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

THE AVESTIC EVIDENCE. 365
cannot be placed in the far north, I think no scholar would
have cared to put forward such guesses. There are express
passages in the Avesta, which describe in unmistakable terms
the climatic characteristics of the Airyana Vaêjo, and so far
as I am aware, no valid reason has yet been assigned why we
should treat this description as mythical and have recourse to
guess-work for determining the position of the primeval home.
Thus at the beginning of the first Fargard, we are told that
the Airyana Vaêjo was the first good and happy creation of
Ahura Mazda, but Angra Mainyu converted it into a land of
ten months winter and two months summer, evidently meaning
that at the time when the Fargard was composed it was an ice-
bound land. The winter of ten months' duration, therefore, na-
turally points to a position in the far north, at a great distance
beyond the Jaxartes; and it would be unreasonable to ignore
this description which is characteristic only of the Arctic re-
gions, and, relying on doubtful guesses, hold that the Airyana
Vaêjo was the easternmost boundary of the ancient Iran. As
the passage, where the ten months' winter is described as the
present principal climatic characteristic of the Airyana Vaêjo,
is very important for our purpose, I give below the transla-
tions of the same by Darmesteter, Spiegel and Haug: —
VENDIDAD, FARGARD I.
Darmesteter. | Spiegel. | Haug and Bunsen.
3. The first of the | 5. The first and best | 3. As the first best of
good lands and coun- | of regions and places | regions and countries I,
tries, which I, Ahura | have I created, I who | who am Ahura Mazda,
Mazda, created, was the | am Ahura Mazda; | created Airyana Vaêjo
Airyana Vaêjo, by the | 6. The Airyana Vaê- | of good capability;
good river Dâitya. | jo of the good creation. | thereupon in opposition,
Thereupon came An- | 7. Then Angra Mai- | to him Angra Mainyus,
gra Mainyu, who is all | nyus, who is full of | the death-dealing, cre-
death, and he counter- | death, created an oppo- | ated a mighty serpent
created by his witch- | sition to the same; | and snow, the work of
craft the serpent in | 8. A great Serpent | the Daêvas.

366 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
Darmesteter. Spiegel. Haug and Bunsen.
the river and winter, and Winter, which the
a work of the Daêvas. Daêvas have created.
4. There are ten win- '9. Ten winter months 4. Ten months of
ter months there, two are there, two summer winter are there, two
summer months ;* and months, months of summer.
those are cold for the 10. And these are [Seven months of sum-
waters, cold for the cold as to the water, mer are there ; five
earth,cold for the trees. cold as to the earth, months of winter there
Winter falls there, with cold as to the trees. were ; * the latter are
the worst of its plagues. 11. After this to the cold as to water, cold
middle of the earth, as to earth, cold as
*N.B.—Darmesteter then to the heart of the to trees; there (is)—
states in a note that af- earth, midwinter, the heart of
ter summer months the 12. Comes the win- winter; there all around
Vendîdâd Sâdah adds, ter ; then comes the falls deep snow ; there is
“ It is known that [in most evil. the direst of plagues.]†
the ordinary course of
nature] there are seven † N. B.—According
months of summer and to Haug the whole of
five of winter.” the passage within brac-
kets is a later addition.
It will be seen from the above translations that they all
agree in the main points, viz., (1) that the Airyana Vaêjo was
the first good land created by Ahura Mazda, (2) that severe
winter and snow were first introduced into it by Angra Mainyu,
and (3) that after the invasion of Angra Mainyu there were
ten winter months and two summer months in that land.
The only difference between the three versions is that while
Darmesteter and Spiegel regard the last sentence “ And these
are cold for the waters, etc,” as a part of the original text
Haug regards it as a subsequent addition. All the translators
again agree in holding that the statement “ Seven months of
summer are there and five months of winter ” is a later inser-
tion. But we shall take up this question afterwards. For the
present we are concerned with the statement that “ Ten
months of winter are there, two months of summer,” and it
will be seen that there is no difference on this point in the

