Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 18.djvu/22

xvii portion of the additional matter at the beginning of BK has been prefixed to it at a later date. The oldest portion of this copy, extending to Ep. I, vii, 4, bears a date corresponding to 21st December 1818; the date of a further portion, extending to Ep. II, vi, a, corresponds to 12th February 1841; and a third portion copied from BK, at the beginning of the manuscript, is still more recent.

Another copy of this codex, or of the Dâdistân-î Dînîk contained in it, exists in the library of the high-priest of the Parsis in Bombay ; and from this copy the text of the Dâdistân-î Dînîk contained in M 14 was transcribed.

This latter manuscript consists of two volumes, written in 1865 and 1868, respectively; the first volume containing Chaps. I, I-XXXVII, 9, and the second volume Chaps. XXXVI, I-XCIV, 15 of the altered text of the Dâdistân-î Dînîk.

Other copies of the Dâdistîn-î Dînîk, which have not been examined, are to be found in India, but, unless descended from other manuscripts than K35 and the above-mentioned codex recently belonging to Mr. Dhanjibhâi Frâmji, they would be of no further use for settling the text.

Of the manuscripts above described the following have been available for the translations in this volume:— K35 for the whole of the Dâdiistân-î Dînîk and the Epistles ; M14 for the whole of the Dâdistân-î Dînîk alone ; BK for Dd. I, I-VI, 3, X, 2-XIV, 3 , LXXXVIII, 9-XCIV, 15, the whole of the Epistles, the legend about the soul of Kere- sâsp (see pp. 373-381), and the extracts from the Pahlavi Riviyât in these codices relating to Khvêtûk-das (see pp. 415-423); and J for Dd. I, i-XXXIX, 10 ; LXXXVIII, 9- LXXXIX, 1, XCI, 7-XCIV, 15, Ep. I, 1, i-II, IX, 7 the