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

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

THE AVESTIC EVIDENCE. 387

and snow as described in the Avesta. Nevertheless it seems that the Indian story of deluge refers to the same catastrophe as is described in the Avesta and not to any local deluge of water or rain. For though the Shatapatha Brâhmaṇa men- tions only a flood (aughaḥ), the word prâleya, which Pâṇinî (VII, 3, 2) derives from pralaya (a deluge), signifies 'snow,' 'frost,' or 'ice' in the later Sanskrit literature. This indi- cates that the connection of ice with the deluge was not ori- ginally unknown to the Indians, though in later times it seems to have been entirely overlooked. Geology informs us that every Glacial epoch is characterised by extensive inundation of the land with waters brought down by great rivers flowing from the glaciated districts, and carrying an amount of sand or mud along with them. The word aughaḥ, or a flood, in the Shatapatha Brâhmaṇa may, therefore, be taken to refer to such sweeping floods flowing from the glaciated districts, and we may suppose Manu to have been carried along one of these in a ship guided by the fish to the sides of the Himâlaya mountain. In short, it is not necessary to hold that the ac- count in the Shatapatha Brâhmaṇa refers to the water-deluge pure and simple, whatever the later Purâṇas may say; and if so, we can regard the Brahmanic account of deluge as but a different version of the Avestic deluge of ice. It was once suggested that the idea of deluge may have been introduced into India from an exclusively Semitic source; but this theory is long ago abandoned by scholars, as the story of the deluge is found in such an ancient book as the Shatapatha Brâhmaṇa, the date of which has now been ascertained to be not later than 2500 B. C., from the fact that it expressly as- signs to the Kṛittikâs, or the Pleiades, a position in the due east. It is evident, therefore, that the story of the deluge is Aryan in origin, and in that case the Avestic and the Vedic account of the deluge must be traced to the same source. It may also be remarked that Yima, who is said to have

388 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. constructed the Vara in the Avesta, is there described as the son of Vîvanghat ; and Manu, the hero in the Indian story, though he receives no epithet in the account of the deluge in the Shatapatha Brâhmaṇa, is very often described in the Vedic literature as the son of Vivasvat (Vaivasvata), the Iranian Vîvanghat, (Shat. Brâh. XIII, 4, 3, 3; Ṛig. VIII, 52, 1). Yama is also expressly called Vaivasvata in the Ṛig- Veda (X, 14, 1). This shows that in spite of the fact that Yima is the hero in one account and Manu in the other, and that one is said to be the deluge of ice and the other of water, we may regard the two accounts as referring to the same geological phenomenon.* The Avestic account is, however, more specific than that in the Shatapatha Brâhmaṇa, and as it is

• The story of the deluge is found also in other Aryan mythologies. The following extract from Grote's History of Greece (Vol. I, Chap. 5) gives the Greek version of the story and some of the incidents therein bear striking resemblance to the incidents in the story of Manu :— “ The enormous iniquity with which earth was contaminated—as Apollodôrus says, by the then existing brazen race, or as others say, by the fifty monstrous sons of Lykaôn--provoked Zeus to send a general deluge. An unremitting and terrible rain laid the whole of Greece under water, except the highest mountain-tops, whereon a few stragglers found refuge. Deukaliôn was saved in a chest or ark, which he had been forewarned by his father Promêtheus to construct. After floating for nine days on the water, he at length landed on the summit of Mount Parnasses. Zeus hav- ing sent Hermês to him, promising to grant whatever he asked, he prayed that men and companions might be sent to him in his solitude; accordingly Zeus directed both him and Pyrrha (his wife) to cast stones over their heads : those cast by Pyrrha became women, those by Deukaliôn men. And thus the “stony race of men” (if we may be allowed to translate an etymology which the Greek language presents exactly, and which has not been disdained by Hesiod, by Pindar, by Epicharmas, and by Virgil) came to tenant the soil of Greece. Deukaliôn on landing from the ark sa- crificed a grateful offering to Zeus Phyxios, or the God of escape; he also erected altars in Thessaly to the twelve great gods of Olympus.” · In commenting upon the above story Grote remarks that the reality of this deluge was firmly believed throughout the historical ages of Greece, and even Aristotle, in his meteorological work, admits and reasons upon it as an unquestionable fact.