THE AVESTIC EVIDENCE. 367
three renderings given above. Another important fact men-
tioned in the passage is that the prolonged duration of winter
was the result of Angra Mainyu's counter-action, meaning
thereby that before the invasion of Angra Mainyu different
climatic conditions prevailed in that region. This view is
further strengthened by the consideration that the Iranians
could never have placed their Paradise in a land of severe
winter and snow. Bunsen has, therefore, rightly observed that
the Airyana Vaêjo was originally a perfect country and had
a very mild climate, until the hostile deity created a powerful
serpent and snow, so that only two months of summer remain-
ed while winter prevailed during ten. In short, the passage
in question speaks of a sudden change in the climate of the
original home, a change that converted the paradise into a
kind of ice-bound land with long and severe winters. If we,
therefore, want to know what the land was like before the
invasion of Angra Mainyu, we must. reverse the climatic con-
ditions that obtained after the invasion, and suppose that this
cradle of the Iranian race was situated in the extreme north
where long cool summers of ten months and short mild winters
of two months originally prevailed. It was Angra Mainyu
who altered this genial climate by means of glaciation and
rendered it unbearable to man. The description of the two
summer months after the invasion, viz., that "These were
cold as to the water, cold as to the earth, cold as to the trees,"
shows that after glaciation even the summer climate was
unsuited for human habitation.
We have stated above that the passage in question in-
dicates a sudden change in the climate of the Airyana Vaêjo,
converting ten months summer and two months winter into
ten months severe winter and two months cold summer.
Thirty or forty years ago such a statement or proposition would
have been regarded not only bold, but impossible or almost
insane, for the geological knowledge of the time was not

368 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
sufficiently advanced to establish the existence of a mild cli-
mate round about the North pole in ancient times. It was
probably this difficulty which stared Zend scholars in the
face when they declined to place the Airyana Vaêjo in the far
north, in spite of the plain description clearly indicating its
northernmost position. Happily the recent discoveries in
Geology and Archæology have not only removed this diffi-
culty by establishing, on scientific grounds, the existence of a
warm and genial climate near the North Pole in inter-glacial
times, but have proved that the Polar regions were invaded,
at least twice, by glaciation which destroyed their genial cli-
mate. Thus it is now a settled scientific fact that the Arctic
regions were once characterised by warm and short winters
and genial and long summers, a sort of perpetual spring, and
that this condition of things was totally upset or reversed
by the advent of the Glacial period which made winters long
and severe and summers short and cold. The description of
the climatic changes introduced by Angra Mainyu into the
Airyana Vaêjo is, therefore, just what a modern geologist
would ascribe to the Glacial epoch ; and when the description
is so remarkably and unexpectedly corroborated by the latest
scientific researches, I fail to see on what ground we can
lightly set it aside as mythical or imaginary. If some Zend
scholars have done so in the past, it was because geological
knowledge was not then sufficiently advanced to establish the
probability of the description contained in the Avesta. But
with new materials before us which go to confirm the Avestic
description of the Airyana Vaêjo in every detail, we shall be
acting unwisely if we decline to revise the conclusions of Zend
scholars arrived at some years ago on insufficient materials.
When we look at the question from this point of view, we
have to place the site of the Airyana Vaêjo in the Arctic re-
gions, where alone we can have a winter of ten months at the
present day. We can escape from such a conclusion only by

THE AVESTIC EVIDENCE. 369
denying the possibility that the passage in question contains
any traditional account of the ancient home of the Iranians;
and this course seems to have been adopted by some Zend
scholars of the day. But with the Vedic evidence, set forth and
discussed in the previous chapters, before us, we need not have
any of those apprehensions which have hitherto led many Zend
scholars to err on the side of caution and moderation. We have
seen that there are strong grounds for holding that the ancient
Indo-European year was a year of ten months followed by a long
night of two months; in other words, it was a year of ten sum-
mer months and two winter months, that is, exactly of the same
kind as the one which prevailed in the Airyana Vaêjo before the
happy land was invaded by the evil spirit. The word for
summer in Zend is hama, the same as Sanskrit samâ, which means
"a year" in the Rig-Veda. The period of ten summer months
mentioned in the Avesta would, therefore, mean a year of ten
months' sunshine, or of ten mânusha yugâ, followed by a long
wintry night of two months as described in the previous chapters.
It may be urged that the Vendidad does not say that the two
winter months were all dark, and we have, therefore, no
authority for converting two winter months into two months of
continuous darkness. A little reflection will, however, show
that the objection is utterly untenable. In order to have a winter
of ten months at the present day, we must place the Airyana
Vaêjo in the Arctic regions; and once we do so, a long night of
one, two or three months follows as a matter of course. This
long night will now fall in the middle of the winter of ten
months; but before the last Glacial epoch, or the invasion of
Angra Mainyu, when there was a summer of ten months in the
Arctic regions, the duration of the long night and that of the
winter of two months must have been co-extensive. That is an
important difference in the description of the paradise of the
Aryans, as it is at present and as it was before the last Glacial
24

