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 1929

INTRODUCTION.
xxxix
Behistên: Hakhamanis Avesta: Kavi Kavata Kaispis
Kava Usa Ariyârâmaa
Kava Husrava Arshama
Aurvadaspa Vistâspa
Kava Viståspal : Unless it can be shown that these two series of names have the same meaning in two different languages, there seems little chance of proving the identity of the two dynasties. We may, however, quote the instances of the high-priest Åtūrpåd=Âtare-pâta and his son Zaratûst= Zarathustra being called Råstare-vaghent and Avarethrabau, respectively, in the Avesta (see § 64); but these
latter names seem more like titles than translations. • 71. The date of Zoroaster and his religion has formerly
been fully discussed by Windischmann” and others, and the question has been lately re-examined by Williams Jackson : He divides the ancient statements, that have been made on the subject, into three classes : those which declare that Zaratûst lived before B.C. 6000, those which associate his name with Ninus and Semiramis, and the native tradition which, as we have seen, places his life in the period B.C. 660-583. Singularly enough, the oldest writers, those who lived only two to four centuries after the traditional period of the lifetime of Zaratûst, are those who report that he lived some 6000 years before that period. Pliny the Elder (Nat. Hist. XXX, 2) quotes Eudoxus (B.C. 368) as stating that Zaratûst existed 6oco years before the death of Plato, that is, B.C. 6347, which is also confirmed by Aristotle. And he quotes Hermippus (about B.C. 250) as placing him 5000 years before the Trojan war, that is, B.C. 6184. A third mode of describing this period
1 These were the reigning sovereigns, but the last two are descended from a collateral branch, and their actual pedigree is as follows:-Kavi Kavâta, Kavi Aipivanghu, Kavi Pisanangh, Manus, Uzava, Aurvadaspa, Kava Vistâspa (Bd. XXXI, 28, 29).
? Zoroastrische Studien, von Fr. Windischmann, edited by Spiegel, 1863; Pp. 121-165, 260-313.
s on the date of Zoroaster, by A. V. Williams Jackson; Journal of American Oriental Society, vol. xvii, pp. 1-22.
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