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

THE AVESTIC EVIDENCE. 367 three renderings given above. Another important fact men- tioned in the passage is that the prolonged duration of winter was the result of Angra Mainyu's counter-action, meaning thereby that before the invasion of Angra Mainyu different climatic conditions prevailed in that region. This view is further strengthened by the consideration that the Iranians could never have placed their Paradise in a land of severe winter and snow. Bunsen has, therefore, rightly observed that the Airyana Vaêjo was originally a perfect country and had a very mild climate, until the hostile deity created a powerful serpent and snow, so that only two months of summer remain- ed while winter prevailed during ten. In short, the passage in question speaks of a sudden change in the climate of the original home, a change that converted the paradise into a kind of ice-bound land with long and severe winters. If we, therefore, want to know what the land was like before the invasion of Angra Mainyu, we must. reverse the climatic con- ditions that obtained after the invasion, and suppose that this cradle of the Iranian race was situated in the extreme north where long cool summers of ten months and short mild winters of two months originally prevailed. It was Angra Mainyu who altered this genial climate by means of glaciation and rendered it unbearable to man. The description of the two summer months after the invasion, viz., that "These were cold as to the water, cold as to the earth, cold as to the trees," shows that after glaciation even the summer climate was unsuited for human habitation. We have stated above that the passage in question in- dicates a sudden change in the climate of the Airyana Vaêjo, converting ten months summer and two months winter into ten months severe winter and two months cold summer. Thirty or forty years ago such a statement or proposition would have been regarded not only bold, but impossible or almost insane, for the geological knowledge of the time was not

368 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. sufficiently advanced to establish the existence of a mild cli- mate round about the North pole in ancient times. It was probably this difficulty which stared Zend scholars in the face when they declined to place the Airyana Vaêjo in the far north, in spite of the plain description clearly indicating its northernmost position. Happily the recent discoveries in Geology and Archæology have not only removed this diffi- culty by establishing, on scientific grounds, the existence of a warm and genial climate near the North Pole in inter-glacial times, but have proved that the Polar regions were invaded, at least twice, by glaciation which destroyed their genial cli- mate. Thus it is now a settled scientific fact that the Arctic regions were once characterised by warm and short winters and genial and long summers, a sort of perpetual spring, and that this condition of things was totally upset or reversed by the advent of the Glacial period which made winters long and severe and summers short and cold. The description of the climatic changes introduced by Angra Mainyu into the Airyana Vaêjo is, therefore, just what a modern geologist would ascribe to the Glacial epoch ; and when the description is so remarkably and unexpectedly corroborated by the latest scientific researches, I fail to see on what ground we can lightly set it aside as mythical or imaginary. If some Zend scholars have done so in the past, it was because geological knowledge was not then sufficiently advanced to establish the probability of the description contained in the Avesta. But with new materials before us which go to confirm the Avestic description of the Airyana Vaêjo in every detail, we shall be acting unwisely if we decline to revise the conclusions of Zend scholars arrived at some years ago on insufficient materials. When we look at the question from this point of view, we have to place the site of the Airyana Vaêjo in the Arctic re- gions, where alone we can have a winter of ten months at the present day. We can escape from such a conclusion only by

THE AVESTIC EVIDENCE. 369 denying the possibility that the passage in question contains any traditional account of the ancient home of the Iranians; and this course seems to have been adopted by some Zend scholars of the day. But with the Vedic evidence, set forth and discussed in the previous chapters, before us, we need not have any of those apprehensions which have hitherto led many Zend scholars to err on the side of caution and moderation. We have seen that there are strong grounds for holding that the ancient Indo-European year was a year of ten months followed by a long night of two months; in other words, it was a year of ten sum- mer months and two winter months, that is, exactly of the same kind as the one which prevailed in the Airyana Vaêjo before the happy land was invaded by the evil spirit. The word for summer in Zend is hama, the same as Sanskrit samâ, which means "a year" in the Rig-Veda. The period of ten summer months mentioned in the Avesta would, therefore, mean a year of ten months' sunshine, or of ten mânusha yugâ, followed by a long wintry night of two months as described in the previous chapters. It may be urged that the Vendidad does not say that the two winter months were all dark, and we have, therefore, no authority for converting two winter months into two months of continuous darkness. A little reflection will, however, show that the objection is utterly untenable. In order to have a winter of ten months at the present day, we must place the Airyana Vaêjo in the Arctic regions; and once we do so, a long night of one, two or three months follows as a matter of course. This long night will now fall in the middle of the winter of ten months; but before the last Glacial epoch, or the invasion of Angra Mainyu, when there was a summer of ten months in the Arctic regions, the duration of the long night and that of the winter of two months must have been co-extensive. That is an important difference in the description of the paradise of the Aryans, as it is at present and as it was before the last Glacial 24

