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

THE AVESTIC EVIDENCE. 363 are the chief of the eighteen rivers, and that they "flow forth from the north, part from Albûrz and part from the Albûrz of Auhar-mazd ; one towards the west, that is the Arag ; and one towards the east, that is the Vêh river." The Bundahish (VII, 15) further informs us that the Vêh river flows out from the same source as the Arag river, and Dr. West in a footnote observes that both these rivers flow out from "the north side of the Arêdvîvsûr (Ardvi Sûra Anâhita) fountain of the sea, which is said to be on the lofty Hûgar (Hukairya), a portion of Albûrz." Even according to Bunda- hish, the Vanguhi is, therefore, the eastern and the Rangha the western river, in the northern part of Albûrz ; or, in other words, they represent two rivers in a country, situated in the north, one flowing towards the east, and one to the west, in that region. It would, therefore, be, to say the least, unsafe to infer from this that the Airyāna Vaêjo represents the eastern- most country, because the name Vêh or Vanguhi was in later times attached to the easternmost river in Irân. For by parity of reasoning, we can as well place the Airyāna Vaêjo in the far west, in as much as the name Arag or Rangha was given, as stated by Darmesteter himself, in later times to the western- most river. It is again a question why Rangha should be identified with the Caspian Sea, or some western river in Iran. The Fargard does not say anything about the situation of Rangha. It simply states that the fifteenth land created by Ahura Mazda was Hapta Heṇdu and the sixteenth was on the floods of Rangha. Now if Hapta Heṇdu, is identified with Sapta Sindhu, or the Panjaub, why take a big and a sudden jump from the Panjaub to the Caspian Sea, to find out the Rangha river. Rangha is Sanskrit Rasâ, and in the Ṛig-Veda (X, 75, 6) a terrestrial river, by name Rasâ, is mentioned along with the Kubhâ, the Krumu and the Gomati, which are all known to be the affluents of the Indus. Is it not, therefore,