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MSS Avestan 21

Record Id:

032-003719698

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

032-003719698

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100110518277.0x000001

LARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100170849159.0x000001

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

MSS Avestan 21

Title:

Khordah Avesta

Scope & Content:

Khordah Avesta dated 10 Ardibihisht 1093 AY (1723).

Contents comprise: Introductory prayers; five Niyāyish; Āfarīns: Gāthā, Gahanbār, and Dahmān; five Gāhs; Yashts: Hōrmazd, Haft Amshāspand, Ardabahisht, 2 Srōsh, Hōm, Vanand, Bahrām; Bāj, Nīrangs, Avestan fragments and Sīrōzahs.

Copied in 2 hands, the second scribe (f. 89 onwards, Persian colophon, f. 277v) being Herbad Mihrnush Bahram Khvurshid called Sanjana descended from Neryosang Dhaval. It was copied at Navsari for Herbad Kaus son of Jamshid called Kotvala, whose name has been crossed out with Rustam son of Homji ibn Pishotan inserted above.

According to notes in English and Gujarati (f. 1r), the manuscript, referred to as Farokhshi (although it does not in fact contain Yasht 13), was copied by Dastur Darab Kumana.

Former nos.: Z&P XXI; L11 (Geldner); Guise 121.

Collection Area:

Oriental Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

India Office Library

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "032-003719698", "parent" : "#", "text" : "MSS Avestan 21: Khordah Avesta" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-003719698

Is part of:

not applicable

Hierarchy:

032-003719698

Container:

not applicable

Record Type (Level):

Fonds

Extent:

Codex; ff. 277+i

Digitised Content:

http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100170849159.0x000001 (digital images currently unavailable)

Thumbnail:

Languages:

Avestan
Gujarati
Persian

Scripts:

Arabic
Avestan
Gujarati

Start Date:

1723

End Date:

1723

Date Range:

1723

Era:

Place of Origin:

Navsari, India, dated Aban (10th day) of the month Ardibihisht, 1093 AY (1723).

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Material: locally made paper.

Dimensions: 217 x 122 mm.

Foliation: ff. 277+iii numbered in Gujarati. Ff. 1-80 have rubrics in upturned Gujarati script in red; ff.82-229 rubrics in Persian in Avestan script; ff.230-77 rubrics in an upturned Gujarati script in black.

Layout: 13 lines per page; catch words.

Script: Avestan script with rubrics in upturned Gujarati and Persian in Avestan script with Arabic script colophon.

Copyist: scribe a: ff. 1-88, scribe b, Herbad Mihrnush Bahram Khvurshid, ff. 89-277.

Ink: black; verse dividers and headings are in red.

Binding: leather islamic binding, without flap; gilt central polychrome stamped medallion, pendants, four corners and ruled borders. Stamped decorated pastedowns. Fragment from 19th century binding preserved (f. ii).

Condition: Good condition.

Marginalia: catchwords.

Custodial History:

Acquired by Samuel Guise (1751-1811), Head Surgeon at the East-India Company’s Factory in Surat 1788-1795.

Source of Acquisition:

Purchased by the East India Company at Leigh and Sotheby’s auction house, London, 3 July 1812.

Finding Aids:

M.N. Dhalla, “Iranian manuscripts in the Library of the India Office,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1912), p. 395.

Publications:

Samuel Guise. A Catalogue and Detailed Account of a Very Valuable and Curious Collection of Manuscripts, Collected in Hindostan. By Samuel Guise Esq. Late Head Surgeon to the General Hospital at Surat: Including All Those That Were Procured by Monsieur Anquetil du Perron, Relative to the Religion and History of the Parsis, and Many Which He Could Not Procure (London: Printed by John Nichols, 1800).

U. Sims-Williams, “Zoroastrian Manuscripts in the British Library, London,” in The Transmission of the Avesta, edited by A. Cantera (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2012), pp. 173-94.

U. Sims-Williams, “The Strange Story of Samuel Guise: An 18th-Century Collection of Zoroastrian Manuscripts,” Bulletin of the Asia Institute. New series, v. 19 (2005 [2009]), pp. 199-209.

J.M. Unvala, Collection of Colophons of Manuscripts Bearing on Zoroastrianism in Some Libraries of Europe (Bombay: Parsi Punchayet, 1940), p. 96.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)