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

THE NIGHT OF THE GODS. 77
were deferred till the break of the dawn at the end of the
Pitṛiyâna, or the commencement of the Devayâna. Even now
death during night is considered inauspicious, and the funeral
generally takes place after daybreak.
The Parsi scriptures are still more explicit. In the Vendi-
dad, Fargards V, 10, and VIII, 4, a question is raised how the
worshipper of Mazda should act, when a death takes place in a
house when the summer has passed and the winter has come;
and Ahura Mazda answers, "In such cases a Kata (ditch) should
be made in every house and there the lifeless body should be
allowed to lie for two nights, or for three nights, or for a month
long, until the birds begin to fly, the plants to grow, the floods
to flow, and the wind to dry up the water from off the earth."
Considering the fact, that the dead body of a worshipper of
Mazda is required to be exposed to the sun before it is consigned
to birds, the only reason for keeping the dead body in the house
for one month seems to be that it was a month of darkness. The
description of birds beginning to fly, and the floods to flow, &c.,
reminds one of the description of the dawn in the Ṛig-Veda, and
it is quite probable that the expressions here denote the same
phenomenon as in the Ṛig-Veda. In fact they indicate a winter
of total darkness during which the corpse is directed to be kept
in the house, to be exposed to the sun on the first breaking of
the dawn after the long night. * It will, however, be more
convenient to discuss these passages, after examining the whole
of the Vedic evidence in favour of the Arctic home. I have
referred to them here to show the complete correspondence
between the Hindu and the Parsi scriptures regarding the day
and the night of the Gods, and their unmistakable Polar charac-
teristics indicating the existence of an early home within the
Arctic circle.

• See infra Chapter IX.