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

THE AVESTIC EVIDENCE. 389 corroborated, almost in every detail, by the scientific evidence regarding the advent of the Glacial epoch in early times, it follows that the tradition preserved in the two Fargards of the Vendidad is older than that in the Shatapatha Brâhmaṇa. Dr. Haug has arrived at a similar conclusion on linguistic grounds. Speaking about the passage in the Vendidad he says "the original document is certainly of high antiquity and is undoubtedly one of the oldest of the pieces which com- pose the existing Vendidad." The mention of Hapta Hendu, a name not preserved even in the later Vedic literature, is said also to point to the same conclusion. We may here refer to certain passages cited by Muir in his Original Sanskrit Texts (3rd Ed. Vol. II. pp 322-329) to show that the reminiscences of the northern home have been preserved in the Indian literature. He first refers to the ex- pression shatam himâḥ, or 'a hundred winters,' occurring in se- veral places in the Ṛig-Veda (I, 64, 14; II, 33, 2 ; V, 54, 15 ; VI, 48, 8), and remarks that though the expression sharadaḥ shatam, or 'a hundred autumns,' also occurs in the Ṛig- Veda (II, 27, 10; VII, 66, 16), yet shatam himâḥ may be re- garded as a relic of the period when the recollection of the colder regions from which the Vedic Aryas migrated had not yet been entirely forgotten. The second passage quoted by him is from the Aitareya Brâhmaṇa (VIII, 14) which says "wherefore in this northern region all the people who dwell beyond the Himavat, (called) the Uttara Kurus and the Uttara Madras are consecrated to the glorious rule (Vairâj- yam)." The Uttara Kurus are again described in the same Brâhmaṇa (VIII, 23) as the land of gods which no mortal may conquer, showing that the country had come to be re- garded as the domain of mythology. The Uttara Kurus are also mentioned in the Râmâyaṇa (IV, 43, 38) as the abode of those who performed the meritorious works, and in the Mahâbhârata (Sabhâ-Parvan, Ch. 28) Arjuna is told " Here