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

436 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. legends describing the struggle between the powers of light and darkness. The occurrence of the Arctic night, its tiresome length, and the long expected morning light on the horizon after some months were, naturally enough, the most import- ant facts which attracted the attention of our primeval fore- fathers, and it is no wonder if they believed it to be the grea- test exploit of their gods when the beneficent dawn came dawn ing up, after several months of darkness, from the nether world of aerial waters, inaugurating a new yearly round of sacri- fices, festivals, or other religious or social ceremonies. It was the beginning of the Devayâna, when the powers of light cele- brated their victory over the demons of darkness, and the Child of the Morning, the Kumâra, the leader of the army of gods, walked victoriously along the Devayâna path commencing the cycle of human ages, or mânushâ yugâ, as mentioned in the Ṛig-Veda. The Pitṛiyâna, or the walk of the Manes, corres- ponded with the dark winter, the duration of which extended in the original home from two to six months. This was the period of rest or repose during which, as observed previously, people refrained even from disposing the bodies of the dead owing to the absence of sunshine. All social and religious ceremonies or feasts were also suspended during this period as the powers of darkness were believed to be in the ascendant. In short, the oldest Aryan calendar was, as remarked by Dr. Schrader, divided into two parts, a summer of seven or ten months and a corresponding winter of five or two months. But it seems to have been an ancient practice to reckon the year by counting the recurrence of summers or winters rather than by combining the two seasons. It is thus that we can account for a year of seven or ten months in old times, or annual sacrificial sattras extending over the same period. This calendar is obviously unsuited to places to the south of the Arctic circle; and the Aryans had, therefore, to change or reform the same, as was done by Numa, in post-glacial