XWĒŠKĀRĪH Ī RĒDAGĀN (The duty of children), a Pahlavi manual for Zoroastrian children regarding correct behavior.
Xwēškārīh ī rēdagān is a short text of wisdom literature genre (see Andarz and andarz literature in pre-Islamic Iran) and probably post-Sasanian in date. The text, which is only extant in a Pāzand version (E. K. Antia, Pâzend Texts, pp. 73-74), contains code of behavior and duties for children and schoolboys. The manuscript, written in the second part of the 19th century, consists of 112 pages and seems to be related to the Pāzand manuscript N22 of the India Office Library in London (Freimann, 1918, p. 482). The manuscript contains also the Bundahišn (incomplete), Šāyest nē šāyest, and Andarz ī dānāk mard (West, 1896-1904, І89).
James Darmesteter published the text with a French translation in 1889 (JA 13, 1889, pp. 355-63). He compared the text with Francis Seager’s The School of Vertue (London, 1557), a child’s manual of manners and etiquette (repr. in F. J. Furnivall, ed., Manners and Meals in Older Time, London, 1867, pp. 333-55). E. K. Antia (1909) published the text in his Pâzend Texts. H. F. J. Junker (1912) published the text in German, with Pāzand text, transcription, translation, and commentary. A. A. Freimann (1918) published the Pāzand text with a sub-lineal Pahlavi transcription and English translation of the text.
Bibliography:
E. K. Antia, Pâzend Texts. Bombay, 1909, pp. 73-74.
J. Darmesteter, “Les devoirs de l’écolier,” JA 13, 1889, pp. 355-63.
A. A. Freimann, “Andarz i Kôtakân,” in The Dastur Hoshang Memorial Volume: Being Papers on Iranian Subjects, Bombay, 1918, pp. 482-89.
F. J. Furnivall, Manners and Meals in Older Time, London, 1867, pp. 333-55.
Dastur Dr. K. M. Jamasp Asa and Mahyar Nawabi, eds., The Incomplete Text of Bundahisn, Xvēškārīh-i Rētakān, etc. MS. T 28 (The Pahlavi Codices and Iranian Researches Mauscripts, 27), Asia Institute of Pahlavi University, Shiraz, 1976.
H. F. J. Junker, Ein mittelpersisches Schulgespräch, Heidelberg (SHAW), 1912, pp. 1-26.
E. W. West, “The Pahlavi Literature,” in Grundriss der Iranischen Philologie II, 1904, pp. 75-129.
(Mahnaz Moazami)
Originally Published: January 1, 2000
Last Updated: May 17, 2012
