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

THE AVESTIC EVIDENCE. 381
equivalent to a single day ? There is no reference to Angra
Mainyu in this passage which describes in the form of a pro-
phecy the evils of glaciation, much in the same manner as a
modern geologist would describe the progress of the ice-cap
during the Glacial period. Ahura Mazda tells Yima that fierce
and foul frost will fall on the material world, and even the tops
of the highest mountains will be covered with or rather buried
in snow which will destroy all living beings whether on the tops
of the mountains or in the valleys below. The snow, it is said,
would fall aredvi deep, which Spiegel translates by the phrase
'in great abundance,' while Darmesteter, quoting from the com-
mentary, explains in a footnote that "even where it (the snow)
is least, it will be one Vitasti two fingers, that is, fourteen fingers
deep." A cubit of snow, at the lowest, covering the highest
tops of the mountains and the lowest depths of the valleys alike .
cannot but destroy all animal life ; and I do not think that the
beginning of the Ice-age can be more vividly described. With
this express passage before us ascribing the ruin of the happy land
to the invasion of ice and winter, we should have no difficulty
whatsoever in rightly interpreting the meaning of the invasion
of Angra Mainyu described in the beginning of the first Fargard.
It is no longer a matter of inference that the original genial
climate of the Airyana Vaêjo was rendered inclement by the
invasion of winter and snow, afterwards introduced into the land.
The above passage says so in distinct terms, and the description
is so graphic that we cannot regard it as mythical or imaginary.
Add to it the fact that the recent geological discoveries have
established the existence of at least two Glacial periods, the last
of which closed and the post-Glacial period commenced, accord-
ing to American geologists, not later than about 8000 B. C.
When the Avestic traditions regarding the destruction of the
primeval Arctic home by glaciation is thus found to be in com-
plete harmony with the latest geological researches, there is no