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Old Iranian Online

Lesson 9: Old Persian

Scott L. Harvey, Winfred P. Lehmann, and Jonathan Slocum

The tomb of Darius is located at Naqs-i-rastam, a few miles north of the ancient Persian capital at Persepolis. The second in a series of three other burial chambers with entryways carved, in the shape of Orthodox crosses each roughly seventy-three feet high, into the face of a cliff, it bears a relief of Darius standing at the base of his throne, supported by two lines of fifteen throne-bearers. Darius looks toward an altar; Ahura Mazda looks down from above. There are two inscriptions. Directly behind the Darius figure, 60 lines are carved in Old Persian, translated into 48 lines of Elamite and 36 lines of Akkadian on the adjacent rock. The second inscription flanks the door, with panels in Old Persian, Elamite, Aramaic, and Akkadian. Together, these constitute the Emperor's last public decrees, highlighting his deeds and moral and physical fortitude, both praising the god Ahura Mazda.

Reading and Textual Analysis

The passage behind Darius on the relief panel, called the inscription of Darius at Naqs-i-rastam A (DNa), opens by declaring Ahura Mazda great by virtue of his creation of the earth, sky, and happiness for humankind, and for making Darius the king. It immediately follows with Darius declaring himself and his noble ancestry to posterity and moves on to list the countries that bore him tribute during his reign. The passage then mentions, again, that Darius was made king by his god, but this time adds the reason: Ahura Mazda saw disorder, rebellion, and moral laxity on the earth, and therefore put Darius in charge, presumably to bring the people back into accordance with Zoroastrian teaching. Darius then refers his readers to the relief itself, should they forget just how many lands he conquered: "look at the reliefs [of those] who bear the throne." Their number is carved in stone. The passage closes with a request for Ahura Mazda to continue to protect him and his descendents from harm and, finally, a last command that his subjects never again rise in rebellion.

1 - baga vazraka Auramazdâ hya imâm

2 - bűmim adâ hya avam asmânam

3 - adâ hya martiyam adâ hya

4 - shiyâtim adâ martiyahyâ

5 - hya Dârayavaum xshâyathiyam akunaush

6 - aivam parűvnâm xshâyathiyam

7 - aivam parűvnâm framâtâram

8 - adam Dârayavaush xshâyathiya vazraka

9 - xshâyathiya xshâyathiyânâm

10 - xshâyathiya dahyűnâm vispazanânâm

11 - xshâyathiya ahyâyâ bűmiyâ

12 - vazrakâyâ dűraiapiy Vishtâspahyâ

13 - puc*a haxâmanishiya pârsa pârsahyâ

14 - puc*a ariya ariyacic*a

30 - thâtiy

31 - Dârayavaush xshâyathiya Auramazdâ yathâ

32 - avaina imâm bűmim yaudatim

33 - pasâvadim manâ frâbara mâm xshâyathiyam

34 - akunaush adam xshâyathiya

35 - amiy vashnâ Auramazdâhâ adamshim

36 - gâthavâ niyashâdayam tyashâm

37 - adam athaham ava akunava yathâ mâm

38 - kâma âha yadipatiy maniyâhaiy tya

39 - ciyakaram âha avâ dahyâva

40 - tyâ Dârayavaush xshâyathiya

41 - adâraya patikarâ dîdiy tyaiy gâthum

42 - baratiy avadâ xshnâsâhy

43 - adataiy azdâ bavâtiy pârsahyâ

44 - martiyahyâ dűraiy arshtish

45 - parâgmatâ adataiy azdâ bavâtiy

46 - pârsa martiya dűrayapiy hacâ Pârsâ

47 - partaram patiyajatâ thâtiy

48 - Dârayavaush xshâyathiya aita tya kartam

49 - ava visam vashnâ Auramazdâhâ

50 - akunavam Auramazdâmaiy upastâm abara

51 - yâtâ kartam akunavam mâm

52 - Auramazdâ pâtuv hacâ gastâ utâmaiy

53 - vitham utâ imâm dahyâum aita adam

54 - Auramazdâm jadiyâmiy aitamaiy

55 - Auramazdâ dadâtuv

Lesson Text

1 baga vazraka Auramazdâ hya imâm 2 bűmim adâ hya avam asmânam 3 adâ hya martiyam adâ hya 4 shiyâtim adâ martiyahyâ 5 hya Dârayavaum xshâyathiyam akunaush 6 aivam parűvnâm xshâyathiyam 7 aivam parűvnâm framâtâram 8 adam Dârayavaush xshâyathiya vazraka 9 xshâyathiya xshâyathiyânâm 10 xshâyathiya dahyűnâm vispazanânâm 11 xshâyathiya ahyâyâ bűmiyâ 12 vazrakâyâ dűraiapiy Vishtâspahyâ 13 puc*a haxâmanishiya pârsa pârsahyâ 14 puc*a ariya ariyacic*a

