Sacred Texts Zoroastrianism Index Previous Next
Buy this Book at Amazon.com
Pahlavi Texts, Part IV (SBE37), E.W. West, tr. [1892], at sacred-texts.com
1. The first of eighteen sections of the Ganabâ-sar-nigad 2 contains particulars about the thief, with his arrest as the special thief of that which is seized (tereftŏ) by him; the premeditated sin, the imprisonment and fettering, the punishment appointed for atonement of the sin, the execution of the duty,
and the amount of the reward (navisn); the amount of speciality in the ransom (navâk) of every one, each separately; the act and place of punishment, what is the person who is strangling and the mode, how those who are therein strangling are drawn forth (nazî-aîtŏ) successively, and which is set to work first.
2. About a person whose offending limbs are bound, the degree of tightness of the binding and fettering, and the formula (nîrang) of being bound for the sin of theft. 3. About imprisonment, and the imprisonment which accusers have to provide, at their own expense, if they are those who are privileged; and whatever is on the same subject. 4. The number of places for fetters, and those which the thief, whoever he is, possesses, each separately. 5. How far, how, and for what putting on of fetters (garov-dahisnîh) those accusers have to provide a thief's fetters, too, at their own expense, if they are those who are privileged; the place for the requisite privileged putting on of fetters, the sin owing to putting on more fetters of a different kind, and that which is owing to neglecting the putting on of the fetters which they have to provide; the limit as regards the deserving of more fettering, the number of grades of theft beyond the limit of deserving fettering, and those which are below the limit of deserving fettering.
6. About the kinds of theft, and the excessive sinfulness of a thief through cutting 1 and wounding the body; the undiscoverableness which is specially as regards a thief at a distance (pavan hâsar), he
who is on the spot being he who is within one step; theft, with plunder, injuring the existence 1, minor injury, and other sins, may be in confederacy 2 beforehand or afterwards. 7. About the thievish design of a theft which is not abetted (lâ ham), a theft with equal shares, and a theft with different shares.
8. About the sin of assisting a thief (dûg aîyyârak), of making investigation and releasing, of a sentence of acquittal, and of a listener to a thief; he who is a giver of assistance to a thief is carried off for theft; also decisions about theft by a child, by a childless woman, and by her who is pregnant; likewise their maintenance and earnings (vindisnŏ) in retributive work, and the work of a pregnant thief.
9. About the accumulated property of the innumerable which they would keep away from thieves, both the thief by means of his hands, and him who is a thief not by means of his hands. 10. About the testimony of a thief, that is, for what it is admissible when 3 he advances as a thief; how at the time when it is necessary to seize and bind him, and how at the time when it is necessary to flatter (nivâkhtanŏ) and deceive him until one attains to absolute power (kâm-kârîh) thereby. 11. About rewards (navisnŏ) with thieves. 12. About the difference of theft from plunder.
13. About property which any one, carrying it off,
has to bring back to its owners; such as that which the frontier people may take away from foreigners, that which the judge may take away from thieves, and the share which he may take away from any one not interfering 1 with thieves. 14. And about protectors and defenders of a thief, and also many other legal decisions as regards theft.
74:2 Corresponding to the sixteenth word, ahurâi, in the Ahunavair, according to B. P. Riv.; but it is the eighteenth Nask in other Rivâyats. Ganabâ-sar-nigad means 'the thief's head downstricken;' but it is misread Dvâsrûgad, Dvâsrûngad, Dvâsrûgîd, or Dvâsrôb, in the Rivâyats, which also state that it contained sixty-five kardah, or subdivisions, which agree with the numbers of sections mentioned in Chaps. XXI, XXIII, XXIV. This Nask is evidently named from the contents of its first section, and possibly from its initial words.
75:1 Assuming that gûdanŏ stands for khûdanŏ.
76:1 See Chap. XIX, 1.
76:2 Pâz. hidhih, probably for a Pahl. adjective hadak from Av. hadha, and referring to accomplices before and after the fact (see Chap. XVIII, 5).
76:3 Assuming that mûn stands for amat, their Irânian equivalents being nearly alike, and the latter word being used in the succeeding clauses.
77:1 Av. asterethwãn. The share being a bribe for purchasing non-interference. In each case the property is to be restored to its original owner who had been robbed by the foreigners or thieves.