Dadestan-i Denig ('Religious Decisions')

Translated by E. W. West, from Sacred Books of the East, volume 24, Oxford University Press, 1880.

Concerning this text, Dastur Firoze M. Kotwal and James Boyd (in their 1982 book A Guide to the Zoroastrian Religion) write,

"a Pahlavi work of the ninth century A.C. which contains answers given by Dastur Manushchihr i Goshnajaman of Pars and Kerman, Iran, to 92 queries put to him by his co-religionists."

SOME chapters of the inquiries which Mitro-khurshed, son of Aturo-mahan, and others of the good religion made of the glorified (anoshako-ruban) Manushchihar, son of Yudan-Yim, and the replies given by him in explanation.

 

Chapter 1. Introductory

 

Chapter 2. Why a righteous man is better than all creatures, spiritual or worldly

 

Chapter 3. Why a righteous man is created, and how he should act

 

Chapter 4. Why a righteous man is great

 

Chapter 5. How temporal distress is to be regarded

 

Chapter 6. Why the good suffer more than the bad in this world

 

Chapter 7. Why we are created, and what we ought to do

 

Chapter 8. Whether good works done for the dead differ in effect from those ordered or done by themselves

 

Chapter 9. How far they differ

 

Chapter 10. The growth of good works during life

 

Chapter 11. Whether the growth of a good work be as commendable as the original good work

 

Chapter 12. Whether it eradicates sin equally well

 

Chapter 13. Whether one is made responsible for all his sins and good works separately at the last account, or only for their balance

 

Chapter 14. The angels who take account of sin and good works, and how sinners are punished

 

Chapter 15. The exposure of a corpse does not occasion the final departure of life, and is meritorious

 

Chapter 16. Whether the soul be aware of, or disturbed by, the corpse being gnawed

 

Chapter 17. Reasons for the exposure of corpses

 

Chapter 18. How the corpse and bones are to be disposed of

 

Chapter 19. Whether departed souls can see Ohrmazd and Ahriman

 

Chapter 20. Where the souls of the righteous and wicked go

 

Chapter 21. The Daitih peak, the Chinwad bridge, and the two paths of departed souls

 

Chapter 22. Whether the spirits are distressed when a righteous man dies

 

Chapter 23. How the life departs from the body

 

Chapter 24. Where a righteous soul stays for the first three nights after death, and what it does next

 

Chapter 25. Where a wicked soul stays for the first three nights after death, and what it does next

 

Chapter 26. The nature of heaven and its pleasures

 

Chapter 27. The nature of hell and its punishments

 

Chapter 28. Why ceremonies in honor of Srosh are performed for the three days after a death

 

Chapter 29. Why Srosh must be reverenced separately from other angels

 

Chapter 30. Why three sacred cakes are consecrated at dawn after the third night from a death

 

Chapter 31. How a righteous soul goes to heaven, and what it finds and does there

 

Chapter 32. How a wicked soul goes to hell, and what it finds and suffers there

 

Chapter 33. The position and subdivisions of hell

 

Chapter 34. The two ways from the Daitih peak; that of the righteous to heaven, and that of the wicked to hell

 

Chapter 35. The continuance of mankind in the world till the resurrection

 

Chapter 36. The preparers of the renovation of the universe

 

Chapter 37. The contest of the good and evil spirits from the creation till the resurrection, and the condition of creation after the resurrection, with references to Christianity and Judaism

 

Chapter 38. The effect of doing more good works than are necessary for attaining to the supreme heaven

 

Chapter 39. Reasons for wearing the sacred thread girdle [kusti]

 

Chapter 40. On the sacred shirt [sudra] and thread-girdle, grace before and after eating, and cleansing the mouth before the after-grace

 

Chapter 41. The sin of apostasy, and how to atone for it

 

Chapter 42. The good works of him who saves others from apostasy

 

Chapter 43. The distance at which the fire can be addressed, the use of a lamp, and the proper order of the propitiatory dedications, when consecrating a sacred cake [dron]