30  thâtiy 31 Dârayavaush xshâyathiya Auramazdâ yathâ 32 avaina imâm bűmim yaudatim 33 pasâvadim manâ frâbara mâm xshâyathiyam 34 akunaush adam xshâyathiya 35 amiy vashnâ Auramazdâhâ adamshim 36 gâthavâ niyashâdayam tyashâm 37 adam athaham ava akunava yathâ mâm 38 kâma âha yadipatiy maniyâhaiy tya 39 ciyakaram âha avâ dahyâva 40 tyâ Dârayavaush xshâyathiya 41 adâraya patikarâ dîdiy tyaiy gâthum 42 baratiy avadâ xshnâsâhy 43 adataiy azdâ bavâtiy pârsahyâ 44 martiyahyâ dűraiy arshtish 45 parâgmatâ adataiy azdâ bavâtiy 46 pârsa martiya dűrayapiy hacâ Pârsâ 47 partaram patiyajatâ thâtiy 48 Dârayavaush xshâyathiya aita tya kartam 49 ava visam vashnâ Auramazdâhâ 50 akunavam Auramazdâmaiy upastâm abara 51 yâtâ kartam akunavam mâm 52 Auramazdâ pâtuv hacâ gastâ utâmaiy 53 vitham utâ imâm dahyâum aita adam 54 Auramazdâm jadiyâmiy aitamaiy 55 Auramazdâ dadâtuv

Translation

1 Great is the god Ahura Mazda, who 2 created this earth, who 3 created this sky, who created mankind, who 4 created happiness for mankind, 5 who made Darius the king, 6 one king of many, 7 one overlord of many. 8 I [am] Darius: great king, 9 king of kings, 10 king of the lands of all men, 11 king on this great earth 12 far and wide, son of Hystaspes 13 an Achaemenid, a Persian, son 14 of a Persian, an Aryan of Aryan descent ...
30 ... Darius the king declares: 31 When Ahura Mazda 32 saw the [peoples of] the earth rising up, 33 he then bestowed it upon me. He 34 made me king, [and therefore] I 35 am king. By the will of Ahura Mazda 36 I put it down in [its] place. 37 They did that which I asked of them, as 38 was my wish. [And] if you would wonder, 39 "How many were those countries 40 which Darius the King 41 held?" look at the reliefs [of those] who 42 bear the throne. Then you will know. 44 "The spear of a Persian man has 45 gone forth a great distance." [And] thus it will become known to you: 46 "A Persian man has done 47 battle far indeed from Persia." Darius the King 48 declares: I did all this which has been done 49 by the will of Ahura Mazda. 50 Ahura Mazda bore me aid 51 until I accomplished the task. 52 May Ahura Mazda protect me from evil, and 53 my house, and this country. This I 54 pray to Ahura Mazda: may Ahura Mazda 55 give this to me.

Grammar

11. r- and n-stem Nouns
11.1. r-stem Nouns

Old Persian nouns ending in the suffix tar function either as agent nouns that indicate the performers of actions -- e.g., jantar- 'slayer' -- or as relational nouns describing familial ties -- e.g., mâtar- 'mother'. Based on Sanskrit evidence, a slight variation in declension would be expected in the nominative and accusative cases, but attestations in Old Persian are too few to verify this. The nominative, accusative, and genitive of pitar- 'father' are given here. The feminine mâtar- declines similarly. Neuter declensions do not appear.

Nom. sg.   pitâ
Acc. sg.   *pitârâm
Gen. sg.   pic*a, pic*ah
11.2. an-, man-, and van-stem Nouns

Old Persian nouns ending in an, man, and van generally function as action nouns. Their masculine and neuter endings are given here. Feminines are not attested.

    Masculine xshayârshan- 'Xerxes'   Neuter tauman- power'
Nom. sg.   xshayârshâ   taumâ
Acc. sg.   xshayârshâm,1 *xshayârshânam   *taumanam
Instr. sg.   unattested   *taumnâ
Gen. sg.   xshayârshâha   unattested
         
Instr. pl.   unattested   taumanish
12. Pronouns
12.1. Demonstrative Pronouns

In Section 7.2, the third person pronoun hauv- 'this' was described as functioning also as a demonstrative in the masculine and feminine. There are two other demonstratve pronouns, i- 'this' and ava- 'that', in masculine, feminine, and neuter declensions. The neuter third person pronoun aita- is also attested.

i-declension   Masculine   Neuter   Feminine
Nom. sg.   iyam   ima   iyam
Acc. sg.   imam   ima   imâm
Instr. sg.   anâ   unattested   unattested
Loc. sg.   unattested   unattested   ahyâyâ
             
Nom/Acc. pl.   imaiy   unattested   imâ
Instr. pl.   unattested   unattested   imaibish
Gen. pl.   imaishâm   unattested   unattested
             
             
ava-declension            
Nom. sg.   ava   ava, avash-ca   unattested
Acc. sg.   avam   ava, avash-ca   avâm
Instr. sg.   unattested   avamâ   unattested
Gen. sg.   avahyâ   unattested   unattested
             
