royal court. And this religion, that is
all the books of Avesta and Zend, written with gold
ink upon prepared cow-skins, was deposited in the
archives of Stakhar (Istakhar or Persepolis) of Papak.
The accursed, wretched, wicked Ashmogh (destroyer
of the pious) Alexiedar, the evil-doer, took them (the
books) out and burnt them."
Although the volumes in question are now lost, a
description of their contents is given in the Pehlevi
Dinkard (vols. viii. and ix.) and in the Persian
Ravayets, which are the miscellaneous writings in
Persian of the " dasturs" after the overthrow of
the Persian monarchy. These volumes are reported
to have contained at one time about two million
verses. They seem to have formed the whole of the
Avesta literature, religious and scientific, current at
the time, because, as Dr. Haug says,. " they treated
not only of religious topics, but of medicine, astro-
nomy, agriculture, botany, philosophy, etc." This
statement will be borne out by the perusal of the
following short sketch of their contents collected from
the well-known Persian Ravayet by Burzo Kamdin,
and by the epitome of their contents - given by Dr.
Haug in his essays and by Professor Harlez in his
" Introduction a l'Etude dc 1'Avesta et de la Religion
Mazdecnne" (Introduction to the Study of the
Avesta and of the Mazdayasnan Religion).
1. The first book, called Sudkar, contained twenty-