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

COMPARATIVE MYTHOLOGY. 403
Vipra being changed into Avestic Vîfra and Navagva into
Navâza.
The above legends from the Greek, Celtic and Norse
literatures show that a long winter-darkness was not un-
known to the ancestors of the Aryan races in Europe, who
have preserved distinct reminiscences of a year of ten or six
months' sun-shine, and that the Navagvas and the Dasha-
gvas of the Ṛig-Veda have again their parallels in the mytho-
logy of other Aryan races, though the resemblance may not
be as obvious in the one as in the other case. A year
of six months' or ten months' sunshine necessarily implies
a long continuous day and a long continuous night, and
distinct references to these Arctic characteristics of day
and night are found in Norse and Slavonic legends. Thus
the Norse Sun-god Balder is said to have dwelt in a place
in heaven called Breidablik or Broadgleam, the most bless-
ed of all lands, where nought unclean or accursed could
abide. Upon this Prof. Rhys observes, "It is remarkable
that Balder had a dwelling place in the heavens, and this
seems to refer to the Arctic summer when the sun pro-
longs his stay above the horizon. The pendant to the
picture would naturally be his staying as long in the nether
world."* This corresponds exactly with the Vedic description
of the sun's unyoking his carriage and making a halt in the
mid of the heaven, discussed in the sixth chapter. The story
of three brothers in the Slavonic literature also points out to
the same conclusion. We are told that "Once there was
an old couple who had three sons. Two of them had their wits
about them, but the third, Ivan, was a simpleton. Now in
the land in which Ivan lived, there was never any day but
always night. This was a snake's doing. Well, Ivan under-
took to kill that snake. Then came a third snake with
twelve heads, Ivan killed it and destroyed the heads and

• Rhys' Hibbert Lectures, p. 536.