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

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.

COMPARATIVE MYTHOLOGY. 403 Vipra being changed into Avestic Vîfra and Navagva into Navâza. The above legends from the Greek, Celtic and Norse literatures show that a long winter-darkness was not un- known to the ancestors of the Aryan races in Europe, who have preserved distinct reminiscences of a year of ten or six months' sun-shine, and that the Navagvas and the Dasha- gvas of the Ṛig-Veda have again their parallels in the mytho- logy of other Aryan races, though the resemblance may not be as obvious in the one as in the other case. A year of six months' or ten months' sunshine necessarily implies a long continuous day and a long continuous night, and distinct references to these Arctic characteristics of day and night are found in Norse and Slavonic legends. Thus the Norse Sun-god Balder is said to have dwelt in a place in heaven called Breidablik or Broadgleam, the most bless- ed of all lands, where nought unclean or accursed could abide. Upon this Prof. Rhys observes, "It is remarkable that Balder had a dwelling place in the heavens, and this seems to refer to the Arctic summer when the sun pro- longs his stay above the horizon. The pendant to the picture would naturally be his staying as long in the nether world."* This corresponds exactly with the Vedic description of the sun's unyoking his carriage and making a halt in the mid of the heaven, discussed in the sixth chapter. The story of three brothers in the Slavonic literature also points out to the same conclusion. We are told that "Once there was an old couple who had three sons. Two of them had their wits about them, but the third, Ivan, was a simpleton. Now in the land in which Ivan lived, there was never any day but always night. This was a snake's doing. Well, Ivan under- took to kill that snake. Then came a third snake with twelve heads, Ivan killed it and destroyed the heads and

• Rhys' Hibbert Lectures, p. 536.

404 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. immediately there was light throughout the whole land."* This reminds one of the story of Trita in the Ṛig-Veda previously described. Trita's abode is said to be in the distant region, and we have interpreted it to mean the nether world of dark ness, an interpretation which amongst others is fully borne out by the story of Ivan and his two brothers. But the dark power takes a distinctive Russian appearance in the awful figure of Koshchei, the deathless,—a fleshless skeleton who squeezes heroes to death in his bony arms. He carries off a princess; after seven years the hero reaches his under-ground palace and is hidden; but is discovered by Koshchei who typi- fies winter in this case. All these legends clearly indicate a dark winter of some months' duration, or the long winter- night of the Arctic regions. There are other stories in which the Sun-hero is said to have been detained in a place of darkness; but it is not necessary to refer to them in this place. For comparison I shall only refer briefly to a legend in the Finnish mythology, which, though not Aryan in origin, may yet serve to throw some light on the subject under considera- tion. In the mythology of the Finns, the Dawn is called Koi and "Koi, the Dawn (masc.), and Ammarik, the Gloam- ing (fem.), are said to have been entrusted by Vanna-issa, the Old Father, with lighting and extinguishing every morning and evening the torch of the day. As a reward for their faithful services Vanna-issa would allow them to get married. But they preferred to remain bride and bridegroom, and Vanna-issa had nothing more to say. He allowed them, however, to meet at midnight during four weeks in summer. At that time. Ammarik hands the dying torch to Koi, who revives it with his breath."‡ If this legend has any meaning it signifies the cessation of extinguishing the torch of the day during four weeks in summer. Koi and Ammarik both leave

• Poor's Comparative Mythology, p. 390. ‡ Max Muller's Con- tributions to the Science of Mythology, pp. 267-8.

COMPARATIVE MYTHOLOGY. 405 their places and arrange to meet at midnight but without ex- tinguishing the torch. This means a long day of four weeks, and as it must have a long night of four weeks to match it the story points out to a period of eleven months' sun-shine, and an Arctic night of four weeks. From the legends mentioned, or referred to, or described above, it may be easily seen that many traces of the Arctic calendar are still discernible in the mythology of the west- ern Aryan races like Celts, Teutons, Lets, Slavs, Greeks and Romans. Long dawns or a number of dawns, long days, long nights, dark winters, are all alluded to more or less explicitly in these myths, though none of these legends refers directly to the position of the primeval home and the cause of its destruction. But this omission or defect is removed by the evidence contained in the Veda and the Avesta ; and when the European legends are viewed in the light of the Indo-Iranian traditions they clearly point to the existence of a primeval home near the North Pole. There are a number of other legends in the Celtic and Teutonic literatures which describe the victory of sun-hero over the demons of darkness every year, similar in character to the victory of Indra over Vṛitra, or to the achievements of the Ashvins, the physicians of the gods. Thus in the Norse mythology, Hodur, the blind god of winter, is represented as killing Balder or Baldur, or the god of summer, and Vali the son of Odin and Rind is said to have avenged his brother's death afterwards. The encounters of Ċuchulainn, the Celtic Sun-god, with his enemies, the Fomori or the Fir Bolg, the Irish representatives of the powers of dark- ness, are of the same character. It may also be remarked that according to Prof. Rhys the world of waters and the world of darkness and the dead are identical in Celtic myths, in the same way as the world of water, the abode of Vṛitra and the world of darkness are shown to be in the Vedic mythology. The strange custom of couvade, by which the whole population

