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

THE COWS' WALK. 203
walk. In plain language this means, if it means anything,
that the oldest Aryan year was one of ten months followed by
the long night, during which the cows were again carried away
by the powers of darkness. We have seen that the oldest Ro-
man year was of ten months, and the Avesta, as will be shown
later on, also speaks of ten months' summer prevailing in the
Airyana Vaejo before the home was invaded by the evil spirit,
who brought on ice and severe winter in that place. A year of
ten months with a long night of two months may thus be
taken to be known before the Aryan separation, and the refer-
ences to it in the Vedic literature are neither isolated nor ima-
ginary. Thye are the relics of ancient history, which have been
faithfully preserved in the sacrificial literature of India, and if
they were hitherto misunderstood it was because the true key
required for their solution was as yet unknown.
But as stated in the previous chapter, a year in the circum-
polar region will always have a varying number of the months
of sunshine according to latitude. Although, therefore, there
is sufficient evidence to establish the existence of a year of
ten months, we cannot hold that it was the only year known in
ancient times. In fact we have seen that the legend of Aditi
indicates the existence of the seven months of sunshine ; and a
band of thirty continuous dawns supports the same conclusion.
But it seems that a year of ten months of sunshine was more
prevalent, or was selected as the mean of the different vary-
ing years. The former view is rendered probable by the fact
that of the Aṅgirases of various forms (virûpas) the Navag-
vas and the Dashagvas are said to be the principal or the most
important in the Ṛig-Veda (X, 62, 6). But whichever view
we adopt, the existence of a year of seven, eight, nine, ten or
eleven months of sunshine follows as a matter of course, if the
ancient Aryan home was within the Arctic circle. Prof. Max
Muller, in the passage quoted above, points out that the old
Greek year probably consisted of 350 days, the 350 oxen of