वेदों की प्राचीनता एवं काल-निर्णय / ओरायन (लोकमान्य बाल गंगाधर तिलक - खगोलीय वैदिक शोध)

200 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. The Arctic theory, however, now throws quite a new light on these ancient traditions, Vedic as well as Roman; and if we take the Gavâm-ayanam of ten months and the old Roman year of ten months as relics of the period when the ancestors of both these races lived together within the circum-polar regions, there is no difficulty of explaining how the remaining days were dispo- sed of. It was the period of the long night,—a time when Indra fought with Vala, to regain the cows imprisoned by the latter and Hercules killed the giant Cacus, a three-headed fire-vomiting monster, who had carried off Hercules' cows and hid them in a cave, dragging them backwards in order that the foot-marks might not be traced. When the Aryan people migrated southwards from this ancient home they had to change this calendar to suit their new home by adding two more months to the old year. But the traces of the old calendar could not be completely wiped off, and we have still sufficient evidence, traditional or sacrifi- cial, to warrant us in holding that a year of ten months followed by a night of two months was known in the Indo-Germanic period—a conclusion, which is further confirmed by Teutonic myths and legends, as explained by Prof. Rhys, whose views will be found summarised in a subsequent chapter. The Taittirîya Saṁhitâ and the Aitareya Brâhmaṇa speak of the Gavâm-ayanam as being really held by the cows. Was it really a session of these animals ? Or was it something else ? The Aitareya Brâhmaṇa, we have seen, throws out a sugges- tion that 'the cows are the Âdityas,' that is, the month-gods, and the Cows' session is really the session of the monthly sun- gods.* Comparative mythology now fully bears out the truth of this remarkable suggestion put forward by the Brâhmaṇa. Cows, such as we meet them in the mythological legends, represent days and nights of the year, not only in the Vedic

• See Aitareya Brâh. IV, 17, quoted supra ; गवामयनेन यंति । गावो वा आदित्या आदित्यानामेव तदयनेन यंति ।