406 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. of Ireland is described as being laid up in confinement or in- disposed so as to be unable to defend their country against the invasion of Ailill and ‘Medle with their Fir Bolg, excepting Cuchulainn and his father, again indicates, according to Prof. Rhys, a sort of decline in the power of gods like that witnessed in the case of the winter-sun ; in other words, it was an indisposi- tion or inactivity of the same sort which amounts in the Norse Edda to nothing less than actual death of the Anses at the hands of the powers of evil. This temporary affliction or the indisposi- tion of the gods forms the subject of many other legends. But we have no space to narrate all of them, and shall, therefore, only quote here the conclusion, which Prof. Rhys has been forced to adopt, regarding the meaning of these myths after a critical examination of the different Celtic and Teutonic legends. Speaking of Gods, Demons and Heroes, in the last lecture of his learned work, he thus sums up his views regarding the myths describing the encounters between Gods or Sun-heroes and the powers of darkness :--- “ All that we have thus far found with regard to the con- test of the gods and their allies against the powers of evil and theirs, would seem to indicate that they were originally regard- ed as yearly struggles. This appears to be the meaning of the fore-knowledge as to the final battle of Moytura, and as to the exact date of the engagement on the Plain of Fidga in which Cuchulainn assists Labraid of the Swift Hand on the sword, a kind of Celtic Zeus, or Mars-Jupiter, as the ruler of an Ely- sium in the other world. It was for a similar reason that the northern Sibyl could predict that, after the Anses had been slain by Swart, aided by the evil brood, Balder would come to reign, when all would be healed, and the Anses would meet again in the Field of Ith. Nor can the case have been materi- ally different with the Greek gods, as proved by the allusion to the prophecy about the issue of the war with the giants.

COMPARATIVE MYTHOLOGY. 407 And this was not all ; for we are told that the Cretans repre- sented Zeus as born and bred and also buried in their island, a view sometimes formally regarded as confirming the character ascribed to them for lying ; but that deserves no serious consi- deration, and the Cretans in their mysteries are supposed to have represented the god going through the stages of his history every year. A little beyond the limits of the Greek world a simi- lar idea assumed a still more remarkable form, namely, among the Phrygians, who are said by Plutarch to have believed their god (like the Purâṇic Vishṇu) to sleep during the winter and resume his activity during summer. The same author also states that the Paphlagonians were of opinion that the gods were shut up in a prison during winter and let loose in summer. Of these peoples, the Phrygians at least appear to have been Aryan, and related by no means distantly to the Greeks ; but nothing could resemble the Irish couvade of the Ultonion heroes more closely than the notion of the Phrygian god hibernating. This, in its turn, is not to be severed from the drastic account of the Zeus of the Greek Olympus reduced by Typho to a sinewless mass and thrown for a time into a cave in a state of utter helplessness. Thus we seem to be directed to the north as the orginal home of the Aryan nations ; and there are other indications to the same effect, such as Woden's gold ring Draupnir, which I have taken to be symbolic of the ancient eight-day week : he places it on Balder's pile, and with him it disappears for a while into the nether world, which would seem to mean the cessation for a time of the vicissitude of day and night, as happens in midwinter within the Arctic Circle. This might be claimed as exclusively Icelandic, but not if one can show traces, as I have attempted, of the same myth in Ireland. Further, a sort of complement to it is supplied by the fact that Cuchulainn, the Sun-hero, is made to fight several days and nights without having any sleep, which though fixed at the wrong season of the year in

