Sacred Texts Zoroastrianism Index Previous Next
Buy this Book at Amazon.com
Pahlavi Texts, Part III (SBE24), E.W. West, tr. [1885], at sacred-texts.com
1. The sage asked the spirit of wisdom (2) thus: 'What is the business of the well-endeavouring 6, the artizans?'
3. The spirit of wisdom answered (4) thus: 'The business of the artizans is this, (5) that as to that work which they do not understand, they do not bring a hand to it; (6) and that which they well 7
understand (hû-dânend), they perform well and with attention; (7) and they demand wages lawfully. (8). For as to him who persists in doing that work which 1 he does not understand, it is he by whom that work is spoiled and becomes useless; and when, moreover, he is a man whose work makes himself satisfied, it then becomes even an origin of sin for him.'
68:6 The hûtûkhshân (Av. hûiti) are the fourth class of the community, and are very rarely mentioned in the Avesta, possibly because they were originally enslaved outcasts or aborigines, as in other ancient communities. The passage where they are specially mentioned (Yas. XIX, 46) is probably taken from the Bagh Nask (see Sls. X, 26 n; XIII, 1 n, 9 n).
68:7 L19 omits 'well.'
69:1 L19 omits 'work,' and K43 omits 'which.'