370 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. epoch. The long night characterised these regions before the Glacial period as it does at present. But when the winters were short they corresponded with, and were confined only to, the long night ; while at the present day, since the winter in the Arctic regions lasts for ten months, the long night falls in the middle of such winter. The description of the Airyana Vaêjo in the Vendidad, therefore, naturally leads us to infer that ten months sunshine or summer followed by two months dark winter represented the climatic conditions of the place before the inva- sion of Angra Mainyu, who converted summer into winter and vice versa, by introducing ice and snow into the land. We have already referred to the maximum period of a hundred nights during which Tishtrya fought with Apaosha, and to the custom of keeping the dead bodies in the house for two nights, three nights or a month long in winter, until waters and light, which stood still in winter, again began to flow or come up, showing that the period was one of continuous darkness. These passages taken in conjunction with the aforesaid description of the Airyana Vaêjo clearly establish the fact that the paradise of the Iranians was situated in the extreme north or almost near the North Pole, and that it was characterised by long delightful summers, and short and warm but dark winters, until it was rendered unfit for human habitation by the invasion of Angra Mainyu, or the advent of the Glacial epoch, which brought in severe winter and snow causing the land to be covered with an icecap several hundreds of feet in thickness. There is one more point which deserves to be noticed in this connection. We have seen that to the description of the Airyana Vaêjo quoted above, the old Zend commentators have added what is believed to be an inconsistent statement, viz., that "There are seven months of summer and five of winter therein." Dr. Haug thinks that the paragraph "The latter are cold as to water etc." is also a later addition, and must, therefore,

THE AVESTIC EVIDENCE. 371 be taken with the "five months of winter." But both Spiegel and Darmesteter, as well as the commentator, are of opinion that the phrases "And these are cold as to the water etc." from a part of the original text, and must, therefore, be taken to refer to the two summer months; and this view seems to be more reasonable, for a later insertion, if any, is more likely to be a short one than otherwise. The only addition to the original text thus seems to be the statement "It is known that there are seven months of summer and five of winter;" and this must be taken as referring to the climatic conditions which obtained in the Airyana Vaêjo before the invasion of Angra Mainyu, for the latter reduced the duration of summer only to two months, which again were cold to the water, the earth and the trees. It has been shown above that as the Airyana Vaêjo was origin- ally a happy land, we must suppose that the first climatic conditions therein were exactly the reverse of those which were introduced into it by Angra Mainyu; or, in other words, a sum- mer of ten months and a winter of two months must be said to have originally prevailed in this happy land. But the Zend commentators have stated that there were seven months of summer and five of winter therein; and this tradition appears to have been equally old, for we read in the Bundahish (XXV, 10-14) that "on the day Aûharmazd (first day) of Âvân the winter acquires strength and enters into the world,...and on the auspi- cious day Atarô of the month Dîn (the ninth day of the tenth month) the winter arrives, with much cold, at Aîrân-vêj, and until the end, in the auspicious month Spendarmad, winter advances through the whole world; on this account they kindle a fire everywhere on the day Âtarô of the month Din, and it forms an indication that the winter has come." Here the five months of winter in the Airyana Vaêjo are expressly mention- ed to be Âvân, Âtarô, Dîn, Vohûman and Spendarmad; and we are told that Rapîtvîn Gâh is not celebrated during this

