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

THE AVESTIC EVIDENCE. 379
Aryan race went over to and settled in that country. Naturally
enough this introduced greater confusion into the account of
the Airyana Vaêjo instead of elucidating it, and scholars tried to
get out of it by supposing that the whole account is either
mythical, or is, at best, a confused reminiscence of the ancient
Iranian home. The recent scientific discoveries have, however,
proved the correctness of the Avestic traditions, and in the
light thrown upon the subject by the new materials there is no
course left but to reject the erroneous speculations of those
Zend scholars that make the Airyana Vaêjo the eastern boundary
of ancient Iran.
But the most important part of the second Fargard is the
warning conveyed by Ahura Mazda to Yima that fatal winters
were going to fall on the land ruled over by the latter, and the
description of glaciation by which the happy land was to be
ruined. The warning is in the form of a prophecy, but any
one who reads the two Fargards carefully can see that the
passage really gives us a description of the Glacial epoch
witnessed by the ancestors of the Iranians. We give below
the translation of the passage both by Darmesteter and
Spiegel.
VENDIDAD, FARGARD II.
Darmesteter. Spiegel.
22. And Ahura Mazda spake 46. Then spake Ahura Mazda
unto Yima saying, “O fair to Yima : “ Yima the fair, the
Yima, son of Vîvanghat! son of Vîvaṅhâo,
Upon the material world the 47. Upon the corporeal world
fatal winters are going to fall, will the evil of winter come :
that shall bring the fierce, foul 48. Wherefore a vehement,
frost ; upon the material world destroying frost will arise.
the fatal winters are going to 49. Upon the corporeal world
fall, that shall make snow- will the evil of winter come :
flakes fall thick, even an 50. Wherefore snow will fall