Sacred Laws of Aryas

SR No.: 007687
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Gorge Buhler
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1897
Total Pages: 1979
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 36 MB

Page 1235

260
SHẦYAST LÂ-SHAYAST.
warrior, and a husbandman are no use, for merely a dog is stated. 57. Kashtano-bagêd i said the account is at the time when its life departs; and that which Kůshtano būgéd specially said is, 'when anything is inside it (the place) the pollution is as far as to the place where that thing stands.' 58. When a dog, or a goat, or a pig is requisite (darvai)it is proper, for the pollution does not attack further there ; and the pollution of a child in the womb is along with the mother.
59. The direct pollution of a hedgehog : cleaves to one, and not the indirect pollution. 60. Direct pollution (hamrêd) is that when the body is in contact with a corpse, and indirect pollution (pait
See Chap. I, 4, note. This name is nearly always written Kushtano-bûged in Sls. in K20 and M6; it is not mentioned in Pahl. Vend. V, 107, although the details here quoted are there given in part.
The meaning is not quite clear, but this sentence is probably to be read in connection with the preceding one, as implying that where such domestic animals are kept they can be used for stopping the infection, as effectually as any inanimate object. The pig is here mentioned as a common domestic animal, but Parsis have long since adopted the prejudices of Hindus and Muhammadans as regards the uncleanness of the pig.
As Vend. V, 108-112 says the same of the dog urupi, it would seem that the writer of our text considered the urupi to be a hedgehog (zazak); the Pahlavi translation of the Vendidad renders it by rapuk or rîpak, which appears to be merely an approximate transcript of the Avesta word; traditionally, this is read raspûk and compared with Pers. rasa, 'ichneumon;' its identification with the hedgehog is certainly doubtful, although it appears to be admitted in Pahl. Vend. V, 112, where the same words are used as in this section.
• The technical terms hamred and paîtrêd, for contagion and infection, are merely corruptions of Av. hãm-raethwayêiti and paiti-raethwayêiti. The definition of the latter one is omitted in K20 by mistake.
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