372 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. period as Rapitvîn goes under-ground during winter and comes up from below the ground in summer. The seven months of summer are similarly described in the same book as extending "from the auspicious day Aûharmazd (first) of the month Farvar- dîn to the auspicious day Anîrân (last) of the month Mitrô," (XXV, 7). It seems from this account that the tradition of seven months summer and five months winter in the Airyana Vaêjo was an old tradition, and the Bundahish, in recording it, gives us the climatic conditions in the ancient home and not, as supposed by some, those which the writer saw in his own day. For in the twentieth paragraph of the same chapter twelve months and four seasons are enumerated, and the season of winter is there said to comprise only the last three months of the year, viz., Dîn, Vohûman and Spendârmad. I have shown elsewhere that the order of months in the ancient Iranian calendar was different from the one given in the Bundahish. But whatever the order may be, the fact of the prevalence of seven months sum- mer and five months winter in the Airyana Vaêjo seems to have been traditionally preserved in these passages; and the old Zend commentators on the Vendîdad appear to have incorporated it into the original text, by way of, what may be called, a marginal note, in their anxiety to preserve an old tradition. We have thus two different statements regarding the climatic con- ditions of the Airyana Vaêjo before it was invaded by Angra Mainyu: one, that there were ten months of summer and two of winter, the reverse of the conditions introduced by Angra Mainyu; and the other, traditionally preserved by the commentators, viz., that there were seven summer months and five winter months therein. It is supposed that the two statements are contradictory; and contradictory they undoubtedly are so long as we do not possess the true key to their interpretation. They are inconsistent, if we make the Airyana Vaêjo the easternmost boundary of the ancient Iran;

THE AVESTIC EVIDENCE. 373 but if the paradise is placed in the circumpolar regions in the far north the inconsistency at once disappears, for then we can have seven months summer and ten months summer at the same time in the different parts of the original home of the Iranians. We have seen in the discussion of the Vedic evidence that the legend of Aditi indicates seven months sum- mer or sun-shine, and the legend of the Dashagvas a sacrifi- cial session, or a period of sun-shine, of ten months. It has also been pointed out that between the North Pole and the Arctic circle the sun is above the horizon for any period longer than seven and less than twelve months according to the latitude of the place. There is, therefore, nothing strange, ex- traordinary or inconsistent, if we get two statements in the Avesta regarding the duration of summer in the primeval home ; and we need not assume that the commentators have added the statement of seven months summer simply because the description of two months summer and ten months winter did not appear to them suitable to the first land of blessing. It is not possible that they could have misunderstood the ori- ginal text in such a way as to suppose that the climatic con- ditions introduced by Angra Mainyu were the conditions which obtained originally in the Airyāna Vaêjo. We must, therefore, reject the explanation which tries to account for this later insertion on the ground that it was made by per- sons who regarded the description in the original as unsuited to the first created happy land. If the original text is pro- perly read and . interpreted, it gives us a summer of ten months in the Airyāna Vaêjo before Angra Mainyu's invasion, and the statement regarding the summer of seven months re- fers to the same place and time. We have the same thing in the Ṛig-Veda where the sun is once represented as having seven rays and once as having ten rays, meaning seven months and ten months of sun-shine, both of which are pos- sible only in the Arctic regions. The two Avestic traditions

374 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. stated above must, therefore, be taken to represent the Arctic climatic conditions prevailing in the ancient home in the far north ; and the correctness of the explanation is proved by the discussion in the foregoing chapters. With regard to the custom of kindling a fire on the ninth day of Din or the tenth month, noticed in the Bundahish, it seems to me that instead of taking it to be an indication that winter “has come,” it is better to trace its origin to the commencement of winter at that time in some part of the original home ; for if a fire is to be kindled there is greater propriety in kindling it to com- memorate the commencement of winter rather than the expiry of two out of five winter months. If the custom is so inter- preted, it will imply that a year of nine months and ten days was once prevalent in some part of the Aryan home, a conclu- sion well in keeping with the ancient Roman year of ten months. But apart from this suggestion, there is a striking coincidence between the Vedic and the Avestic tradition in this respect. According to the Bundahish (XXV, 20), the year is divided into four seasons of three months each, Farvardîn, Arḑavahisht and Horvadaḍ constituting the season of the spring ; Tîr, Amerôdaḍ and Shatvaîrô the summer ; Mitrô, Âvân and Âtarô the autumn ; and Dîn, Vohûman and Spen- darmaḍ, the winter. The fortieth day of Sharad or autumn would, therefore, represent the tenth day (Abân) of Avân ; and the Vedic statement discussed in the ninth chapter, that Indra's fight with Shambara commenced “ on the fortieth day of Sharad ” agrees well (only with a difference of ten days) with the statement in the Bundahish that the winter in the Airyana Vaêjo commenced with the month of Âvân the second month in autumn. We have thus a very close resem- blance between the Vedic and the Avestic tradition about the end of summer in the original Arctic home ; and the corres- ponding Roman and Greek traditions have been previously noticed. In. short, a year of seven or ten months sun-shine