408 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. the epic tale in its present form, may probably be regarded as originally referring to the sun remaining above the horizon continuously for several days in summer. Traces of the same idea betray themselves in Balder's son Forseti or the Judge, who, according to a passage in old Norse literature, sits long hours at his court settling all causes in his palace of Glitnir in the skies. These points are mentioned as part of a hypothesis I have been forced to form for the interpretation of certain features of Aryan mythology; and that hypothesis, to say the least of it, will not now be considered so wild as it would have been a few years ago; for the recent researches of the students of language and ethnology have profoundly modified their views, and a few words must, at this point, be devoted to the change that has come over the scene."* Prof. Rhys then goes on to briefly describe how the views of mythologists and philologists regarding the primeval home of the Aryan race have been modified by the recent discoveries in Geology, Archælogy and Craniology, and how the site of that home has been shifted from the plains of Central Asia to the northern parts of Germany or even to Scandinavia not only on ethnological but also on philological grounds. As we have discussed the subject previously, we omit this portion of Prof. Rhys' remarks and quote the concluding paragraph which runs as follows:— " Thus the voice of recent research is raised very decidedly in favour of Europe, though there is no complete unanimity as to the exact portion of Europe, to regard as the early home of the Aryans; but the competition tends to lie between North Germany and Scandinavia, especially the south of Sweden. This last would probably do well enough as the country in which the Aryans may have consolidated and organized them- selves before beginning to send forth their excess of popula- tion to conquer the other lands now possessed by nations

• Rhys' Hibbert Lectures, pp. 631-3.

COMPARATIVE MYTHOLOGY. 409

speaking Aryan languages. Nor can one forget that all the great states of modern Europe, except that of the sick man, trace their history back to the conquest of the Norsemen who set out from the Scandinavian land, which Jordanis proudly calls officina gentium and vagina nationum. But I doubt whether the teachings of evolution may not force us to trace them still further towards the North : in any case, the mythological indications to which your attention has been called, point, if I am not mistaken, to some spot within the Arctic Circle, such, for example, as the region where Norse legend placed the Land of Immortality, somewhere in the north of Finland and the neighbourhood of the White Sea. There would, perhaps, be no difficulty in the way of supposing them to have thence in due time descended into Scandinavia, settling, among other places, at Upsala, which has all the appearance of being a most ancient site, lying as it does on a plain dotted with innumerable burial mounds of unknown antiquity. This, you will bear in mind, has to do only with the origin of the early Aryans, and not with that of the human race generally; but it would be no fatal objection to the view here suggested, if it should be urged that the mythology of nations beside the Aryans, such as that of the Paphlagonians, in case of their not being Aryan, point like- wise to the north; for it is not contended that the Aryans may be the only people of northern origin. Indeed, I may add that a theory was, not long ago, propounded by a distinguished French savant, to the effect that the entire human race originated on the shores of the Polar Sea at a time when the rest of the nor- thern hemisphere was too hot to be inhabited by man. M. de Saporta, for that is the learned writer's name, ex- plains himself in clear and forcible terms; but how far his hypothesis may satisfy the other students of this- fascinating subject I cannot say. It may, however, be ob- served in passing that it need not disconcert even the most

410 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. -orthodox of men, for it supposes all the races of mankind traceable to a single non-simian origin, and the Bible leaves it an open question where exactly and when the Garden of Eden -flourished.'"* I have very little to add to the views expressed in the above passages ; in fact Prof. Rhys has left us little to be done so far as Celtic and Teutonic myths are concerned. The way in which he proceeds to analyze the legends and show that they all point to a primeval home in the Arctic regions is at once interesting and instructive. He first clears the ground by ascribing the different prophecies occuring in the legends not to any fore-know- ledge on the part of the poet, but to the simple fact that the events spoken of were of annual occurrence, and as they were known to recur regularly it was not difficult to adopt the language of prophecy and predict the happening of these events in future. He then collects a number of facts which go to prove that gods and heroes were afflicted with some disability of distress at certain intervals of time, which rendered them incapable to carry on the annual struggle with the powers of evil and darkness. The only physical phenomena corresponding to such distress of the solar hero, or the sun, are his daily setting, the decay of his powers in winter and his disappearing below the horizon for some months in the Polar regions. As the struggle between the Sun-god and his enemies is, as stated above, determined to be annual, the daily setting of the sun does not come within the range of the possible explanations of the temporary distress of the sun-god. Out of the two remaining physical phenomena, the decay of sun's power in winter would have answered the purpose, had there been no legends or myths which indi- cated the cessation of the vicissitude of day and night for some time. I have pointed out before how Prof. Max Muller, who has followed the same method of interpretation

• Rhys'. Hibbert Lectures, pp. 636-7.

