Some Parthian abecedarian hymns

Mary Boyce

doi:10.1017/S0041977X0008842X

Some Parthian abecedarian hymns

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 December 2009

Mary Boyce

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A convention existed among Manichæan copyists whereby most Parthian poetry was written as prose, the verses being separated only by some device of punctuation. The method saved a considerable amount of paper. Yet there are texts set out as poetry, in separate lines with a space between verses. The two great hymn-cycles, Huwīdagmān and Angad Rōšnan, are invariably presented in this way. These exist in the fragments of thirty-odd MSS. of very varied character; it is evident, therefore, that in their case the manner of presentation did not depend on individual taste or means, but was regarded as proper to the texts themselves.

Type: Articles
Information: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 14 , Issue 3 , October 1952 , pp. 435 - 450

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X0008842X [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1952

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^{page 435 note 1} See Henning, , BSOAS., XI, 216–17Google Scholar. An edition of these texts is now ready for the press. It is referred to here as Hymn-cycles.

^{page 435 note 2} There is one exception, M 625 b; but even in this fragment the text is written not continuously but in interspaced groups of three lines.

^{page 435 note 3} In the hymn-cycles some fragments have the p, others containing the same verses do not.

^{page 435 note 4} The first hymn in C below is an exception, as is that in K.

^{page 435 note 5} These unpublished fragments will be included in a new edition of Parthian texts now in preparation.

^{page 435 note 6} See BSOAS., xiii, 911–14Google Scholar. Prof. Henning has since found parts of w. 2–4 and 11–13 of this text preserved also in TI D51 (5 p.) d. The only important variant is in 3b: ]d o prmydyd [sic] k(w b)[. prmydyd, unless copyist's mistake for prm'yd, is possibly for *prmyryd, cf. Pers, M.. prmwrd (ZII., ix, p. 193²⁶)Google Scholar which accordingly should be transcribed parmurd (H.).

^{page 436 note 1} E.g. D and G b below.

^{page 436 note 2} E.g. B below.

^{page 436 note 3} Some fragments written strophically lack initial words. It cannot then be seen whether they are from alphabetic texts or not.

^{page 437 note 1} It seems more likely that a verse has been torn from the top of the page (i.e. from the beginning of M 173) rather than from the bottom of the page (i.e. from the end of M 94). Müller described M 173 as the upper half of a sheet, presumably because the verso has a blank space at its head. It is now clear that this space only marks a division between hymns. It is not found on the recto.

^{page 437 note 2} Salemann, to whom only two verses of the second hymn were available, took these verses to be symmetrical couplets, each with 4 + 8 syllables to the line. Such uniformity is foreign to Parthian verse, and would in fact be broken by the latter part of the second line of the b verse (25 b below) which has nine syllables. The division into couplets runs counter both to the sense and to the punctuation.

^{page 437 note 3} See Plate 4.

^{page 439 note 1} Cf. Av. namravak-, etc. (H.).

^{page 439 note 2} This translation of the first lines in 16 was suggested by H.

^{page 440 note 1} I.e. the redeemed Light.

^{page 440 note 2} The word k'w is freely used both of gods and of demons (see Henning, , BSOAS., xi, 53)Google Scholar, but has not been recorded for the Last God (in Pa. yzd 'stwmyn). The reading here is doubtful.

^{page 440 note 3} I.e. the First Man, lord of the New Paradise.

^{page 440 note 4} Cf. Mir. Man., iii, a 79–81Google Scholar; for wystmbg see Henning, in Hymn-cyclesGoogle Scholar, glossary s.v.

^{page 440 note 5} Cf. Rev., 22, 13Google Scholar (Müller, , U.R., ii, 8 n. 1).Google Scholar

^{page 440 note 6} See Henning, , NGGW., 1933, 310–11.Google Scholar

^{page 440 note 7} Cf. Mir. Man., iii, a 110–17.Google Scholar

^{page 440 note 8} Cf. ibid., a 139–143; and for p'dgyrb 'rg'w in a similar connexion cf. T II D 66 R. 4–5 (W.-L., ii, 549).

^{page 440 note 9} Cf. Mir. Man., iii, a 124–3.Google Scholar

^{page 440 note 10} The pair dwšmyn … q'w presumably represent the same conception as the more familiar ''z … 'hrmyn.

^{page 441 note 1} For other descriptions of the demon see Keph., vi, xxvii.Google Scholar

^{page 441 note 2} H.'s annotation; with b'zur ‘wing’ he compares Orm. bazar, Oss. bazur, Pashto wazar, cf. Morgenstierne, , Et. Voc. of Pashto, 95.Google Scholar

^{page 441 note 3} 'bdyn here means ‘in the manner of, as’ (H.); for other usages of the word see his article, Trans. Phil. Soc., 1944, 110–11.Google Scholar

^{page 441 note 4} sn'cyd ‘swims’ (H.); cf. his Sogdica 34Google Scholar, on f 18.

^{page 441 note 5} Cf. Pers. parak-i māhī.

^{page 441 note 6} Cf. M. Pers., Sogd. xyz- (see Henning, , BBB., 61, n. to 512)Google Scholar. Parthian xz- (not previously recorded) accords with Pers. xazīdan.

^{page 442 note 1} The last two lines of 4 are obscure, and the translation is doubtful.