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

390 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. are the Uttara Kurus whom no one attempts to combat. That the Uttara Kurus were not a fabulous land is shown by the fact that a mountain, a people and a city called Ottoro- corra is mentioned by Ptolemy, and Lassen thinks that Me- gasthenes had the Uttara Kurus in view when he referred to the Hyperboreans. Muir concludes this section with a passage from the Sânkhyâyana or the Kaushîtakî Brâhmaṇa (VII, 6) where Pathyâ Svasti, or the goddess of speech, is said to know the northern region (udîchîm disham), and we are told that " Hence in the northern region speech is better known and better spoken, and it is to the north that men go to learn speech." Muir thinks that some faint reminiscence of an early connection with the north may be traced in these pass- ages. But none of them are conclusive, nor have we any in- dication therein of the original home being in tho Arctic re- gions, as we have in the case of the Vedic passages discussed previously which speak of the long, continuous dawn and night, or a year of ten months. We may, however, take the passages cited by Muir as corroborative evidence and they have been referred to here in the same light. It is upon the Vedic passages and legends examined in the previous chapters and the Avestic evidence discussed above that we mainly rely for establishing the existence of the primeval Aryan home in the Arctic regions; and when both these are taken together we get direct traditional testimony for holding that the origi- nal home of the Aryan races was situated near the North Pole and not in Central Asia, that it was destroyed by the advent of the Glacial epoch, and that the Indo-Iranians, who were compelled to leave the country, migrated southwards, and passing thr ough several provinces of Central Asia even- tually settled in the valleys of the Oxus, the Indus, the Kubhâ and the Rasâ, from which region we see them again migrating, the Indians to the east and the Persians to the west at the early dawn of the later traditional history.

CHAPTER XII. COMPARATIVE MYTHOLOGY. The value of Comparative Mythology as corroborative evidence —Its use in the present case—The ancient calendars of the European Aryan races—The plurality of Dawns in the Lettish, the Greek and the Celtic mythology—The ancient Roman year of ten months and Numa's reform thereof--Plutarch's view--Im- probability of Lignana's theory pointed out—The ancient Celtic year—Closed with the last day of October and marked the com- mencement of winter and darkness—The winter feast celebrated on the day—The mid-summer feast of Lugnassad on the first of August—The commencement of summer on the first of May —The date of the battle of Moytura—Similar duration of the Old Norse year—Comparison with the ancient Greek calendar —All indicate six months' light and six months' darkness—Corro- boration derived from comparative philology—Two divisions of the year in primeval times—The Maid of Nine Forms in the Celtic mythology—The Nine paces of Thor in the Norse legend —Compared with the Vedic Navagvas and Vifra Navaza in the Avesta—Balder's home in the heavens—Indicates the long Arc- tic day—The Slavonic story of Ivan and his two brothers—Con- tinuous night in Ivan's home—Comparison with the Vedic le- gend of Trita—The Slavonic winter demon--The story of Dawn and Gloaming in the Finnish mythology—Indicates a long day of four weeks—Celtic and Teutonic legends representing the Sun-god's annual struggle with darkness—Baldur and Hodur, Cuchulainn and Fomori—Temporary sickness and indisposition of gods and heroes—Prof. Rhys' views thereon—The affliction indicates winter darkness—Celtic and Teutonic myths indi- cating long continuous day and night—All point to a primeval home in the Arctic region—Recent ethnological researches in favour of European home referred to-Indicate northern Germany or Scandinavia—The necessity of going still farther North—Prof. Rhys suggests Finland or White Sea-Not inconsistent with the theory which seeks to make the North Pole the home of the whole human race—Prof. Rhys' method and conclusion--Primeval

392 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. Arctic home established alike by the traditions of the eastern and western Aryas—Its relation with the general theory about the cradle of the human race at the North Pole explained. WE propose in this chapter to examine whether and how far the conclusions we have deduced from the Vedic and the Avestic evidence are corroborated by the myths and traditions of the European branches of the Aryan race. It is true that the evidence, collected in the foregoing chapters, is so general in character that it will have to be taken into account, even if the traditions of other races are found to conflict with it in any way. In other words, it has nothing specially Asiatic in it and without further corroboration we can, therefore, safely say that the original home of the Indo-Iranians, before the last Glacial epoch, must also be the home of the other Aryan peo- ple in those remote times. But still we may usefully examine the traditions of other Aryan races, and see if the latter have preserved any reminiscences of the original home, either in their ancient calendar or in their other ancient myths or le- gends. Of course the evidence cannot be expected to be as reliable as that found in the Veda or the Avesta, but still it has its own value for corroborative purposes. The History of com- parative mythology and philology shows that when Vedic literature and language became accessible to European scho- lars, quite a new light was thrown thereby on the Greek and the Roman mythology; and it is not unlikely that the discovery of the Vedic and the Avestic evidence, in favour of the Arctic home may similarly serve to elucidate some points in the le- gendary literature of the Aryan races in Europe. But the subject is so vast that it cannot be treated in a single chapter of this book, nor do I possess the necessary means to undertake the task. I shall, therefore, content myself with a statement of such facts as plainly indicate the reminiscence of an ancient Arctic home in the traditional literature of the Greek, Roman, Celtic, Teutonic and Slavonic branches of the Aryan