370 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
epoch. The long night characterised these regions before the
Glacial period as it does at present. But when the winters were
short they corresponded with, and were confined only to, the
long night ; while at the present day, since the winter in the
Arctic regions lasts for ten months, the long night falls in the
middle of such winter. The description of the Airyana Vaêjo in
the Vendidad, therefore, naturally leads us to infer that ten
months sunshine or summer followed by two months dark winter
represented the climatic conditions of the place before the inva-
sion of Angra Mainyu, who converted summer into winter and
vice versa, by introducing ice and snow into the land. We have
already referred to the maximum period of a hundred nights
during which Tishtrya fought with Apaosha, and to the custom
of keeping the dead bodies in the house for two nights, three nights
or a month long in winter, until waters and light, which stood
still in winter, again began to flow or come up, showing that the
period was one of continuous darkness. These passages taken in
conjunction with the aforesaid description of the Airyana Vaêjo
clearly establish the fact that the paradise of the Iranians was
situated in the extreme north or almost near the North Pole, and
that it was characterised by long delightful summers, and short
and warm but dark winters, until it was rendered unfit for human
habitation by the invasion of Angra Mainyu, or the advent of the
Glacial epoch, which brought in severe winter and snow causing
the land to be covered with an icecap several hundreds of feet in
thickness.
There is one more point which deserves to be noticed in
this connection. We have seen that to the description of the
Airyana Vaêjo quoted above, the old Zend commentators have
added what is believed to be an inconsistent statement, viz., that
"There are seven months of summer and five of winter therein."
Dr. Haug thinks that the paragraph "The latter are cold as
to water etc." is also a later addition, and must, therefore,

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

372 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
period as Rapitvîn goes under-ground during winter and comes
up from below the ground in summer. The seven months of
summer are similarly described in the same book as extending
"from the auspicious day Aûharmazd (first) of the month Farvar-
dîn to the auspicious day Anîrân (last) of the month Mitrô,"
(XXV, 7). It seems from this account that the tradition of
seven months summer and five months winter in the Airyana
Vaêjo was an old tradition, and the Bundahish, in recording it,
gives us the climatic conditions in the ancient home and not, as
supposed by some, those which the writer saw in his own day.
For in the twentieth paragraph of the same chapter twelve
months and four seasons are enumerated, and the season of winter
is there said to comprise only the last three months of the year,
viz., Dîn, Vohûman and Spendârmad. I have shown elsewhere
that the order of months in the ancient Iranian calendar was
different from the one given in the Bundahish. But whatever the
order may be, the fact of the prevalence of seven months sum-
mer and five months winter in the Airyana Vaêjo seems to have
been traditionally preserved in these passages; and the old Zend
commentators on the Vendîdad appear to have incorporated it
into the original text, by way of, what may be called, a marginal
note, in their anxiety to preserve an old tradition. We have
thus two different statements regarding the climatic con-
ditions of the Airyana Vaêjo before it was invaded by
Angra Mainyu: one, that there were ten months of summer
and two of winter, the reverse of the conditions introduced
by Angra Mainyu; and the other, traditionally preserved
by the commentators, viz., that there were seven summer
months and five winter months therein. It is supposed that
the two statements are contradictory; and contradictory they
undoubtedly are so long as we do not possess the true key to
their interpretation. They are inconsistent, if we make the
Airyana Vaêjo the easternmost boundary of the ancient Iran;

