the language of the de'cyphered inscriptions were preceding
the Zend, it might he conjldtured, that this series
of characters represent this words of the ancient sacred
language of Persia, and that the two undecyphered ones
which follow, contain its éxplanatiön in the popular
idiom; hut there is difference encBih between the dialects
of the former and thé Zend to disprove thatrsiippositiOn.
The idiom of thécuneiform letters is but a cdgnftfe “dialect
of the sacred language, and the information derived by
M. Burnouf from these researches is, that thè Zend was
the old vernacular language of the northern provinces of
Ariana; and that the Persèpolitàh decyphered inscriptions
precede the popular ' language of southern
nr the principal idiom known in the greaFcàpitaf of the
Achæmenidæ.
Paragraph 6.—General results of researches regarding the
Languages of ancient Iran.
The results of these researches into the remarni of
antiquity in Persia, and a comparison o f‘ thé dialéet- in
which the dëcypheréd'parts of thé cuneiform^ih^ibtmpS
are composed, with the idiom of the ZendaVesta, afford
data which illustrate thé history of the Arian Taee ! ’
The Medes and Persians, the people of Sogdiana, Ba'ctria,
and the Ariana of ancient geographers, had, as we have
reason to believe, one language, a language which differed
only in dialect in the différent provinces of the extensive
empire over which it was spread. The people termed
themselves, as we learn from Herodotus, Arii. In the
remains of the Zoroastrian writings, which contain the
oldest traditions of the race, all these nations are considered
as one people, the people of Ormuzd ; and the
people, as well as the country, bear, in the Zendavesta,
the designation“ of Aria, or of Eeriene, the primitive
seat of the Arian race.
languages of the Carmanians, Persians, and Medes, than are the words used by
the translators of Strabo. “ Nearehus asserit, Carmanitarum mores ac sermonem
magna ex parte Persarum essé ac Médorum æmuIos.,, The'“ magna ex parte”
relates only to the manners.
It may be worth while to observe, that this name affords
an additional illustration of the original affinity of the
Indian and Persian racey.. Among the Hindoos arya
designates the. “ Men, of the.-people,” or the third and
mostjiiiume,rous clagfe of the Indian community*? including
husbandmen and .-traders,v termed, also, Vaisyas, while
Âryayarta is the land o%the Brahmans^ This community
:0f names is perhaps a „relics oh that ancient time which
‘separated, as M. Burnouf expresses himself, the Arian
.people into two great branches?,1 of which one remained in
Tfactrian, Aria, and the ofhel boughtrthe Aria of the Brahmans.
The ZendaWe^abmakès a distinction of the “ New
Meii$ opposed Men of,the first law |g the former
vpere contemporary with^thè writing pr. compiling of the
Zendavesta. “ These men of the First Law, the famous Rish-
dadiaUs, so celebrated in the fables of the Persians, were
the-, cbfcnmqn ancestors Of- the' Ariana*,off Bactria, and the
subjects!of the Brahmans.^ Aria.,- or Iran, is in the Magian
books t e rm e d Eerïené Veédjô,” the- pure or| sacred Iran.
From tliis land,, created by Örmuzd td ;>ne the cradle of
the AHan family ,- the-’an<fient traditions' of the Zend scrip-
|.tures, trahe, as we shall find;- thq? subsequent migrations
of the sacred people.
' I haveurlready ^adverted to the languages of the Magian
bdokë’ ds affording evidence to the ancient dialects; of the
face whom they oelöhgèd. In the next section I propose
R ^ o n s id e rf whédÈe^anyraih^mrther1' can be collected
fffipm the substànéç of thesëhnciêht scriptures,.-of ff om the
parts of them still extant, that is. fitted-to throw * further■
light on the history -of Iran, and the origin and early coh-
dition of the Arian people. In the presentsëction I confine
myself to the évidence which is obtained 'from languages,
ancient and modern, and from inscriptions.- w
The iM e è , the^ferÿans/ahd the Bactrians, yho spokë,
1 have said, cognate dialedfs'.'bf" one language, and were
long united under one monarchy, were one óf the ancient
and principal branches of the Indo-European family* Two,
as'firêeems, of the dialects of this language arë more or lees
known, namely, the Zend, preserved in the Zendavesta ;
. VOL. iv. E*