walls of temples in Persepolis, and engraven on various
monuments of the ancient Persian and Median empire.
These are sources from which some. information may he obtained
important to my present inquiry. I shall begin with
some account of the language of the Zendavesta.
Zend is the name given to the idiom in which-the original
texts of the Zendavesta are written, though it ismot certain,
as M. E. Burnouf has remarked, that this term properly
belongs to the language of those ancient compositions,^
The Zendavesta is a part of the old sacred scriptures of the
Magi, commonly attributed to Zoroaster and preserved by
the fire worshippers of Persia at the time when they were
driven out of the country by the armies of the Caliphs.
The exiles were principally priests and persons * ©f» the
higher class, who adhered to their ancient superstition,
while the mass of the people embraced Isl&m. They took
refuge in the eastern borders of Persia, where they were
called Guebres; while others, who went towardsTndia, and
settled in Gnzerat and Surat, had the name of Parsees.
The scriptures of The Parsees were little known to. Europeans,^
till the enterprising Anquetil Du Perron procured
several manuscripts of them in Guzerat, and made a translation
of their contents, by the aid of the Mebeds, or Parsi
priests, which he published in Paris, in 1771, in three
quarto volumes. The genuineness and real antiquity of
this work were for some time a matter of controversy; but
since the investigation of Professor Rask, who travelled into
the East partly with that object, and since the attention of
* Burnouf, Commentaire sur le Yaçna.—Avant-propos.
f Our learned countryman, Hyde, mentions the Zendavesta; and he had
among his manuscripts parts Of it, as the Izeschn6 or Yaqua, and the N6aeschs;
and one of his manuscripts contained the Zend alphabet. The Vendidad Sadd,
containing the Vendidad, the Izeschne^ and the Vispered, which are the principal
parts of the Zendavesta, was procured by Geo. Bouchier, an Englishman,
at Surat, and brought to England in 1723. In 1754, Anquetil du Perron saw at
Paris, four leaves of the Vendidad, copied from the Vendidad Bade, at Oxford,
and he resolved to go in search of the work.
Hyde, in his account of the ancient languages of Persia^ seems to have
depended much on the Farhang Jehangiri,
M. Burnoufjtnd others have been devoted to the inquiry,
few persdps have entertained atty doubt upon the subject.
The writer last mentioned has given the best account of the
Zendavesta, and he has already published a critical and
learned (commentary bn a part of one of the books,- of which
the compilation consists1^ 'I t appears that the Zend (that is
thu original text),j is; in. at very .ancient dialect, which had
long been unintelligible:, to'/the Parsees, and even to their
Mobeds, or priests. ,<At a remote, but unknown period, the
meaning of this text had been transferred irtto a versidn
and commentary in æ languageTif later date, and probably at
that time a living dialect ; : This last is the Pehlvi language.
It is much doubted whether . even this version and commentary
are now fully comprehended by the Parsees; yet
it was from them, with the'aid of the Mobeds, that Anquetil
du Perron made his French- version. * This version is, at
best, neither an- exact representation of the Original Zend
text, nor óf- the Pehlvi translation. Different parts of the
texts halve* been retranslated of late, particularly? the Yaçna,
which is now in the probes^ of publication, By M. E. Burnout.
For effecting such a correction, until Tgrelfy, there
appeared to be no adequate- means ; V INfotbih'g was known in
: The.'Zend language except1 the ivorks translated by Anquétil
du Perron and a short vocabulary of Zend and Pehlvi words
appended to the publicaTieéV The principal resouKee which
has enabled M. Burnouf to correct the version ofth'èYaçna,
I is aTranslation intÖ Sanskrit made-about three hundred years
ago; by a Parsi Mobed, named Neriosengh,. at Bombay. It
was made from the Pehlvi’version ; but such is the affinity of
the Zend and Sanskrit languages, that- an acquaintance with
the latter has enabled M. Burnouf to undertake a restoration
of the original Zend Bxt; anSJjf we may uAeTheh^pres-
sion, Resuscitate a language which^had beenf a dead one, in
the full sense of the term-; that is, an idiom which no human
being had understood for many centuries.
The recognition of the Zend language bas already led to
further results, which are very important in their bearing
upon the history of the Persian race. In the first place, it
has greatly facilitated the steps which have been gained to