Professor Rasx’s Remarks on the Zend Language. 539 
old religion was disregarded by the Parthian kings, and ArpesHir Basacan 
is famous for his zealous endeavours to restore religion and literature, I 
think it not improbable they may have been made during his reign, about 
230 years A.C.; afterwards the Pah/avi even fell into disuse, until it was 
at last publicly prohibited by an order of the king: consequently, the text 
must have existed at the time mentioned, and it must have been considerably 
older, because it was grown so obscure and unintelligible as to require a 
translation, and the names of beings to be venerated or combated became 
so obsolete and corrupted, as to lose the signification they originally 
conveyed ; nay, it is evident that the translators in many places did not 
understand the old text properly, but substituted some folly of their own in 
the place of its very simple injunctions. I shall only venture to quote one 
signal instance. In the fourth chapter or Fargard of the Vendidad, there 
are mentioned several crimes to be expiated by certain fines; again, the 
same crimes are enumerated and a corporal punishment determined for 
each, I imagine in case of want of money to pay the fine; but instead of 
this, the Pahlavi translator speaks of years to be passed in hell! The text 
cannot, then, have been produced during the dark Ashkanian period; and 
during the reign of ALexanper and his successors it is much less likely; nor 
is there, to my knowledge, any hint in history or tradition, which might 
lead to the suspicion that the Zendavesta was forged in this whole period. 
We are then here arrived at the times before ALEXANDER, at the very 
dynasty under which Zoroaster is said to have flourished. Farther than 
this, I by no means pretend to go, nor to determine exactly when ZoroasTER 
lived. I do not despair, however, that some interesting historical facts, or 
hints at least, may still be discovered in the Vistagp-yesht, of which I have 
a very fine copy in Zend, perhaps even in the other Zend books, when they 
shall be scrutinized and published by some sober critic who understands the 
text, which was not the case with AnqueTiL pu Perron. I am equally far 
from pretending that all the Zend fragments we now have are the genuine 
works of Zoroaster himself, but only that they were all of them composed 
before ALEXANDER or immediately after his conquest. ‘Till that event, I 
imagine the Zend was still a living language, and some prayers, liturgical 
forms, &c., might easily be composed by the priests long after the prophet 
was deceased; but after the conquest, a great confusion took place: the 
old language was lost, the religion neglected, the sacred text was to be 
Vor. III. 4A 