THE AVESTIC EVIDENCE. 375 can be traced back to the Indo-European period; and since its double character can be explained only by placing the ori- ginal home in the circumpolar regions, we are inevitably led to the conclusion that the Airyana Vaêjo must also be placed in the same region. The Avestic account is by itself plain and intelligible, and the apparent inconsistencies would have been explained in a natural way long ago, if Zend scholars had not created unnecessary difficulties by transferring the site of this Paradise to the east of the ancient Iran. Under these circumstances it is needless to say which of the two theo- ries regarding the position of the Airyana Vaêjo is correct; for no one would accept a hypothesis which only enhances the confusion, in preference to one which explains everything in a natural and satisfactory manner, We have so far discussed the passage in the first Fargard which describes the climate of the Airyana Vaêjo. The passage, even when taken by itself, is quite intelligible on the Arctic theory; but in ascertaining the original climate of the Airyana Vaêjo we supposed that it was the reverse of the one introduced by the invasion of Angra Mainyu. The second Fargard of the Vendidad, which is similar in character to the first, contains, however, a passage, which does away with the necessity of such assumption, by giving us a graphic description of the actual advent of ice and snow which ruined the ancient Iranian Paradise. This Far- gard is really a supplement to the first and contains a more detailed account of the Airyana Vaêjo and a description of the paradisiacal life enjoyed there before Angra Mainyu afflicted it with the plague of winter and snow. This is evident from the fact that the coming of the severe winter is foretold in this Fargard and Yima is warned to prepare against it; while in the first Fargard the happy land is described as ac- tually ruined by Angra Mainyu's invasion. Darmesteter divides this Fargard into two parts, the first comprising the

376 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. first twenty (or according to Spiegel forty-one) paragraphs, and the second the remaining portion of the Fargard. In the first part Ahura Mazda is said to have asked king Yima the ruler of the Airyāna Vaêjo, who is called Sruto Airyênê vaêjahê, 'famous in Airyāna Vaêjo', to receive the law from Mazda ; but Yima refused to become the bearer of the law and he was, therefore, directed by Ahura Mazda to keep his people happy and make them increase. Yima is accordingly represented as making his men thrive and increase by keeping away death and disease from them, and by thrice enlarging the boundaries of the country which had become too narrow for its inhabitants. Whether this fact represents a gradual expansion of the oldest Aryan settlements in the Arctic home we need not stop to inquire. The second part of the Fargard opens with a meeting of the celestial gods called by Ahura Mazda, and "the fair Yima, the good shepherd of high re- nown in the Airyāna Vaêjo," is said to have attended this meeting with all his excellent mortals. It was at this meet- ing that Yima was distinctly warned by Ahura Mazda that fatal winters were going to fall on the happy land and de- stroy everything therein. To provide against this calamity the Holy One advised Yima to make a Vara or enclosure, and remove there the seeds of every kind of animals and plants for preservation. Yima made the Vara accordingly, and the Far- gard informs us that in this Vara the sun, the moon and the stars “rose but once a year,” and that “a year seemed only as a day” to the inhabitants thereof. The Fargard then closes with the description of the happy life led by the inhabitants of this Vara of which Zarathushtra and his son Urvatadnara are said to be the masters or overseers. Yima's Vara here described is something like Noah's ark. But there is this difference between the two that while the Biblical deluge is of water and rain, the Avestic deluge is of snow and ice; and the latter not only does not conflict