COMPARATIVE MYTHOLOGY. 411 in his discussion of the achievements of the Ashvins, has failed to grasp the real meaning of the 'Ashvins' legends by disregarding the statements which distinctly speak of the prote- ges of the Ashvins as dwelling or labouring in darkness. Prof. Rhys is more cautious in this respect, and is anxious to account for all the incidents in the legends if they could possibly be accounted for on any theory. The result is that he has been gradually led, or we might even say forced, to adopt the theory of the ancient Arctic home of the Aryan people inasmuch as all the different incidents in the legends under consideration can be accounted for only by this theory. In short, Prof. Rhys has done for the Celtic and Teutonic myths what we have endea- voured to do in this book in regard to the Vedic and Avestic tra- ditions. This has considerably lightened our labour in regard to the examination of Celtic and Teutonic myths from our point of view, and our thanks are due to Prof. Rhys for the same. But we feel sure that if the Vedic evidence and facts stated and discussed in the fore-going chapters had been known to the learned Professor before he wrote his work, he would have ex- pressed himself still more confidently regarding the inference to be drawn from the traces of Arctic origin discernible in Teu- tonic myths ; but even as it is, the value of his testimony stands very high in the decision of the question before us. It is the testimony of an expert given after a critical and careful examina- tion of all Celtic and Teutonic Myths, and after comparing them with similar Greek traditions; and when this testimony falls in so completely with the conclusions we have drawn from an independent consideration of the Vedic and Avestic myths, our results may, so to say, be regarded as doubly proved. It has already been shown that the results of comparative philology also support, or, at any rate, are not inconsistent with our conclusions. The theory of the Asiatic home may be said to have been now abandoned on linguistic or etymological grounds,

412 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. but it has not yet been proved that the neolithic Aryan races of Europe were autochthonus in the countries where their remains are now found. Therefore the question of the original home of the Aryan people is still an open question, and we are free to draw any conclusion regarding the ancient home from a legitimate consideration of the traditional evi- dence before us. Prof. Rhys has well described the situation by observing that the teachings of evolution may force us to look for the original home still farther north in the Arctic regions. In fact we have to go to a latitude which will give us seven months' sunshine, or a hundred nights' continuous darkness, or thirty days' continuous dawn. The question whe- ther the home of other nations, beside the Aryan, can be traced to the North Pole, has been ably discussed by Dr. Warren in his Paradise Found, or the Cradle of the Human Race at the North Pole. It is an important question from an anthropolo- gical point of view; but its very comprehensiveness precludes us from collecting evidence from the traditional literatures of the different human races living on the surface of this earth. It is true that we sometimes derive help from the discussion of the broader questions at first ; but for all practical purposes it is always desirable to split up the inquiry into different sec- tions, and when each section has been thoroughly investigated to combine the results of the different investigators and see what conclusions are common to all. Our inquiry of the ori- ginal Aryan home is, therefore, not only not inconsistent with the general theory about the cradle of the human race at the North Pole, but a necessary complement to it; and it matters little whether it is undertaken as an independent inquiry as we have done, or as a part of the general investigation. Any how ours is a limited task, namely, to prove that the original home of the Aryan people was situated in the Arctic regions before the last Glacial epoch and that the oldest ancestors of the Aryan race had to abandon it owing to its destruction by

COMPARATIVE MYTHOLOGY. 413 ice and snow of the Glacial period. The Vedic and the Ave- stic passages, quoted in the previous chapters, directly point to such a home in primeval times, and we now see that the testi- mony of scholars, like Prof. Rhys, who have independently examined the Celtic, Teutonic and other mythologies of the. European branches of the Aryan race, fully bears out the con- clusion we have deduced from the Indo-Iranian traditions. We have also seen that our view is supported by the latest scientific researches, and is not inconsistent with the results of comparative philology. We may, therefore, take it as established that the original home of the Aryan people was in the far north, in regions round about the North Pole, and that we have correctly interpreted the Vedic and the Avestic traditions which had long remained mis-interpreted or mis-understood.

CHAPTER XIII. THE BEARING OF OUR RESULTS ON THE HISTORY OF PRIMITIVE ARYAN CULTURE AND RELIGION. Proofs of the theory of the Arctic home summed up—They clear- ly indicate a Polar home,but the exact spot in the Arctic regions, that is, north of Europe or Asia, still undeterminable—An Arctic home possible only in inter-Glacial times according to geology —Ancient Vedic chronology and calendar examined—The in- terval between the commencement of the Post-Glacial era and the Orion period cannot, according to it, be so great as 80,000 years—Supported by the moderate estimate of the American geologists-Purânic chronology of yugas, manvantaras and kalpas —Rangâchârya's and Aiyer's views thereon—Later Purânic system evolved out of an original cycle of four yugas of 10,000 years, since the last deluge—The theory of ‘divine years’ unknown to Manu and Vyâsa—Adopted by later writers who could not believe that they lived in the Krita age —The original tradition of 10,000 years since the last deluge fully in accord with Vedic chronology—And also with the American estimate of 8,000 B. C. for the beginning of the Post-Glacial period—All prove the existence of a Polar Aryan home before 8,000 B. C.—Trustworthiness of the ancient tra- ditions and the method of preserving them—The theory of the Polar origin of the whole human race not inconsistent with the theory of the Arctic Aryan home—Current views regarding pri- mitive Aryan culture and religion examined—Primitive Aryan man and his civilisation cannot now be treated as Post-Gla- cial—Certain destruction of the primeval civilization and cul- ture by the Ice Age—Short-comings or defects in the civilisa- tion of the Neolithic Aryan races in Europe must, therefore, be ascribed to a post-diluvian relapse into barbarism—Life and calendar in the inter-Glacial Arctic home—Devayâna and Pitri- yâna and the deities worshipped during the period—The ancient sacrifices of the Aryan race—The degree of civilisation reached by the undivided Aryans in their Arctic home—The results of Comparative Philology stated—The civilisation disclosed by them