COMPARATIVE MYTHOLOGY. 393. race; and I may here state that I am greatly indebted, for, this purpose to that learned and masterly work, The Hibbert Lectures, by Prof. Rhys, On the origin and growth of reli- gion as illustrated by Celtic Heathendom. Following the order adopted in the discussion of the Vedic evidence, we shall first take up the question of the ancient calendar, and see if the traditions preserved by the western Aryan races about the ancient year point out to any Arctic characteristics, such as the long dawn, the long day, the long night, or an annual period of sunshine of less than twelve months' duration. We have seen that the Dawn is very often spoken of in the plural in the Ṛig-Veda and that a group of thirty Dawn-Sisters is actually described as moving round and round with one mind and in the same enclosure without being separated from each other, a phenomenon which is peculiar only to the Arctic regions. This Vedic account of the Dawn does not stand by itself. Thus in the Lettish my- thology, the Dawn is called diewo dukte, or the sky-daughter or 'the god-daughter, much in the same way as the Uṣhas is called divo duhitā in the Ṛig-Veda; "and the poets of the Lets speak likewise of many beautiful sky-daughters, or god- daughters diewo dukruzeles."* Prof. Max Muller further informs us that in the Greek mythology we can "easily find among the wives of Hêrakles, significant names, such as Auge (sun-light), Xanthis (yellow), Chrysêis (golden), Iole (violet), Aglaia (resplendent), and Eône, which cannot be separated from Eos, dawn." † The same story appears again in the Celtic mythology where Cuchulainn, the Sun-hero, is described as having a wife, who is variously named as Emer, Ethne Ingubai. Upon this Prof. Rhys observes that "it may be that the myth pictured the dawn not as one but as many to all of whom the Sun-god made love in the course of the three *Max Muller's Contributions to the Science of Mythology, p. 432. † Id. p. 722.

394 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. hundred and more days of the year."* It has been shown previously that the description of the Vedic dawns, as a close- ly united band, precludes us from regarding them as three hundred and more dawns of the year ; and that the only infer- ence we can draw from a closely united group of dawns is that it represents the long and continuous Arctic dawn divided into a number of parts of twenty-four hours each for conveni- ence. The description of the dawn in the Lettish mythology does not seem to be so full as that in the Vedas and by itself it may not be sufficient to indicate the Polar dawn; but con- sidering the fact that the dawn is described as sky-daughter and spoken of in the plural by the poets of the Lets and the poets of the Ṛig-Veda alike, we may safely extend to the Lettish mythology the conclusion we have drawn from the more detailed description of the Dawn in the Ṛig-Veda, and the same may be said of the Celtic and the Greek stories of the dawn given above. In treating of the Gavâm-ayanam and the corresponding legend of the Dashagvas, a reference has already been made to the Greek legend of Hêlios, who is described as having 350 oxen and as many sheep, obviously representing a year of 350 days and nights, and to the Roman tradition about December being the tenth and the last month of the year as denoted by its etymology. Prof. Lignana in his essay on The Navagvas and the Dashagvas of the Ṛig-Veda, published in the proceedings of the seventh International Congress of the Orientalists, 1886, however, remarks that the passage of Plu- tarch in the life of Numa, where this tradition is mentioned, does not support the view that the Romans originally counted not more than ten months. It is true that Plutarch mentions an alternative story of Numa's altering the order of months "making March the third which was the first, January first which was the eleventh of Romulus, and February the second

• Rhys' Hibbert Lectures p. 458.

