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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2022
The Jāmāspi is one of the most popular Zoroastrian texts. It was probably conceived as a kind of encyclopedia for laymen. At the beginning of the last century, it was still well-known among the Zoroastrian community of India and has reached us through various manuscript traditions: Pahlavi, Pāzand and Pārsi. A philological analysis of all the manuscript traditions suggests that there was a Pahlavi archetype of the text. Moreover, it shows clearly that the Pārsi codex M52, which represents the best preserved tradition, was the result of a collation of all the existing Pahlavi and Pāzand materials. The study of the language and the narrative pattern allows us to consider the Pārsi transcription as a mechanical transcription from a Pāzand model.
The Jāmāspi was the subject of my PhD dissertation, consisting of a new philological edition, according to all the manuscript traditions (especially to the Pārsi tradition which, as noted below, is the best preserved and most complete).
2 Modi, Jivanji Jamshedji, ed. and trans., Jâmâspi: Pahlavi, Pâzend and Persian Texts (Bombay, 1903), xl,Google Scholar says: “of all the Pahlavi books known at present, no book has been so well-known by the name, among the Parsis, as the Jâmâspi.”
3 Modi, Jâmâspi, xli, summarizes this phenomenon clearly: “the Gujarati Jâmâspi has out grown its original limit by the addition of some kinds of prognostications or forebodings, rightly or wrongly connected with the name of Jâmâsp. I have come across several Gujarati manuscripts known as Jâmâspi, and have found, on comparison, that no two books are alike in matter of style and subject. Each subsequent writer or copyist adds what best suits his fancy.”
4 On this pattern of transmission of narrative apocalyptic material, see Hultgård, Anders, “Forms and Origins of Iranian Apocalypticism,” Apocalypticism in the Mediterranean World and the Near East: Proceedings of the International Colloquium on Apocalypticism, Uppsala, August 12–17, 1979 (Tübingen, 1983), 390.Google Scholar
5 On this word of Parthian origin, see the interesting study by Szemerényi, Oswald, “Iranica V,” Monumentum H. S. Nyberg (Leuven, 1975), 2: 360–67, 375, 391.Google Scholar
6 See Monchi-Zadeh, Davoud, Die Geschichte Zarer's (Uppsala, 1981), 18, 33, 43,Google Scholar and Pagliaro, Antonino, ed. and trans., “Il testo pahlavico Ayātkār-i-Zarērān,” Rendiconti della classe di scienze morali, storiche e filologiche della Accademia nazionale dei Lincei, 1 (1925): 569–70.Google Scholar
7 See Boyce, M., “Ayādgār ī Jāmāspīg,” Encyclopaedia Iranica, 3: 127.Google Scholar
8 See Madan, Dhanjishah Meherjibhai, ed., The Complete Text of the Pahlavi Dinkart (Bombay, 1911), 1: 412, lines 5–11.Google Scholar
9 See Cereti, Carlo G., ed. and trans., The Zand ī Wahman Yasn: A Zoroastrian Apocalypse (Rome, 1995), 135, 152.Google Scholar
10 West, Edward W., “Pahlavi Literature,” Grundriss der iranischen Philologie (Strassburg, 1896–1904), ii: 110Google Scholar suggests: “This treatise may possibly have been written by some priest named Dshāmāsp, and was therefore called Dshāmāspī.”
11 I am very grateful to the Staatsbibliothek of Munich for allowing me to consult codex M52 (Cod. Zend 52) and to the Meherjirana Library of Navsari for allowing me to consult codex RJ and all the codices belonging to Dastūr Erachji Sohrabji Mehrjirana's collection.
12 For a description of this manuscript see Bartholomae, Christian, Die Zendhandschriften der K. Hof- und Staatsbibliothek in München (Munich, 1915), 84–85,Google Scholar and Unvala, Jamshedji Maneckji, Collection of Colophons of Manuscripts Bearing on Zoroastrianism in Some Libraries of Europe (Bombay, 1940), 63–64.Google Scholar
13 See Modi, Jivanji Jamshedji, The Parsees at the Court of Akbar and Dastur Meherjee Rânâ (Bombay, 1903).Google Scholar
14 See Modi, Jâmâspi, xxvii, and Dhabhar, Ervad Bamanji Nasarvanji, Descriptive Catalogue of All Manuscripts in the First Dastur Meherji Rana Library (Bombay, 1925), 113.Google Scholar
15 See Dhabhar, Descriptive Catalogue, 6. This is the name that I gave to this codex during my edition of the book.
16 See West, “Pahlavi Literature,” 110.
17 See West, Edward W., ed., “The Pahlavi Jamasp-Nāmak,” Avesta, Pahlavi and Ancient Persian Studies in Honour of the Late Shams-Ul-Ulama Dastur Peshotanji Behramji Sanjana, M.A., Ph.D. (Strassburg, 1904), 97–116.Google Scholar
18 See West, “The Pahlavi Jamasp-Nāmak,” 97n1.
19 See Dhabhar, Descriptive Catalogue, 11. This manuscript is the basis of my new edition of Pahlavi's chapter sixteen, or Jāmāsp-Nāmag.