THE AVESTIC EVIDENCE. 377 with geological evidence but is, on the contrary, fully and unexpectedly confirmed by it. Secondly, the description that "a year seemed only as a day" to the inhabitants of this Vara, and that the sun and stars "rose only once a year therein," serves, in an unmistakable manner, to fix the geo- graphical position of this Vara in the region round about the North Pole; for nowhere on the surface of the earth can we have a year-long day-and-night except at the Pole. Once the position of Yima's Vara is thus fixed the posi- tion of the Airyana Vaêjo is at once determined; for Yima's Vara, as stated in the Mainyô-i-khard, must obviously be located in the Airyana Vaêjo. Here is, therefore, another argument for locating the Airyana Vaêjo in the extreme north and not to the west of the ancient Iran, as Spiegel, Darme- steter and others have done. For whether Yima's Vara be real or mythical, we cannot suppose that the knowledge of a year-long day and of the single rising of the sun during the whole year was acquired simply by a stretch of imagination, and that it is a mere accident that it tallies so well with the description of the Polar day and night. The authors of the Fargard may not have themselves witnessed these phenomena, but there can be no doubt that they knew these facts by tradition; and if so, we must suppose that their remote ancestors must have acquired this knowledge by personal experience in their home near the North Pole. Those that locate the Airyana Vaêjo in the extreme east of the Ira- nian highland try to account for ten months winter therein by assuming that a tradition of a decrease in the earth's temperature was still in the mind of the author of this Fargard, or that the altitude of the table-land, where the Oxus and the Jaxartes take their rise, was far higher in ancient times than at present, thereby producing a cold climate. Both these explanations are however artificial and unsatisfactory. It is true that a high altitude produces a-

378 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. cold climate; but in the present instance the climate of the Airyana Vaêjo was mild and genial before the invasion of Angra Mainyu, and we must, therefore, suppose that the Iranian table-land was not elevated at first, until Angra Mainyu upheaved it and produced a cold climate. But the present altitude of the plateau is not so great as to produce a winter of ten months, and this requires us again to assume the submergence of this land after the invasion of Angra Mainyu. Unfortunately there is no geological evidence forth-coming to support the upheaval and submergence of this land in the order mentioned above. But even if such evidence were forthcoming, the explanation would still fail to account why the inhabitants of Yima's Vara in the Airyana Vaêjo regarded a year as a single day, a description, which is true only at the North Pole. All attempts to locate the primitive Airyana Vaêjo in a region other than the circumpolar country must, therefore, be abandoned. The names of mythical rivers and countries may have been transferred in later times to real terrestrial rivers and provinces; but if we were to settle the position of the primitive rivers or countries by a reference to these new names, we can as well locate the Airyana Vaêjo between the Himâlay and the Vindhya mountains in India, for in later Sanskrit literature the land lying between these two mountains is called the Âryâvarta or the abode of the Aryans. The mistake committed by Darmesteter and Spiegel is of the same kind. Instead of determining the position of the Airyana Vaêjo from the fact that a winter of ten months is said to have been introduced therein by Angra Mainyu, and that a year seemed only as a day to the inhabitants thereof, they have tried to guess it from the uncertain data furnished by the names of rivers in Iran, though they were aware of the fact that these names were origi- nally the names of mythical rivers and were attached to the real rivers in Iran only in later times, when a branch of the

THE AVESTIC EVIDENCE. 379 Aryan race went over to and settled in that country. Naturally enough this introduced greater confusion into the account of the Airyana Vaêjo instead of elucidating it, and scholars tried to get out of it by supposing that the whole account is either mythical, or is, at best, a confused reminiscence of the ancient Iranian home. The recent scientific discoveries have, however, proved the correctness of the Avestic traditions, and in the light thrown upon the subject by the new materials there is no course left but to reject the erroneous speculations of those Zend scholars that make the Airyana Vaêjo the eastern boundary of ancient Iran. But the most important part of the second Fargard is the warning conveyed by Ahura Mazda to Yima that fatal winters were going to fall on the land ruled over by the latter, and the description of glaciation by which the happy land was to be ruined. The warning is in the form of a prophecy, but any one who reads the two Fargards carefully can see that the passage really gives us a description of the Glacial epoch witnessed by the ancestors of the Iranians. We give below the translation of the passage both by Darmesteter and Spiegel. VENDIDAD, FARGARD II. Darmesteter. Spiegel. 22. And Ahura Mazda spake 46. Then spake Ahura Mazda unto Yima saying, “O fair to Yima : “ Yima the fair, the Yima, son of Vîvanghat! son of Vîvaṅhâo, Upon the material world the 47. Upon the corporeal world fatal winters are going to fall, will the evil of winter come : that shall bring the fierce, foul 48. Wherefore a vehement, frost ; upon the material world destroying frost will arise. the fatal winters are going to 49. Upon the corporeal world fall, that shall make snow- will the evil of winter come : flakes fall thick, even an 50. Wherefore snow will fall