COMPARATIVE MYTHOLOGY. 395 which was the twelfth and the last." But immediately afterwards Plutarch says, "Many, however, assert that two months of January and February were added by Numa, where- as before they had reckoned ten months in the year"; and in the next paragraph gives his own opinion, "That the Roman year contained at first ten months only and not twelve, we have a proof in the name of the last; for they still call it De- cember, or the tenth month; and that March was first is also evident, because the fifth from it was called Quintilis, the sixth Sextilis, and so the rest in their order."* I have re- ferred to this passage previously and shown that Plutarch's rea- soning about the order of the months as indicated by their nu- merical names cannot be lightly set aside. If January and Fe- bruary were the last two months in the ancient calendar of the Romans, we should have to assume that the numerical order from Quintilis to December was abruptly given up after De- cember which does not seem probable. It is, therefore, more reasonable to hold that Numa actually added two months to the old year, and that the story of the transposition of the two months of January and February from the end to the begin- ning of the year was a later suggestion put forward by those who knew not how to account for a year of ten months, or 304 days only. But besides Plutarch, we have also the testi- mony of Macrobius, who, as stated before, tells us that Romulus had a year of ten months only. There can, therefore, be little doubt about the existence of a tradition of the ancient Roman year of ten months, and we now see that it is thoroughly intel- ligible by comparison with the annual sacrificial sattras of ten months mentioned in the Vedic literature. The names of the Roman months from Quintilis to December further show that the months of the year had no special names in ancient times, but were named simply in their numerical order, a fact which

• Vide Langhorne's Translation of Plutarch's Lives, published by Ward, Lock and Co., London, pp. 53, 54.

396 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. accounts for the absence of common names for the months of the year in different Aryan languages. The evidence regarding the ancient year of Celts, Teutons and Greeks is not however so definite, though it may be clear- ly shown that in each case the year was marked by a certain period of cold and darkness, indicating the Arctic origin of the ancient calendar. Speaking of the ancient Celtic year Prof. Rhys observes, "Now as the Celts were in the habit formerly of counting winters, and of giving precedence in their reckoning to night and winter over day and summer, I should argue that the last day of the year in the Irish story of Diar- mait's death meant the eve of November or All-halloween, the night before the Irish Samhain, and known in Welsh as Nos Galan-gaeaf, or the Night of the winter Calends. But there is no occasion to rest on this alone, for we have the evidence of Cormac's Glossary that the month before the be- ginning of winter was the last month, so that the first day of the first month of winter was also the first day of the year."* Various superstitious customs are then alluded to, showing that the eve of November was considered to be the proper time for prophecy or the appearance of goblins; and the Pro- fessor then closes the discussion regarding the above-mention- ed last day of the Celtic year with the remark that "It had been fixed upon as the time of all others, when the Sun-god whose power had been gradually falling off since the great feast associated with him on the first of August, succumbed to his enemies, the powers of darkness and winter. It was their first hour of triumph after an interval of subjection, and the popular imagination pictured them stalking abroad with more than ordinary insolence and aggressiveness; and if it comes to giving individuality and form to the deformity of darkness, to describe it as a sow, black or grisly, with neither ears nor tail, is not perhaps very readily surpassed as

• Rhys' Hibbert Lectures, p. 514.

COMPARATIVE MYTHOLOGY. 397 an instance of imaginative aptitude."* This shows that the ancient Celtic year closed with the season of autumn and the beginning of winter which corresponded with the last day of October, or the eve of November, and was marked by festivals which indicated the victory of darkness over light. As re- gards the middle of the year or summer in the Celtic traditions, the same authority further informs us that "The Lammas fairs and meetings forming the Lugnassad in ancient Ireland marked the victorious close of the sun's contest with the powers of darkness and death, when the warmth and light of that lumi- nary's rays, after routing the colds and blights, were fast bring- ing the crops to maturity. This, more mythologically express- ed, was represented as the final crushing of Fomori and Fir Bolg, the death of their king and the nullifying of their malignant spells, and as the triumphant return of Lug with peace and plenty to marry the maiden Erinn and to enjoy a well-earned banquet, at which the fairy host of dead ancestors was probably not forgotten. Marriages were solemnized on the auspicious occasion ; and no prince, who failed to be pre- sent on the last day of the fair, durst look forward to prosperi- ty during the coming year. The Lugnassad was the great event of the summer half of the year, which extended from the calends of May to the calends of Winter. The Celtic year was more thermometric than astronomical, and the Lugnassad was so to say its summer solstice, whereas the longest day was, so far as I have been able to discover, of no special ac- count."† The great feast of the Lugnassad thus marked the middle of the year or summer, and it was held at the begin- ning of August. Therefore, "the First of May must, according to Celtic ideas, have been the right season for the birth of the summer sun-god";‡ and this is confirmed by the story of Gwin and Gwythur, who fought for the same damsel, and *Rhys' Hibbert Lectures, pp. 516-17. †Ibid. pp. 418-19. ‡Ibid. p. 546.