THE AVESTIC EVIDENCE. 373
but if the paradise is placed in the circumpolar regions in the
far north the inconsistency at once disappears, for then we
can have seven months summer and ten months summer at
the same time in the different parts of the original home of
the Iranians. We have seen in the discussion of the Vedic
evidence that the legend of Aditi indicates seven months sum-
mer or sun-shine, and the legend of the Dashagvas a sacrifi-
cial session, or a period of sun-shine, of ten months. It has
also been pointed out that between the North Pole and the
Arctic circle the sun is above the horizon for any period longer
than seven and less than twelve months according to the
latitude of the place. There is, therefore, nothing strange, ex-
traordinary or inconsistent, if we get two statements in the
Avesta regarding the duration of summer in the primeval
home ; and we need not assume that the commentators have
added the statement of seven months summer simply because
the description of two months summer and ten months winter
did not appear to them suitable to the first land of blessing.
It is not possible that they could have misunderstood the ori-
ginal text in such a way as to suppose that the climatic con-
ditions introduced by Angra Mainyu were the conditions
which obtained originally in the Airyāna Vaêjo. We must,
therefore, reject the explanation which tries to account for
this later insertion on the ground that it was made by per-
sons who regarded the description in the original as unsuited
to the first created happy land. If the original text is pro-
perly read and . interpreted, it gives us a summer of ten
months in the Airyāna Vaêjo before Angra Mainyu's invasion,
and the statement regarding the summer of seven months re-
fers to the same place and time. We have the same thing in
the Ṛig-Veda where the sun is once represented as having
seven rays and once as having ten rays, meaning seven
months and ten months of sun-shine, both of which are pos-
sible only in the Arctic regions. The two Avestic traditions

374 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
stated above must, therefore, be taken to represent the Arctic
climatic conditions prevailing in the ancient home in the far
north ; and the correctness of the explanation is proved by
the discussion in the foregoing chapters. With regard to the
custom of kindling a fire on the ninth day of Din or the tenth
month, noticed in the Bundahish, it seems to me that instead
of taking it to be an indication that winter “has come,” it is
better to trace its origin to the commencement of winter at
that time in some part of the original home ; for if a fire is to
be kindled there is greater propriety in kindling it to com-
memorate the commencement of winter rather than the expiry
of two out of five winter months. If the custom is so inter-
preted, it will imply that a year of nine months and ten days
was once prevalent in some part of the Aryan home, a conclu-
sion well in keeping with the ancient Roman year of ten
months. But apart from this suggestion, there is a striking
coincidence between the Vedic and the Avestic tradition in this
respect. According to the Bundahish (XXV, 20), the year is
divided into four seasons of three months each, Farvardîn,
Arḑavahisht and Horvadaḍ constituting the season of the
spring ; Tîr, Amerôdaḍ and Shatvaîrô the summer ; Mitrô,
Âvân and Âtarô the autumn ; and Dîn, Vohûman and Spen-
darmaḍ, the winter. The fortieth day of Sharad or autumn
would, therefore, represent the tenth day (Abân) of Avân ;
and the Vedic statement discussed in the ninth chapter, that
Indra's fight with Shambara commenced “ on the fortieth
day of Sharad ” agrees well (only with a difference of ten
days) with the statement in the Bundahish that the winter in
the Airyana Vaêjo commenced with the month of Âvân the
second month in autumn. We have thus a very close resem-
blance between the Vedic and the Avestic tradition about the
end of summer in the original Arctic home ; and the corres-
ponding Roman and Greek traditions have been previously
noticed. In. short, a year of seven or ten months sun-shine

THE AVESTIC EVIDENCE. 375
can be traced back to the Indo-European period; and since its
double character can be explained only by placing the ori-
ginal home in the circumpolar regions, we are inevitably led
to the conclusion that the Airyana Vaêjo must also be placed
in the same region. The Avestic account is by itself plain
and intelligible, and the apparent inconsistencies would have
been explained in a natural way long ago, if Zend scholars
had not created unnecessary difficulties by transferring the
site of this Paradise to the east of the ancient Iran. Under
these circumstances it is needless to say which of the two theo-
ries regarding the position of the Airyana Vaêjo is correct;
for no one would accept a hypothesis which only enhances the
confusion, in preference to one which explains everything in a
natural and satisfactory manner,
We have so far discussed the passage in the first Fargard
which describes the climate of the Airyana Vaêjo. The
passage, even when taken by itself, is quite intelligible on
the Arctic theory; but in ascertaining the original climate
of the Airyana Vaêjo we supposed that it was the reverse
of the one introduced by the invasion of Angra Mainyu.
The second Fargard of the Vendidad, which is similar in
character to the first, contains, however, a passage, which
does away with the necessity of such assumption, by giving
us a graphic description of the actual advent of ice and
snow which ruined the ancient Iranian Paradise. This Far-
gard is really a supplement to the first and contains a more
detailed account of the Airyana Vaêjo and a description of the
paradisiacal life enjoyed there before Angra Mainyu afflicted
it with the plague of winter and snow. This is evident from
the fact that the coming of the severe winter is foretold in
this Fargard and Yima is warned to prepare against it;
while in the first Fargard the happy land is described as ac-
tually ruined by Angra Mainyu's invasion. Darmesteter
divides this Fargard into two parts, the first comprising the

