Book Description

From the PREFACE. During my tour in Gujarat which was undertaken by order of the Government of Bombay in search of Zand, Pahlavi, Persian and Sanskrit MSS. in the cold season of 1863 to 64 in company of Destur Hoshengji, my attention was several times directed to an old Zand-Pahlavi vocabulary which goes by the name "Farhang i oim yak".) As I found it on examination to be very important, I proposed, after my return to Poona, to the late Director of Public Instruction, Edward I. Howard, Esq., to recommend to the Government the employment of Destur Hoshengji for the purpose of preparing an edition of this and another (Pahlavi-Pazand) glossary, along with a transliteration of the ambiguous Pahlavi characters in Roman letters, and an English translation. The liberal Government of Sir Bartle Frere which always extended its patronage to publications relating to oriental literature, acceded as readily to the Director's recommendation to sanction my proposal as he had recommended it. Destur Hoshengji, a young Parsi scholar of great ability who possesses an excellent knowledge of several languages, principally of Pahlavi and Persian, and of the whole traditional literature (he is the younger brother of Destur Nassarwanji Jamaspji, High-priest of the Parsis in the Dekhan, and was at that time officiating as High-priest in Malwa), accepted the appointment and came forthwith to Poona to commence his labours under ray superintendence. He prepared the works in question during the year 1865. Shortly before leaving India (in March 1866) I was requested by the Government through the present Director of Public Instruction, Sir A. Grant, Bart., who shows the same favour to publications of this kind as his predecessor, to revise and print in Europe the two glossaries which had been prepared by the Destur. As Zand and Pahlavi type were requisite, which are in Germany only to be had at the Imperial printing office at Vienna (the Zand type of Berlin is very bad, and Pahlavi they have none there), I found it necessary to purchase (on my account) a fount of both from Vienna to avoid, on future occasions, the trouble and vexation one is put to when printing oriental works in characters which are only to be bad in one or two establishments on the whole continent. The Vienna Zand type is, no doubt, the finest in existence; but as regards its Pahlavi type, the fount is neither complete, nor are all the characters correct. Several compound letters in which the Pahlavi writing abounds, are wanting. I hope, on a future occasion, to supply the defects of the fount by having the wanting signs cut. The characters of lapidary Pahlavi which are occasionally used in the introduction have been cut and cast here. My share in the work has become much larger, than I originally anticipated, as I found it necessary to add many notes, and make of the alphabetical index which contained, as prepared by the Editor and Translator, the words of the glossary without meanings and explanations, a kind of small Zand-English vocabulary....