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

VEDIC MYTHS—THE CAPTIVE WATERS. 273
three nights, or a month; and that during the period, the
floods ceased to flow and the plants to grow. It was during such
a winter that the difficulty of disposing the corpse arose, and
Ahura Mazda is asked what the faithful should do in such cases.
The question has no meaning otherwise, for, if in the ancient
home of the Mazdayasnians the sun shone every day during winter,
as he does with us in the tropical regions, there would have
been no difficulty in the disposal of the corpse by exposing it to
the sun the next morning; and it would be absurd to ask the
faithful to keep the uncleanly dead body in his house for two
nights, three nights, or a month long, until the winter passed
away. The passage from Fargard V quoted above makes no
mention of darkness, though it can be easily inferred from the
statement that the body is, at last, to be taken out and laid
down on the Dakhma with its eyes towards the sun, evidently
meaning that this ceremony was impossible to be performed
during the time the dead body was kept up in the house. But
Fargard VIII, 4 (11), where the same subject is again taken up,
mentions darkness distinctly. Thus Ahura Mazda is asked "If
in the house of the worshipper of Mazda a dog or a man happens
to die, and it is raining, or snowing, or blowing, or the darkness
is coming on, when the flocks and the men lose their way,
what shall the worshipper of Mazda do?" To this Ahura Mazda
gives the same reply as in Fargard V. The faithful is directed,
VIII, 9, (21), to dig a grave in the house, and there "let the life-
less body lie 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." Here
in the question asked to Ahura Mazda darkness is distinctly
mentioned along with snowing and blowing; and in the Far-
vardin Yasht we have seen that the flowing of waters and the
moving of the sun are described as taking place at the same
time. The passage from Tir Yasht, where the appointed time
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