376 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
first twenty (or according to Spiegel forty-one) paragraphs,
and the second the remaining portion of the Fargard. In the
first part Ahura Mazda is said to have asked king Yima the
ruler of the Airyāna Vaêjo, who is called Sruto Airyênê
vaêjahê, 'famous in Airyāna Vaêjo', to receive the law from
Mazda ; but Yima refused to become the bearer of the law
and he was, therefore, directed by Ahura Mazda to keep his
people happy and make them increase. Yima is accordingly
represented as making his men thrive and increase by keeping
away death and disease from them, and by thrice enlarging
the boundaries of the country which had become too narrow
for its inhabitants. Whether this fact represents a gradual
expansion of the oldest Aryan settlements in the Arctic home
we need not stop to inquire. The second part of the Fargard
opens with a meeting of the celestial gods called by Ahura
Mazda, and "the fair Yima, the good shepherd of high re-
nown in the Airyāna Vaêjo," is said to have attended this
meeting with all his excellent mortals. It was at this meet-
ing that Yima was distinctly warned by Ahura Mazda that
fatal winters were going to fall on the happy land and de-
stroy everything therein. To provide against this calamity the
Holy One advised Yima to make a Vara or enclosure, and
remove there the seeds of every kind of animals and plants for
preservation. Yima made the Vara accordingly, and the Far-
gard informs us that in this Vara the sun, the moon and the
stars “rose but once a year,” and that “a year seemed only as a day”
to the inhabitants thereof. The Fargard then closes with the
description of the happy life led by the inhabitants of this Vara
of which Zarathushtra and his son Urvatadnara are said to be
the masters or overseers.
Yima's Vara here described is something like Noah's
ark. But there is this difference between the two that while
the Biblical deluge is of water and rain, the Avestic deluge
is of snow and ice; and the latter not only does not conflict

THE AVESTIC EVIDENCE. 377
with geological evidence but is, on the contrary, fully
and unexpectedly confirmed by it. Secondly, the description
that "a year seemed only as a day" to the inhabitants of
this Vara, and that the sun and stars "rose only once a year
therein," serves, in an unmistakable manner, to fix the geo-
graphical position of this Vara in the region round about
the North Pole; for nowhere on the surface of the earth
can we have a year-long day-and-night except at the Pole.
Once the position of Yima's Vara is thus fixed the posi-
tion of the Airyana Vaêjo is at once determined; for Yima's
Vara, as stated in the Mainyô-i-khard, must obviously be
located in the Airyana Vaêjo. Here is, therefore, another
argument for locating the Airyana Vaêjo in the extreme north
and not to the west of the ancient Iran, as Spiegel, Darme-
steter and others have done. For whether Yima's Vara
be real or mythical, we cannot suppose that the knowledge of
a year-long day and of the single rising of the sun during the
whole year was acquired simply by a stretch of imagination,
and that it is a mere accident that it tallies so well with the
description of the Polar day and night. The authors of the
Fargard may not have themselves witnessed these phenomena,
but there can be no doubt that they knew these facts by
tradition; and if so, we must suppose that their remote
ancestors must have acquired this knowledge by personal
experience in their home near the North Pole. Those that
locate the Airyana Vaêjo in the extreme east of the Ira-
nian highland try to account for ten months winter therein
by assuming that a tradition of a decrease in the earth's
temperature was still in the mind of the author of this
Fargard, or that the altitude of the table-land, where the
Oxus and the Jaxartes take their rise, was far higher in
ancient times than at present, thereby producing a cold
climate. Both these explanations are however artificial and
unsatisfactory. It is true that a high altitude produces a-

