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

THE AVESTIC EVIDENCE. 371
be taken with the "five months of winter." But both Spiegel
and Darmesteter, as well as the commentator, are of opinion
that the phrases "And these are cold as to the water etc." from a
part of the original text, and must, therefore, be taken to refer to
the two summer months; and this view seems to be more
reasonable, for a later insertion, if any, is more likely to be a
short one than otherwise. The only addition to the original text
thus seems to be the statement "It is known that there are
seven months of summer and five of winter;" and this must be
taken as referring to the climatic conditions which obtained in
the Airyana Vaêjo before the invasion of Angra Mainyu, for the
latter reduced the duration of summer only to two months,
which again were cold to the water, the earth and the trees.
It has been shown above that as the Airyana Vaêjo was origin-
ally a happy land, we must suppose that the first climatic
conditions therein were exactly the reverse of those which were
introduced into it by Angra Mainyu; or, in other words, a sum-
mer of ten months and a winter of two months must be said to
have originally prevailed in this happy land. But the Zend
commentators have stated that there were seven months of
summer and five of winter therein; and this tradition appears to
have been equally old, for we read in the Bundahish (XXV, 10-14)
that "on the day Aûharmazd (first day) of Âvân the winter
acquires strength and enters into the world,...and on the auspi-
cious day Atarô of the month Dîn (the ninth day of the tenth
month) the winter arrives, with much cold, at Aîrân-vêj, and
until the end, in the auspicious month Spendarmad, winter
advances through the whole world; on this account they kindle
a fire everywhere on the day Âtarô of the month Din, and it
forms an indication that the winter has come." Here the five
months of winter in the Airyana Vaêjo are expressly mention-
ed to be Âvân, Âtarô, Dîn, Vohûman and Spendarmad; and
we are told that Rapîtvîn Gâh is not celebrated during this