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

: 400 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
divided into two principal divisions, summer (lêto) and winter
(zima); and finally evident traces of old state of things are
not wanting in Greek and Latin.'"* Dr. Schrader further re-
marks that the separate conceptions of winter and summer
were combined in one whole even in primitive times; but there-
is no word for a year common to all or most of the Aryan
languages, and it is not unlikely that the names of summer or
winter were used to denote the return of the seasons more fre-
quently than the conception of winter and summer combined
into one whole. As the length of summer, or the period of
sunshine, as contrasted with the period of darkness, varied from
six to twelve months in the Arctic regions the conception of a
year of twelve months was perhaps less suited for practical rec-
koning in the primeval home than the conception of so many
months' summer or so many months' winter taken singly, and
this explains why in the Ṛig-Veda we have the expression
"mânushâ yugâ and kshapah" to denote the whole year.
In discussing the legend of the Navagvas and the Dashag-
vas we have shown that the numerals incorporated in their
names must be interpreted as referring to the number of
months during which they completed their annual sacrifices,
and that Prof. Lignana's view that they refer to the months of
pregnancy is not only improbable but opposed to the express
Vedic texts which tell us that the Navagvas and the Dashag-
vas completed their sacrifices in ten months. Let us now see
if there are corresponding personages in other Aryan mytholo-
gies. Prof. Lignana has pointed out the resemblance between
the Navagvas and the Novemsides of the Romans. The com-
parison is no doubt happy, but there is nothing in the cult of
the Novemsides which gives us a clue to the original meaning
of the word. We know nothing beyond the fact that Novem-
sides (also spelt Novemsiles) were certain Latin gods, who

• Schrader's Prehistoric Antiquites of Aryan Peoples, translated
  by Jevons, Part IV, ch. VI, p. 302.