378 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
cold climate; but in the present instance the climate of the
Airyana Vaêjo was mild and genial before the invasion of
Angra Mainyu, and we must, therefore, suppose that the Iranian
table-land was not elevated at first, until Angra Mainyu upheaved
it and produced a cold climate. But the present altitude of the
plateau is not so great as to produce a winter of ten months,
and this requires us again to assume the submergence of this
land after the invasion of Angra Mainyu. Unfortunately there is
no geological evidence forth-coming to support the upheaval and
submergence of this land in the order mentioned above. But
even if such evidence were forthcoming, the explanation would
still fail to account why the inhabitants of Yima's Vara in the
Airyana Vaêjo regarded a year as a single day, a description,
which is true only at the North Pole. All attempts to locate
the primitive Airyana Vaêjo in a region other than the
circumpolar country must, therefore, be abandoned. The names
of mythical rivers and countries may have been transferred in
later times to real terrestrial rivers and provinces; but if we were
to settle the position of the primitive rivers or countries by a
reference to these new names, we can as well locate the Airyana
Vaêjo between the Himâlay and the Vindhya mountains in
India, for in later Sanskrit literature the land lying between these
two mountains is called the Âryâvarta or the abode of the Aryans.
The mistake committed by Darmesteter and Spiegel is of the
same kind. Instead of determining the position of the Airyana
Vaêjo from the fact that a winter of ten months is said to have
been introduced therein by Angra Mainyu, and that a year seemed
only as a day to the inhabitants thereof, they have tried to guess
it from the uncertain data furnished by the names of rivers in Iran,
though they were aware of the fact that these names were origi-
nally the names of mythical rivers and were attached to the
real rivers in Iran only in later times, when a branch of the

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

380 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
Darmesteter. Spiegel.
aredvî deep on the 'high- in great abundance,
est tops of mountains. 51. On the summits of the
mountains, on the breadth of
the heights.
23. And all the three sorts 52. From three (places), O
of beasts shall perish, those Yima, let the cattle depart,
that live in the wilderness, 53. If they are in the most
and those that live on the fearful places,
tops of the mountains, and 54. If they are on the tops of
those that live in the bosom the mountains,
of the dale, under the shelter 55. If they are in the depths
of stables. of the valleys,
56. To secure dwelling places.
24. Before that winter, those 57. Before this winter the
fields would bear plenty of country produced pasture;
grass for cattle: now with 58. Before flow waters, behind
floods that stream, with snows is the melting of the snow.
that melt, it will seem a hap- 59. Clouds, O Yima, will come
py land in the world, the land over the inhabitated regions,
wherein footprints even of 60. Which now behold the
sheep may still be seen. feet of the greater and smaller
cattle:
25. Therefore make thee a 61. Therefore make thou a
Vara, long as a riding-ground, circle of the length of a race-
on every side of the square, ground to all four corners.
and thither bring the seeds 62. Thither bring thou the
of sheep and oxen, of men, seed of the cattle, of the beasts
of dogs, of birds, and of red of burden, and of men, of dogs,
blazing fires. of birds, and of the red burn-
ing fires.
Can anything, we ask, be more clear and distinct than
the above description of the advent of the Glacial epoch in the
happy land over which Yima ruled, and where a year was

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

382 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
reason, except prejudice, why we should not regard the Avestic
account as a correct reminiscence of an old real historical fact.
The author of the Fargards in question cannot be supposed to
have given us by imagination such a graphic account of a
phenomenon, which is brought to light or discovered by the
scientists only during the last forty or fifty years. Dar-
mesteter in his translation of the Fargards observes in a foot-
note that the account of glaciation is the result of a mythical
misunderstanding by which winter was thought to be the
counter-creation of Irân Vêj. This passed off very well twenty
years ago; but the phenomenon of glaciation in the Ice-age
is now better understood, and we cannot accept guesses and
conjectures of scholars regarding the meaning of a passage
in the Avesta which describes the glaciation of the Iranian
paradise. It only proves how the ancient records, howsoever
express and distinct they may be, are apt to be misunderstood
and misinterpreted owing to our imperfect knowledge of the
climatic or other conditions or surroundings amongst which
the ancestors of our race lived in remote ages. But for such a
misunderstanding, it was not difficult to perceive that the
Airyana Vaêjo, or the original home of the Aryan race, was
situated near the North Pole, and that the ancestors of our
race abandoned it not out of "irresistible impulse," or "over-
crowding," but simply because it was ruined by the invasion
of snow and ice brought on by the Glacial epoch. In short,
the Avestic tradition, as recorded in this Fargard, is the oldest
documentary evidence of the great climatic convulsion, which
took place several hundreds of years ago, and the scientific
evidence of which was discovered only during the last forty
or fifty years. It is, therefore, a matter of regret that the im-
portance of this tradition should have been so long misunder-
stood or overlooked.
It will be seen from the foregoing discussion that the tra-
ditional evidence preserved in the first two Fargards of the

