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

272 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
clear in Fargards V and VIII of the Vendidad, where Ahura
Mazda declares how the corpse of a person dying during winter
is to be dealt with, until it is finally disposed of according to the
usual rites at the end of the season. Thus in Fargard V, 10 (34),
Ahura Mazda is asked, "If the summer is passed and the winter
has come, what shall the worshipper of Mazda do?" To which
Ahura Mazda answers, "In every house, in every borough they
shall raise three Katas for the dead, large enough not to strike
the skull, or the feet or the hands of the man; ... and they shall
let the lifeless body lie there for two nights, three nights or a month
long, until the birds begin to fly, the plants to grow, the floods
to flow, and the wind to dry up the waters from off the earth.
And as soon as the birds begin to fly, and the plants to grow,
and the floods to flow, and the wind to dry up the waters from
off the earth, then the worshipper of Mazda shall lay down the
dead (on the Dakhma), his eyes towards the sun." I have
referred to this passage previously, but as the theory of the circu-
lation of aerial waters was not then explained, the discussion of
the passage had to be postponed. We now clearly see what is
meant by the phrases like 'floods to flow' and 'plants to grow.'
They are the same phrases, which are used in the Farvardin Yasht
and are there connected with the moving forward of the sun and
the moon, that had stood still, or without moving, in the same
place for a long time. In other words, the waters, as well as the
sun, ceased to move during winter; and the worshipper of Mazda
is ordered not to dispose of the corpse until the floods began to
flow and the sun to move, be it for two nights, three nights, or a month
long. The Mazda-worshippers believed that the corpse was cleansed
by its exposure to the sun, and dead bodies could not, therefore,
be disposed of during night. The passage from the Vendidad, above
referred to, therefore, clearly indicates that the season of winter
was once marked by long darkness extending over two nights,