380 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. Darmesteter. Spiegel. aredvî deep on the 'high- in great abundance, est tops of mountains. 51. On the summits of the mountains, on the breadth of the heights. 23. And all the three sorts 52. From three (places), O of beasts shall perish, those Yima, let the cattle depart, that live in the wilderness, 53. If they are in the most and those that live on the fearful places, tops of the mountains, and 54. If they are on the tops of those that live in the bosom the mountains, of the dale, under the shelter 55. If they are in the depths of stables. of the valleys, 56. To secure dwelling places. 24. Before that winter, those 57. Before this winter the fields would bear plenty of country produced pasture; grass for cattle: now with 58. Before flow waters, behind floods that stream, with snows is the melting of the snow. that melt, it will seem a hap- 59. Clouds, O Yima, will come py land in the world, the land over the inhabitated regions, wherein footprints even of 60. Which now behold the sheep may still be seen. feet of the greater and smaller cattle: 25. Therefore make thee a 61. Therefore make thou a Vara, long as a riding-ground, circle of the length of a race- on every side of the square, ground to all four corners. and thither bring the seeds 62. Thither bring thou the of sheep and oxen, of men, seed of the cattle, of the beasts of dogs, of birds, and of red of burden, and of men, of dogs, blazing fires. of birds, and of the red burn- ing fires. Can anything, we ask, be more clear and distinct than the above description of the advent of the Glacial epoch in the happy land over which Yima ruled, and where a year was

THE AVESTIC EVIDENCE. 381 equivalent to a single day ? There is no reference to Angra Mainyu in this passage which describes in the form of a pro- phecy the evils of glaciation, much in the same manner as a modern geologist would describe the progress of the ice-cap during the Glacial period. Ahura Mazda tells Yima that fierce and foul frost will fall on the material world, and even the tops of the highest mountains will be covered with or rather buried in snow which will destroy all living beings whether on the tops of the mountains or in the valleys below. The snow, it is said, would fall aredvi deep, which Spiegel translates by the phrase 'in great abundance,' while Darmesteter, quoting from the com- mentary, explains in a footnote that "even where it (the snow) is least, it will be one Vitasti two fingers, that is, fourteen fingers deep." A cubit of snow, at the lowest, covering the highest tops of the mountains and the lowest depths of the valleys alike . cannot but destroy all animal life ; and I do not think that the beginning of the Ice-age can be more vividly described. With this express passage before us ascribing the ruin of the happy land to the invasion of ice and winter, we should have no difficulty whatsoever in rightly interpreting the meaning of the invasion of Angra Mainyu described in the beginning of the first Fargard. It is no longer a matter of inference that the original genial climate of the Airyana Vaêjo was rendered inclement by the invasion of winter and snow, afterwards introduced into the land. The above passage says so in distinct terms, and the description is so graphic that we cannot regard it as mythical or imaginary. Add to it the fact that the recent geological discoveries have established the existence of at least two Glacial periods, the last of which closed and the post-Glacial period commenced, accord- ing to American geologists, not later than about 8000 B. C. When the Avestic traditions regarding the destruction of the primeval Arctic home by glaciation is thus found to be in com- plete harmony with the latest geological researches, there is no