THE AVESTIC EVIDENCE. 383
Vendidad is especially important for our purpose. The Dawn-
hymns in the Ṛig-Veda supply us with the evidence of a long
continuous dawn of thirty days in the ancient home, and there
are passages in the Vedas which speak of a long continuous
night of six months or of shorter duration, and a year of seven
or ten months. It can also be shown that several Vedic myths
and deities bear an unmistakable stamp of their Arctic origin.
But, as stated before, in the whole Vedic literature there is
no passage which will enable us to determine the time when
the Polar regions were inhabited, or to ascertain the reason
why they were abandoned. For that purpose we drew upon
geology which has recently established the fact that the cli-
mate of the circumpolar regions, which is now so cold as to
render the land unsuited for human habitation, was mild and
genial before the last Glacial period. It followed, therefore,
that if the Vedic evidence pointed to an Arctic home, the fore-
fathers of the Aryan race must have lived therein not after
but before the last Glacial epoch. But the traditions preserved
in the Avesta dispense with the necessity of relying on geology
for this purpose. We have now direct traditional evidence
to shew (1) that the Airyana Vaêjo had originally a good cli-
mate, but Angra Mainyu converted it into a winter of ten and
a summer of two months. (2) that the Airyana Vaêjo was so
situated that the inhabitants of Yima's Vara therein regarded
the year only as a day, and saw the sun rise only once a
year, and (3) that the happy land was rendered uninhabitable
by the advent of a Glacial epoch which destroyed all life there-
in. It is true, that but for recent geological discoveries these
statements, howsoever plain and distinct, would have remained
unintelligible, or regarded as improbable by scholars, who
would have always tried, as Darmesteter has already done, to
put some artificial or unnatural construction upon these pas-
sages to render the same comprehensible to them. We cannot,
therefore, deny that we are indebted to these scientific

384 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
discoveries for enabling us to determine the true meaning of the
Avestic traditions, and to clear the mist of misinterpretation
that has gathered round them. But nevertheless, the value of
this traditional testimony is not thereby impaired in any way.
It is the oldest traditional record, preserved by human memory,
of the great catastrophe which overtook the northern portion
of Europe and Asia in ancient times, and obliged the Aryan
inhabitants of the Arctic regions to migrate southwards. It
has been preserved during thousands of years simply as an
ancient record or tradition, though its meaning was not intel-
ligible, until at last we now see that the accuracy of the account
is fully and unexpectedly borne out by the latest scientific
researches. There are very few instances where science has
proved the accuracy of the ancient semi-religious records in
this way. When the position of the Airyana Vaêjo and the
cause of its ruin are thus definitely settled both by traditional
and scientific evidence, it naturally follows that the sixteen
lands mentioned in the first Fargard of the Vendidad must be
taken to mark the gradual diffusion of the Iranians from their
ancient home to the country of the Rasâ and the seven rivers;
or, in other words, the Fargard must be regarded as historical
and not geographical as maintained by Spiegel and Darme-
steter. It is true that the first Fargard does not say anything
about migration. But when the site of the Airyana Vaêjo is
placed in the extreme north, and when we are told in the
second Fargard that the land was ruined by ice, no specific
mention of migration is needed, and the fact that the sixteen
lands are mentioned in a certain specific order is naturally
understood, in that case, to mark the successive stages of
migration of the Indo-Iranian people. It is not contended
that every word in these two Fargards may be historically
correct. No one would expect such a rigid accuracy in the
reminiscences of old times traditionally preserved. It is
also true that the Airyana Vaêjo has grown into a sort of