Lot 164

[Zoroastrianism]

The Desatir

Books & Manuscripts

Auction: India in Ink: The Library of Dr Raj Krishna | 01 October 2026 from 10am | Lots 79 to 208

Estimate: £300 - £500

Description

or Sacred Writings of the Ancient Persian Prophets; in the Original Tongue; together with the Ancient Persian Version and Commentary of the Fifth Sasan; and a Gujarati Translation thereof made with the Original Text in Gujarati Character by the Assistance of an Able Moonshi by Mulla Kakobad bin Muncherjee of Bombay. Revised by the Late Professor Furdoonjee Murzbanjee and Other Learned Persons. Bombay: Duftur Ashkara Press, 1848. 4to (28 x 20.2cm), 20th-century patterned boards, [20] 3-71 [2] 102 379 pp., text in Gujarati and English (letterpress throughout), lithographic portrait ('Mulla Firuz bin Kawus aged 73 years'), contemporary ownership inscription of one Jamshedji Mervanji to head of title-page, loss to corner of front board, corner of rear board nearly detached, browning to prelims, English text (71 pp.) Gujarati text part I (102 pp.) and last few leaves of the Gujarati text part II, a few worm-tracks to outer leaves, marginal damp-staining to English text and last few leaves, Gujarati text part II pp. 74-6 duplicated, errata leaf laid down

Provenance

INDIA IN INK: THE LIBRARY OF DR RAJ KRISHNA

Footnote

Apparently the first edition in Gujarati, and the second overall, of the principal text of the eponymous Zoroastrian sect of 16th-century priest Azar Kayvani, which purported to contain accounts by ancient Persian prophets, but was almost certainly the work of Kayvani himself. It was first published in a Persian and English edition at Bombay in 1818-19, from a manuscript containing the ‘original’ text, which is in an invented language, and a Persian translation. Three copies traced in libraries: Library of Congress, the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, and the Royal Danish Library.