PRIMITIVE ARYAN CULTURE AND RELIGION. 415 must be taken to be the minimum or the lowest, that can be pre- dicated of the undivided Aryans—The culture of the undivided Aryans higher than the culture of the Stone or the Metal age- —Use of metal coins among them highly probable—Beginnings of the Aryan language, or the differentiation of human races ac- cording to colour or language still untraceable—The origin of Aryan man and religion lost in geological antiquity—Theologi- cal views regarding the origin and character of the Vedas sum- marised—Differently supported by writers on the different schools of philosophy—Patanjali’s and Vyâsa's view that the Vedas were lost in the last deluge and repromulgated in sub- stance, if not in form, at the beginning of the new age—The four periods into which the Post-Glacial era may be divided on astronomical grounds—Compared with the characteristics of the four yugas given in the Aitareya Brâhmaṇa—Theological and historical views regarding the origin &c. of the Vedas stated in parallel columns and compared —Vedic texts, showing that the subject matter of the hymns is ancient though the language may be new, cited—Vedic deities and their exploits all said to be ancient—Improbability of Dr. Muir’s suggested reconciliation —Vedas, or rather Vedic religion, shown to be inter-Glacial in substance though post-Glacial in form—Concluding remarks. WE have now completed our investigation of the question of the original home of the ancestors of the Vedic Aryans from different stand-points of view. Our arguments, it will be seen, are not based on the history of culture, or on facts dis- closed by linguistic palæontology. The evidence, cited in the foregoing chapters, mainly consists of direct passages from the Vedas and the Avesta, proving unmistakably that the poets of the Ṛig-Veda were acquainted with the climatic conditions witnessible only in the Arctic regions, and that the principal Vedic deities, such as the revolving Dawn, the Waters capti- vated by Vṛitra, the Ashvins the rescuers of the afflicted gods and Sûrya, Indra the deity of a hundred sacrifices, Vishṇu the vast-strider, Varuṇa the lord of night and the ocean, the Âditya brothers or the seven monthly sun-gods, Trita or the Third, and others, are clothed with attributes which clearly betray their

416 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. Arctic origin. In other words, all the differentiæ, mentioned in the third chapter as characteristic of the Polar and Circum- Polar regions, are met with in the Ṛig-Veda in such a way as to leave no doubt regarding the conclusion to be drawn from them. A day or a night of six months, and a long continuous dawn of several days' duration with its revolving splendours, not to mention the unusually long Arctic day and night or a year of less than twelve months' sunshine, were all known to the Vedic bards, and have been described by them not mytho- logically or metaphorically but directly in plain and simple words, which, though misinterpreted so long, can, in the light thrown upon the question by recent scientific researches, be now rightly read and understood. In fact the task, which I set to myself, was to find out such passages, and show how in the absence of the true key to their meaning, they have been sub- jected to forced construction, or ignored and neglected, by Vedic scholars both Indian and foreign, ancient and modern. I do not mean, however, to underrate, on that account, the value or the importance of the labours of Indian Nairuktas like Yâska, or commentators like Sâyaṇa. Without their aid we should have, it is readily admitted, been able to do little in the field of the Vedic interpretation; and I am fully aware of the service they have rendered to this cause. There is no question that they have done their best in elucidating the meaning of our sacred books; and their claims on the grateful remembrance of their services by future generations of scholars will ever remain unchallenged. But if the Vedas are really the oldest records of our race, who can deny that in the light of the advancing knowledge regarding primitive humanity, we may still discover in these ancient records facts and statements which may have escaped the attention of older scholars owing to the imperfect nature, in their days, of those sciences which are calculated to throw further light on the habits and environments of the oldest ancestors of our