Nom. pl.   avaiy   avâ   a, avâ
Acc. pl.   avaiy   unattested   avâh
Gen. pl.   avaishâm   unattested   unattested
12.2. Relative Pronouns

Old Persian relative pronouns form a suppletive system, combining the *ha/ta demonstrative system with the *ya relative system of Indo-Iranian. (It happens to be the only pronoun declension that includes a dual form, not shown here.)

hya-declension   Masculine   Neuter   Feminine
Nom. sg.   hya   tya   hyâ
Acc. sg.   tyam   tya   tyâm
Instr. sg.   unattested   tyanâ   unattested
             
Nom/Acc. pl.   tyaiy   tyâ   imâ
Gen.pl   imaishâm   unattested   tyaishâm
13. The Aorist Tense

As in Avestan, the Old Persian includes an aorist stem. By this time, however, the complexity of the aorist system had been significantly reduced, both in the number of forms and in modal function (cf. Avestan Lesson 3, Section 13 on the injunctive/indicative distinction for the aorist tense). The augment is always included in all moods except the optative, which may employ it or not, and the form conveys a simple past tense no different in meaning from the imperfect.

A sigmatic aorist is formed from the roots paith 'engrave' (with the prefix ni), e.g. niyapaisham, and dar 'support', e.g. adarshiy, in the first person singular adarshiyam. The root aorist, shown here, is more common, though still infrequent.

Root Aorist Paradigm: dâ 'put, place, create'

Indicative   Active   Middle
1 sg.   unattested   *adamâ
3 sg.   adât   *adâtâ
         
Imperative        
2 sg.   adâuvâ   unattested
Optative        
2 sg.   (a)dyâ, (a)dyâh   unattested
3 sg.   (a) dyâ, (a)dyât   unattested
14. Verbal Adjectives and Nouns

A participle is a verbal adjective -- a verb stem that takes an adjectival suffix. It functions syntactically as either an adjective modifying a noun, or as a substantive replacing it. Like verbs, participles are formed in the active, middle, and passive voices, and the past, present, and future tenses.

An example of the present participle in English is the word 'running'. In the sentence "The running water is cold," the verb 'run' functions as an adjective to describe 'water'. In Old Persian, the word might also be used as the subject of the sentence to describe someone or something that is running, as in "The running (one) is passing by," but this is unusual in English. Keeping in mind that a participle is adjectival, the common slang phrase "the big, the bad, and the ugly" may illustrate the same principle. Though 'big', 'bad', and 'ugly' are not participles, they are adjectives standing in place of the nouns they modify (e.g., 'the big men', 'the bad men', etc.) -- a usage that participles commonly have in Old Persian.

The present active participle is formed by adding the ending -ant to a present verbal stem, which declines according to the an- paradigm, given in Section 12, in the masculine and neuter. The feminine is formed by weakening the ant-ending to at and adding a long î. The form then declines accordingly (cf. Section 6). The present middle participle adds the ending -amna to the verbal stem and declines like the a-/â-stems in Section 3.

In addition to the present active and middle participles, Old Persian employs a perfect and a future passive participle. The perfect passive participle is most commonly formed by adding ta to the zero-grade root, e.g. marta 'dead', from mar 'die', though it is occasionally added to a stronger grade. A few roots add na, also to the zero-grade, instead of ta. The form is translated as a simple past tense verb with adjectival function, e.g. marta 'dead' as seen in line 48 ('[when I am] dead') of Lesson 10. It may also be used substantively, as in karta 'deed', from kar 'do, make', in line 46 of Lesson 10.

The future passive participle adds ata to the zero- or middle-grade root, e.g. thakata- 'past' from thak 'pass'. Despite the name passive, the form only appears in Old Persian with intransitive verbs and is therefore active in meaning.

The infinitive is the only verbal noun formation in Old Persian. It is formed by adding the suffix tanaiy to a middle grade root. It is translated as the English infinitive, e.g. bartanay 'to bear' from bar 'support, bear'.

15. Relative-Correlative Syntax

Native English speakers sometimes find the Indo-Iranian relative clause difficult since it is not usually embedded within the main clause, as it is in English, but rather precedes the clause, which 'picks up' the relative pronoun with a corresponding demonstrative, or correlative, pronoun. The relative pronoun may be placed anywhere within its own clause, though it is often found at the beginning. The correlative must begin the main clause. The antecedent, or the word that the relative pronoun represents in the relative clause, is included, somewhat counter-intuitively, in the relative clause, usually immediately following the relative pronoun.

The relative clause in lines 48 and 49 above provide an illustration:

    aita   tya   kartam   ava   visam   vashnâ   auramazdâhâ
    this   which   has been done,   that   all   by the will   of Ahura Mazda

This is translated into English as "I did all this which has been done by the will of Ahura Mazda."

Footnote

1   Built on analogy with the h-stem paradigm, probably after Ahura Mazdah-.