 

Chapter 44. Whether a skillful priest who is employed to perform ceremonies, but is not officially the priest of the district, should be paid a regular stipend

 

Chapter 45. The separate duties of priests and disciples

 

Chapter 46. When a priest can abandon the priesthood to obtain a livelihood

 

Chapter 47. Whether a priest who knows the Avesta, or one who understands the commentary, be more entitled to the foremost place at a sacred feast

 

Chapter 48. The advantage and proper mode of celebrating the ceremonial

 

Chapter 49. Whether it be lawful to buy corn and keep it long, so as to raise the price for the sake of profit

 

Chapter 50. Whether it be lawful to sell wine to foreigners and infidels

 

Chapter 51. The sin of drunkenness, and what constitutes immoderate drinking

 

Chapter 52. Whether a man who bargains to deliver wheat in a month, and takes a deposit, is bound to deliver the wheat if its market-price has risen enormously

 

Chapter 53. Whether it be lawful to sell cattle to those of a different religion

 

Chapter 54. Whether a man without a son can give away his property to one daughter on his death-bed; the laws of inheritance, and when an adopted son must be appointed, in such a case

 

Chapter 55. Whose duty it is to order the ceremonies after a death

 

Chapter 56. The laws of adoption and family-guardianship

 

Chapter 57. Those who are fit, or unfit, for adoption

 

Chapter 58. The three kinds of adoption

 

Chapter 59. The least amount of property that requites the appointment of an adopted son

 

Chapter 60. The sin of not appointing an adopted son, or of appointing a dishonest one

 

Chapter 61. The merit and demerit of family-guardianship

 

Chapter 62. The laws of inheritance

 

Chapter 63. Whether it be lawful to seize property from foreigners and infidels

 

Chapter 64. The origin of Gayomard, Mashye, and Mashyane

 

Chapter 65. The origin of next-of-kin marriage

 

Chapter 66. Regarding the cost of religious rites, and whether a priest's fees can be reduced when others will take less

 

Chapter 67. The cause of the rainbow

 

Chapter 68. The cause of the phases of the moon

 

Chapter 69. The cause of eclipses

 

Chapter 70. The causes of river-beds

 

Chapter 71. What things happen through destiny, and what through exertion

 

Chapter 72. The seven heinous sinners, and the necessity of avoiding him who commits unnatural intercourse

 

Chapter 73. Whether the stench of such intercourse reaches the sky

 

Chapter 74. Whether that stench disturbs the archangels

 

Chapter 75. Whether the angels raise such a sinner from the dead at the resurrection

 

Chapter 76. Whether it be a good work to kill such a sinner

 

Chapter 77. Why such intercourse is a heinous sin

 

Chapter 78. Why adultery is heinous, and how one can atone for it

 

Chapter 79. The sin of not repeating the full grace before drinking (when one is able to do so), and how one can atone for it

 

Chapter 80. Regarding him who does not order ceremonies

 

Chapter 81. About the ceremonies for the living soul

 

Chapter 82. About him who pays for ceremonies and him who takes the money without performing them

 

Chapter 83. Whether a priest must undertake all religious rites

 

Chapter 84. Whether gifts to the priesthood for ceremonies can be diminished or increased

 

Chapter 85. The advantages of increasing such gifts

 

Chapter 86. The harm of diminishing such gifts

 

Chapter 87. Why it is good to give such gifts

 

Chapter 88. About the cost of religious rites in Pars

 

Chapter 89. Whether when a man has once resolved to go into Pars, with gifts for the priesthood, it be lawful for him to send another man with the gifts

 

Chapter 90. The seven immortal rulers in the region of Khwaniras before the coming of the good religion

 

Chapter 91. The nature and material of the sky

 

Chapter 92. The course and benefit of the water of Aredvisur

 

Chapter 93. Tishtar's seizing of water from the ocean to rain it upon the earth, and his conflict with Apaosh

 

Chapter 94. Conclusion