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

THE AVESTIC EVIDENCE. 367
three renderings given above. Another important fact men-
tioned in the passage is that the prolonged duration of winter
was the result of Angra Mainyu's counter-action, meaning
thereby that before the invasion of Angra Mainyu different
climatic conditions prevailed in that region. This view is
further strengthened by the consideration that the Iranians
could never have placed their Paradise in a land of severe
winter and snow. Bunsen has, therefore, rightly observed that
the Airyana Vaêjo was originally a perfect country and had
a very mild climate, until the hostile deity created a powerful
serpent and snow, so that only two months of summer remain-
ed while winter prevailed during ten. In short, the passage
in question speaks of a sudden change in the climate of the
original home, a change that converted the paradise into a
kind of ice-bound land with long and severe winters. If we,
therefore, want to know what the land was like before the
invasion of Angra Mainyu, we must. reverse the climatic con-
ditions that obtained after the invasion, and suppose that this
cradle of the Iranian race was situated in the extreme north
where long cool summers of ten months and short mild winters
of two months originally prevailed. It was Angra Mainyu
who altered this genial climate by means of glaciation and
rendered it unbearable to man. The description of the two
summer months after the invasion, viz., that "These were
cold as to the water, cold as to the earth, cold as to the trees,"
shows that after glaciation even the summer climate was
unsuited for human habitation.
We have stated above that the passage in question in-
dicates a sudden change in the climate of the Airyana Vaêjo,
converting ten months summer and two months winter into
ten months severe winter and two months cold summer.
Thirty or forty years ago such a statement or proposition would
have been regarded not only bold, but impossible or almost
insane, for the geological knowledge of the time was not