Zend Avesta Part 02

SR No.: 007672
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: James Darmesteter
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1883
Total Pages: 2221
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 41 MB

Page 1924

xxxiv
PAHLAVI TEXTS.
just as applicable to the original periods as to the altered ones.
61. We are further informed (Dk. VII, viii, 2-45) that much evil and misery occur in the ninth and tenth centuries (A.R. 800-1000), at all events until the birth of Allshedar (ibid. 55-57) in A.R. 971; and such events as war, invasion, fall of monarchy, oppression, persecution, infidelity, and apostasy are mentioned. Allshedar confers with the archangels in A.R. 1001 (ibid. 58-60), and the evils afterwards pass away till A.R. 1400-1500 (ibid. ix, 3), when frightful winters occur. The evil period A.R. 800-971 was originally A.D. 170-341, or from the middle of the reign of Vologeses III to the middle of that of Shahpühar II. But the Bundahis postpones this period to A. D. 451-608, or from the time of the Armenian revolt in the reign of Yazdakard II, to that of the first total defeat of a Persian army by the Arabs near Dhû-Qar in the reign of Khûsrô II. The evil times were probably expected to continue till the end of the millennium, or later, as in the case of Zaratust himself; for Allshedar does not go to his conference till A.R. 1001, and might not be expected to begin to preach till A.R. 1011. These dates, originally A.D. 371-381, comprising the remainder of the reign of Shahpühar II, would be altered by Bd. to A. D. 636-645, a period which includes the last two great battles with the Arabs, that decided the downfall of the Sâsânian dynasty, though king Yagdakard III lived some six years longer as a fugitive?
62. It is hardly possible that king Ardashîr (A.D. 226– 241) and his chancellor Tanvasar, when collecting and revising their sacred books, would have compiled the original traditional system of chronology, however general might have been the terms in which the evils were described by the records they possessed, because it would have been a voluntary confession that they had no power to remedy
1 The authorities consulted, for Persian historical facts and dates, have been Nöldeke, Aufsätze xur persischen Geschichte; and A. von Gutschmid, Geschichte Irans und seiner Nachbarländer von Alexander dem Grossen bis eum Untergang der Arsaciden: edited by Nöldeke.
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