20 For more information about these codices, see Modi, Jâmâspi, xxv–xxvii. With regard to the uncertain location of these codices I am sincerely grateful to Dastur Firoze Kotwal, from whom I received the following message in an email message on October 6, 2007: “Please note that the mss. MU1, 2, 3, 4 and DP have disappeared at places nobody knows where. Dr. J. M. Unvala inherited his father's mss. MU1, 2, 3 and 4 and might be housed in his home in Navsari. I have heard that a bookseller from Ahmedabad approached Dr. Unvala's sister and took the bulk away. The rest were gifted to the Meherji Rana Library which were not catalogued in print. If you are lucky, you may find one or two among the gifted lot … The same is true about the ms. DP.”
21 See Henning, Walter Bruno, “Mitteliranisch,” in Iranistik (Leiden, 1958), 72.Google Scholar
22 One of the most accurate definitions of Pāzand was given by Lazard, Gilbert, “Pehlevi, Pazend et Persan,” in La formation de la langue persane (Paris, 1995), 139:Google Scholar “La tradition de lecture du pehlevi conformément à la prononciation du persan méridional a été naturellement conservée par les zoroastriens qui émigrèrent en Inde et s'y établirent. Elle s'est perpétuée chez leurs descendants et c'est sur elle que s'est fonde la transcription en écriture avestique quand ils ont ressenti le besoin de ce secours.” See also Jong, Albert de, “Pazand and ‘retranscribed’ Pahlavi: On the Philology and History of the Late Zoroastrian Literature,” Persian Origins: Early Judaeo-Persian and the Emergence of New Persian: Collected Papers of the Symposium, Göttingen 1999, ed. Paul, Ludwig (Göttingen, 2003), 67–77,Google Scholar an interesting and original study of Pāzand script and language dealing with the origin of its name, its form, its developments and patterns in relation to the Indian linguistic milieu where it was invented and used.
23 See West, “The Pahlavi Jamasp-Nāmak,” 97.
24 See Benveniste, Émile, ed. and trans., “Une apocalypse pehlevie: le Žāmasp-nāmak,” Revue de l'histoire des religions, 106 (1932): 340.Google Scholar
25 See Modi, Jâmâspi.
26 See West, “The Pahlavi Jamasp-Nāmak.”
27 See Messina, Giuseppe, ed. and trans., Libro apocalittico persiano: Ayātkār ī Žāmāspīk (Roma, 1939).Google Scholar
28 Messina included in his edition Markwart's unpublished writings preserved in the library of Pontificio Instituto Biblico of Rome regarding the translation of some Pārsi passages of the book (see Messina, Libro apocalittico persiano, 20–25). Pagliaro, Antonino, in Rivista degli studi orientali, 22 (1947): 147–54,Google Scholar published a review of Messina's edition, in which he corrected some mistakes and provided new readings of passages and words whose transcription and the translation were unreliable.
29 See Bailey, H. W., “Iranian Studies,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, 6 (1930–32): 945–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
30 See Benveniste, “Une apocalypse pehlevie,” 337–80.
31 See Benveniste, “Une apocalypse pehlevie,” 341.
32 Similarly, Gignoux, Philippe, “Apocalypses et voyages extra-terrestres dans l'Iran mazdéen,” Apocalypses et voyages dans l'au-delà (Paris, 1987), 352Google Scholar, claims: “cet essai de retrouver la métrique du texte a pour conséquence de mutiler parfois certains passages, il demeure arbitraire et même gênant pour l'historien des religions.” Utas, Bo, “On the Composition of the Ayyātkār ī Zarērān,” Monumentum H. S. Nyberg (Leuven, 1975), 2: 409–10Google Scholar agrees with Benveniste's suggestion and adds: “The text is obviously adapted from an original in verse. This is valid for chapter XVI, as argued by Benveniste, but it may also be so for other parts of the work, although it is difficult to establish the actual verse lines on the basis of the often quite confused secondary material in Pazand and Parsi.”
33 See Monchi-Zadeh, Die Geschichte Zarer's, 18, 33, 43, or Pagliaro, “Il testo pahlavico,” 569–70.
34 See Messina, Libro apocalittico persiano, 12.
35 See Menasce, Jean de, ed. and trans., Škand gumānīk vičār: La solution décisive des doutes; Une apologétique mazdéenne du IXe siècle (Fribourg, 1945).Google Scholar
36 See Modi, Jivanji Jamshedji trans., “Translation of a Passage in the Jamaspi or Jamasp-Nameh Relating to Plague and Famine,” The K. R. Cama Memorial Volume: Essays on Iranian Subjects Written by Various Scholars in Honour of Mr. Kharshedji Rustamji Cama, ed. Modi, Jivanji Jamshedji (Bombay, 1900), 233.Google Scholar