382 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. reason, except prejudice, why we should not regard the Avestic account as a correct reminiscence of an old real historical fact. The author of the Fargards in question cannot be supposed to have given us by imagination such a graphic account of a phenomenon, which is brought to light or discovered by the scientists only during the last forty or fifty years. Dar- mesteter in his translation of the Fargards observes in a foot- note that the account of glaciation is the result of a mythical misunderstanding by which winter was thought to be the counter-creation of Irân Vêj. This passed off very well twenty years ago; but the phenomenon of glaciation in the Ice-age is now better understood, and we cannot accept guesses and conjectures of scholars regarding the meaning of a passage in the Avesta which describes the glaciation of the Iranian paradise. It only proves how the ancient records, howsoever express and distinct they may be, are apt to be misunderstood and misinterpreted owing to our imperfect knowledge of the climatic or other conditions or surroundings amongst which the ancestors of our race lived in remote ages. But for such a misunderstanding, it was not difficult to perceive that the Airyana Vaêjo, or the original home of the Aryan race, was situated near the North Pole, and that the ancestors of our race abandoned it not out of "irresistible impulse," or "over- crowding," but simply because it was ruined by the invasion of snow and ice brought on by the Glacial epoch. In short, the Avestic tradition, as recorded in this Fargard, is the oldest documentary evidence of the great climatic convulsion, which took place several hundreds of years ago, and the scientific evidence of which was discovered only during the last forty or fifty years. It is, therefore, a matter of regret that the im- portance of this tradition should have been so long misunder- stood or overlooked. It will be seen from the foregoing discussion that the tra- ditional evidence preserved in the first two Fargards of the

THE AVESTIC EVIDENCE. 383 Vendidad is especially important for our purpose. The Dawn- hymns in the Ṛig-Veda supply us with the evidence of a long continuous dawn of thirty days in the ancient home, and there are passages in the Vedas which speak of a long continuous night of six months or of shorter duration, and a year of seven or ten months. It can also be shown that several Vedic myths and deities bear an unmistakable stamp of their Arctic origin. But, as stated before, in the whole Vedic literature there is no passage which will enable us to determine the time when the Polar regions were inhabited, or to ascertain the reason why they were abandoned. For that purpose we drew upon geology which has recently established the fact that the cli- mate of the circumpolar regions, which is now so cold as to render the land unsuited for human habitation, was mild and genial before the last Glacial period. It followed, therefore, that if the Vedic evidence pointed to an Arctic home, the fore- fathers of the Aryan race must have lived therein not after but before the last Glacial epoch. But the traditions preserved in the Avesta dispense with the necessity of relying on geology for this purpose. We have now direct traditional evidence to shew (1) that the Airyana Vaêjo had originally a good cli- mate, but Angra Mainyu converted it into a winter of ten and a summer of two months. (2) that the Airyana Vaêjo was so situated that the inhabitants of Yima's Vara therein regarded the year only as a day, and saw the sun rise only once a year, and (3) that the happy land was rendered uninhabitable by the advent of a Glacial epoch which destroyed all life there- in. It is true, that but for recent geological discoveries these statements, howsoever plain and distinct, would have remained unintelligible, or regarded as improbable by scholars, who would have always tried, as Darmesteter has already done, to put some artificial or unnatural construction upon these pas- sages to render the same comprehensible to them. We cannot, therefore, deny that we are indebted to these scientific

384 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. discoveries for enabling us to determine the true meaning of the Avestic traditions, and to clear the mist of misinterpretation that has gathered round them. But nevertheless, the value of this traditional testimony is not thereby impaired in any way. It is the oldest traditional record, preserved by human memory, of the great catastrophe which overtook the northern portion of Europe and Asia in ancient times, and obliged the Aryan inhabitants of the Arctic regions to migrate southwards. It has been preserved during thousands of years simply as an ancient record or tradition, though its meaning was not intel- ligible, until at last we now see that the accuracy of the account is fully and unexpectedly borne out by the latest scientific researches. There are very few instances where science has proved the accuracy of the ancient semi-religious records in this way. When the position of the Airyana Vaêjo and the cause of its ruin are thus definitely settled both by traditional and scientific evidence, it naturally follows that the sixteen lands mentioned in the first Fargard of the Vendidad must be taken to mark the gradual diffusion of the Iranians from their ancient home to the country of the Rasâ and the seven rivers; or, in other words, the Fargard must be regarded as historical and not geographical as maintained by Spiegel and Darme- steter. It is true that the first Fargard does not say anything about migration. But when the site of the Airyana Vaêjo is placed in the extreme north, and when we are told in the second Fargard that the land was ruined by ice, no specific mention of migration is needed, and the fact that the sixteen lands are mentioned in a certain specific order is naturally understood, in that case, to mark the successive stages of migration of the Indo-Iranian people. It is not contended that every word in these two Fargards may be historically correct. No one would expect such a rigid accuracy in the reminiscences of old times traditionally preserved. It is also true that the Airyana Vaêjo has grown into a sort of