398 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. between whom peace was made on the condition that they were to fight for the damsel "on the Calends of May every year thence- forth till the Day of Doom, and he who should prove victorious on the Day of Doom was to take the Damsel to wife."* This is interpreted by Prof. Rhys to mean that "the Sun-god would recover his bride at the beginning of summer after his antagonist had gained possession of her at the beginning of winter";† and he compares the legend to the story of Persephone, daughter of Zeus carried away by Pluto, who was, however, able to retain her at his side only for six months in the year. We might also cite in this connection the legend of Demeter or Mother Earth, who is said to rejoice for six months in the presence of Pro- serpine, the green herb, her daughter, and for six months regret her absence in dark abodes beneath the earth. The ancient Celtic year thus seems to have been divided into two halves, one representing the six summer months, and the other, which commenced on the eve of November, the six months of winter darkness. But what is still more remarkable is that just as the Ṛig-Veda gives us the exact date of the com- mencement of the battle between Indra and Shambara, so Celtic myths record the exact date of the first battle of Moytura and also of the fight between Labraid of the Swift Hand on the Sword, king of an Irish Hades, whom Cuchulainn goes to assist, and his enemies called the Men of Fidga. They were fought on the eve of November, "when the Celtic year began with the ascendency of the powers of darkness."* Prof. Rhys further points out that the ancient Norse year was similar in character. The great feast of the Norsemen occupied three days called the Winter Nights and began on the Saturday falling on or between the 11th and the 18th of October; and according to Dr. Vigfusson this feast marked the beginning of the ancient year of the Norsemen. The old Norse year thus appears to have been shorter by a few *Rhys' Hibbert Lectures, p. 562. †Ibid p. 460.

COMPARATIVE MYTHOLOGY. 399 days than the Celtic one; but Prof. Rhys accounts for this difference on the ground "that winter, and therefore the year commences earlier in Scandinavia than in the continental centre from which the Celts dispersed themselves."* As regards the ancient Greek calendar, Prof. Rhys has shown that the old year ended with the festival of Apaturia and the new one began with the Chalceia, an ancient feast in honour of Hephæstus and Athene, the exact date being the énu kai nea of the month of Pyanepsion, that is, approximately the last day of October. Prof. Rhys then compares the Celtic feast of the Lugnassad with the Greek festival named Pan- athenæa, and the feast on the Calends of May with the Athe- nian Thargelia, and concludes his comparison of the Celtic and the Greek calendar by observing that "a year which was common to Celts with Greeks is not unlikely to have once been common to them with some or all other branches of the Aryan family."† This shows that the ancient Aryan races of Europe knew of six months' day and six months' night, and their calendars were the modifications of this Arctic division of the year. Comparative philology, according to Dr. Schrader, leads us to the same conclusion. Speaking of the ancient division of the year he says:—"Nearly everywhere in the chronology of the individual peoples a division of the year into two parts can be traced. This finds linguistic expression in the circumstance that the terms for summer, spring, and winter have parallel suffix formations. As in the primeval period *jhi-m and *sem- existed side by side, so in Zend zima and hama correspond to each other, in Armenian amarn and jmern, in Teutonic sum-ar and wint-ar, in Celtic gam and sam, in Indian vasanta and he- manta. There is absolutely no instance, in which one and the same language shows identity of suffixes in the names of the three seasons of the year. In Slavonic, also, the year is *Rhys' Hibbert Lectures, p. 676. † Ibid. p. 121.

: 400 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. divided into two principal divisions, summer (lêto) and winter (zima); and finally evident traces of old state of things are not wanting in Greek and Latin.'"* Dr. Schrader further re- marks that the separate conceptions of winter and summer were combined in one whole even in primitive times; but there- is no word for a year common to all or most of the Aryan languages, and it is not unlikely that the names of summer or winter were used to denote the return of the seasons more fre- quently than the conception of winter and summer combined into one whole. As the length of summer, or the period of sunshine, as contrasted with the period of darkness, varied from six to twelve months in the Arctic regions the conception of a year of twelve months was perhaps less suited for practical rec- koning in the primeval home than the conception of so many months' summer or so many months' winter taken singly, and this explains why in the Ṛig-Veda we have the expression "mânushâ yugâ and kshapah" to denote the whole year. In discussing the legend of the Navagvas and the Dashag- vas we have shown that the numerals incorporated in their names must be interpreted as referring to the number of months during which they completed their annual sacrifices, and that Prof. Lignana's view that they refer to the months of pregnancy is not only improbable but opposed to the express Vedic texts which tell us that the Navagvas and the Dashag- vas completed their sacrifices in ten months. Let us now see if there are corresponding personages in other Aryan mytholo- gies. Prof. Lignana has pointed out the resemblance between the Navagvas and the Novemsides of the Romans. The com- parison is no doubt happy, but there is nothing in the cult of the Novemsides which gives us a clue to the original meaning of the word. We know nothing beyond the fact that Novem- sides (also spelt Novemsiles) were certain Latin gods, who