^{page 442 note 2} In the Kephalaia passage which corresponds with v. 3 the demon is described as moving like the creatures of all five dark Elements (Keph., 783–10)Google Scholar. Here the first two Elements are omitted, but introduced in a more general way in vv. 4 and 5. jhryn x'ns'r would ordinarily suggest the dark element corresponding with Water (see Henning, , NGGW., 1932, 216 n. 5)Google Scholar, but, linked with nyzm'n, it evidently represents Smoke, corresponding with Ether. Some allowance must be made for the demands of an alphabetic scheme.

^{page 442 note 3} For cyl'n see Henning, , Sogdica 36 on g 1–3.Google Scholar

^{page 442 note 4} nbdm(n) ‘couch’ (as from ni-pad- ‘lie down’) (H.).

^{page 442 note 5} With ‘styh’ g H. now compares Armenian stahak (from *sthak) ‘headstrong, insolent, petulant, insubordinate’.

^{page 442 note 6} For 'hrywr see Bailey, , BS0S., vii, 295–6Google Scholar; Henning, , Mir. Man., iiiGoogle Scholar, glossary s.v. Here the reference is to the five regions of Hell. Hell was divided against itself (see, e.g. Keph., 128^4–8)Google Scholar; the Prince ruled by fear (ibid., 32^23–6, 78^15–17) and at times his subjects attacked him (ibid., 78¹⁹).

^{page 442 note 7} 'm'n has not been recorded elsewhere.

^{page 442 note 8} jfr'n is probably a singular; see Henning, in Hymn-cyclesGoogle Scholar, glossary s.v.

^{page 442 note 9} See Polotsky, in Mani-Fund, 74–9.Google Scholar

^{page 443 note 1} I.e. the first four verses of the second hymn. Verse 5 was presumably followed by a blank space marking the end of the first hymn.

^{page 443 note 2} The Days and Nights represent both epochs (notably in Keph., xxxix)Google Scholar and individual manifestations of good and evil which characterize those epochs. As the latter they can act and suffer.

^{page 443 note 3} prwyd is considered by Henning to be the past participle of a verb prwy- ‘encompass’, which he connects with the following Sogdian forms: Chr. prwyd'rṯ, pt. (S.T., i, 19¹⁵)Google Scholar ‘surround’, Buddh. prw'(')y- pr.st. (SCE., 324)Google Scholar‘roll up’; (Frg., iii, 19)Google Scholar ‘wrap up’, etc.; and further Sogd. ptwy-, Wakhi zwãy-; see Gershevitch, , § 570Google Scholar. The meaning of c'gr he has established from M 468 a (unpub.) in which the word occurs several times with 'štyd in a phrase parallel with prwyyd ‘encompasses’. The following lines are an example: [r]wšn nys'gyn pydr 'whrmyzd bg m'nyyd pd (h)w m'nyst'n ql''n, prysp w'dyyn c'gr 'štyyd; šhrd'r'n dwxt wxd qnygrwšn pd hrdyg m'nyat'n m'nyyd, pry(s)[p] rwšn 'w hw prwyyd.

^{page 443 note 4} In Traité and Keph., xxxixGoogle Scholar, there are only Three Days and Two Nights, and this seems to agree with a version of Mani's own (see Chavannes-Pelliot, , Traité, 543, n. 1)Google Scholar; but in Keph., ivGoogle Scholar, there are Four Days and Four Nights.

^{page 446 note 1} I.e. the First Man.

^{page 446 note 2} hnd'm wyš'd, which could be freely rendered as ‘scattered (his) limbs’, may be taken as the converse of hnd'm 'mwšt (on which see Henning, , BSOAS., xi, 216, n. 10).Google Scholar

^{page 446 note 3} 'ndyšt is here to be taken as ‘tie’ < *handṛšta-; cf. Av. handarəzaya- (H.). It is therefore to be distinguished from (1) 'ndyšt ‘think’ (Ghilain, 90), (2) 'ndyšt ‘heap up’ (Henning, , Trans. Phil. Soc., 1944, 113).Google Scholar

^{page 446 note 4} Probably the Spiritus Vivens.

^{page 446 note 5} With Pa. 'yr H. now compares Arm. ir, and points out that the readings ēr and in Pera, M.. xēr, Sb.P.A.W., 1934, 30Google Scholar, n. 1, are wrong.

^{page 446 note 6} šybẖ occurs also in the hymn-cycles, where it was translated as ‘path’ by Henning; he points out that this is probably the correct reading in Mir. Man., iii, c 15 in place of šwbẖ; hence ‘to the Column of Glory, the path of the Light’.

^{page 447 note 1} Apparently there was no space left blank between the two hymns. This may have been due to the last verse of the first hymn (v. 5 here) coming at the bottom of a page.

^{page 447 note 2} zynjyhr = zyncyhr, for which see Henning, , BSOS., ix, 90Google Scholar; BSOAS., xi, 724Google Scholar; JRAS., 1942, 240, n. 1Google Scholar; Bailey, , BSOS., x, 596Google Scholar; according to H. from *zṛnčarī-, cf. Skt. śṛṅkhala- (with -kʿ against -kʿ in Iranian).

^{page 448 note 1} nkwš'd has not been recorded elsewhere.

^{page 448 note 2} I.e. Šaklon and his mate (H.).

^{page 448 note 3} For pysws see BSOAS., xiii, 910–14Google Scholar. Here the restoration is merely a guess.

^{page 448 note 4} See Henning, cited ibid., 913, n. 5.

^{page 449 note 1} rhg ‘vein’ (H., as = Sogd. r'kGoogle Scholar, Pers. rag.).Google Scholar

^{page 449 note 2} Cf. Ps. Bk., 84^31–2 ‘… my Mother, the holy Maiden …’Google Scholar

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