THE AVESTIC EVIDENCE. 385 mythical land in the later Pârsî literature, somewhat like Mount Meru, the seat of Hindu gods, in the Purâṇas. But for all that we cannot deny that in the account of the Airyana Vaêjo in the first two Fargards of the Vendidad we have a real historical reminiscence of the Arctic cradle of the Iranian or the Aryan races, and that the Fargard gives us a description of the countries through which the Indo-Iranians had to pass before they settled in the Hapta Heṇdu or on the floods of Rangha, at the beginning of the post-Glacial period. This story of the destruction of the original home by ice may well be compared with the story of deluge found in the Indian literature. The oldest of these accounts is contained in the Shatapatha Brâhmaṇa (I, 8, 1, 1-10), and the same story is found, with modifications and additions, in the Mahâbhârata (Vana-Parvan, Ch. 187), and in the Mâtsya, the Bhâgavata and other Purâṇas. All these passages are collected and discussed by Muir in the first Volume of his Original Sanskrit Texts (3rd Ed. pp. 181-220); and it is unnecessary to examine them at any length in this place. We are concerned only with the Vedic version of the story and this appears in the above mentioned passage in the Shatapatha Brâhmaṇa. A fish is there represented as having fallen into the hands of Manu along with water brought for washing in the morning. The fish asked Manu to save him, and in return promised to rescue Manu from a flood (aughaḥ) that would sweep away (nirvodhâ) all creatures. The Brâhmaṇa does not say when and where this conversation took place, nor describes the nature of the calamity more fully than that it was a flood. Manu preserved the fish first in a jar, then in a trench, and lastly, by carrying him to the ocean. The fish then warns Manu that in such and such a year (not definitely specified) the destructive flood will come, and advises him to construct a ship (nâvam) and embark in it when the flood would arise. Manu constructs the ship accordingly, and when 25

386 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. the flood rises, embarks in it, fastens its cable (pásham) to the fish's horn and passes over (ati-dudrâva) to "this northern mountain" (etam uttaram girim) by which phrase the com- mentator understands the Himavat or the Himâlaya mountain to the north of India. The fish then asks Manu to fasten the ship to a tree, so that it may gradually descend, without going astray, along with the subsiding water; and Manu acts accordingly. We are told that it is on this account that the northern mountain has received the appellation of Manor-ava- sarpaṇam or 'Manu's descent.' Manu was the only person thus saved from the deluge; and desirous of offspring he sacrificed with the Pâka-yajña, and threw butter, milk, and curds as oblations into the waters. Thence in a year rose a woman named Iḍâ, and Manu living with her begot the off- spring, which is called Manu's off-spring (prajâtiḥ). This is the substance of the story as found in the Shatapatha Brâh- maṇa, and the same incident is apparently referred to in the Atharva Veda Saṁhitâ (XIX, 39, 7-8), which says that the kushṭha plant was born on the very spot on the summit of the Himavat, the seat of the 'Gliding down of the ship' (nâva-prabhraṁshanam), the golden ship with golden tackle that moved through the heaven. In the Mahâbhârata ver- sion of the legend this peak of the Himâlaya is said to be known as Nau-bandhanam, but no further details regarding the place or time are given. The Mâtsya Purâṇa, however, men- tions Malaya, or the Malabar, as the scene of Manu's austerity, and in the Bhâgavata, Satyavrata, king of Draviḍa, is said to be the hero of the story. Muir has compared these accounts, and pointed out the differences between the oldest and the later versions of the story, showing how it was amplified or enlarged in later times. We are, however, concerned with the oldest account; and so far as it goes, it gives us no clue for determining the place whence Manu embarked in the ship. The deluge again appears to be one of water; and not of ice