• Schrader's Prehistoric Antiquites of Aryan Peoples, translated by Jevons, Part IV, ch. VI, p. 302.

COMPARATIVE MYTHOLOGY. 401 . according to the double etymology (novem, nine,or novus, new) were taken for nine Muses, or for gods newly introduced, as after the conquest of a place in contrast with the old gods of the country. But the Celtic tradition of the Maid of Nine Forms is much more explicit, inasmuch as it is distinctly connected with the sun-hero Cuchulainn. The story . is thus narrated by Rhys : Conchobar had a passing fair daughter called Fedelm of the nine forms, for she had so many fair aspects, each of which was more beautiful, as we are told, than the others; and when “Cuchulainn had, at the news of the approach of the enemy from the west, advanced with his father to the frontier of the realm, he suddenly hastened away in the evening to a place of secret meeting, where he knew Fedelm to have a bath got ready for him in order to prepare him for the morrow and his first encounter with the invading army.”* This reminds us of the assistance rendered by the Navagvas and the Dashagvas to Indra by means of Soma sacrifices performed by them and which sacrifices are said to have invigorated Indra and prepared him for his fight with the powers of dark- ness, represented by Vṛitra, Vala, Shambara and other demons. The Maid of Nine Forms is therefore a Celtic paraphrase of the Nine-going sacrificers in the Ṛig-Veda. Prof. Rhys con- siders Fedelm to be a sort of Athene with nine forms of beauty, and refers to the story of Athene weaving a peplos for her favourite Hêrakles, or causing springs of warm water to gush forth from the ground, to supply him at the end of the day with a refreshing bath.† But this comparison does not explain why there should be nine forms of beauty in either case. The mystery is, however, cleared up, if we suppose these legends to refer to the nine months of sunshine at the end of which the setting sun-god is refreshed or invigorated for his struggle with the demons of darkness by the acts or ser- vices of the Nine-going sacrificers or the Maid of Nine Forms.’

• Rhys' Hibbert Lectures, pp. 630-1. † Id. pp. 378-9. 26

402 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. In the Norse literature we are told that Thor, the son of Earth, slays the World-dragon, walks nine paces and dies of the venom of the Serpent.* If the slaying of the dragon be understood, as remarked by Prof. Rhys, to mean the con- quest of the Sun-hero over the powers of darkness, and the death of Thor be taken to represent the sinking of the summer-sun below the horizon, we have here a clear state- ment that Thor, the Sun-hero, walked nine paces during the time that intervened between the end of winter and the end of summer. These nine paces could not be nine days or nine years; and there is therefore no alternative but to hold that the legend refers to the nine months' life of the Sun-god before he succumbed to the powers of darkness. The Avestic story of Vafra, or, according to Spiegel, Vifra Navâza (Yt. V, 61), belongs, I think, to the same class. He is said to have been flung up in the air, in the shape of a bird by Thraêtaona and was flying for three days and three nights towards his own house, but could not turn down. At the end of the third night when the beneficent dawn came dawning up, he prayed unto Ardvi Sûra Anâhita to help him, promising to offer Haomas and meat by the brink of the river Rangha. Ardvi Sûra Anâhita listening to his prayer is then said to have brought him to his house safe and unhurt. Vifra Navâza in this legend is very likely Vipra Navagva of the Ṛig-Veda. We have seen that the Navagvas and seven Vipras are mentioned together in the Ṛig-Veda (VI, 22, 2) and that the Ashvins, who are called Vipra-vâhasâ in (V, 74, 7), are said to have resided for three days and three nights in the distant region. It is not unlikely, therefore, that the story of the Navagvas, who go to help Indra in the world of darkness after completing their sacrificial session of nine months, may have been combined with the story of the Ashvins in the Avestic legend of Vifra Navâza, Sanskrit

• Rhys' Hibbert Lectures, p. 616.