Page 123 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

108 SAMAGRA TJLAK - 2 • THE ORION

We cannot otherwise account why the mummeries and festivals
should have been celebrted during the twelve days at the end of
the old and the beginning of the new year.
It will I think, be evident from this that the Greeks and
Germans have preserved the memory of the days when the year
commenced with the vernal equinox in Orion. I have previously
shown that the Parsi primitive calender, as fixed by Dr. Geiger,
points to the same conclusion. The Parsis, the Greeks, the Germans
and the Indians therefore appear to have separated after these
traditions were formed and after Orion was figured and recognised
as the Agrayana constellation. I do not think that any more
traditional coi~cidences are necessary to establish the Aryan origin
of the constellation of Orion, as well as its position at the
vernal equinox m old days. I shall, however, give one more coin-
cidence which on account of its peculiar nature is alike interesting
and important.
In the Greek mythology Orion after his death as above des-
cribed, was placed among stars, ' where he appears as a giant
with a girdle, sword, a lion's skin, and a club. •• Now, if as
remarked by Plutarch, Orion is an original Greek name, we should
find some traces of these various adjuncts of Orion or at least some
of them in the old Irnnian and Indian works. Do we so find
them ? I think we do, only if we look for them with a little
more attention and care, for the transformation is more speci-
fic and peculiarly out of the way in this case. In the Vedic works
Soma is said to be the presiding deity of the asterism of Mriga-
shiras. Soma is Haoma with the Parsis. The 26th verse in the
Haoma Yasht is as follows :-
Fra te Mazdao barat paurvantm aivyaonghanem. steher-
pacsanghem mainyu-tastem vanghuhim-daenam Mazdayasnim.
which bas been thus rendered by Mr. Mills in his translation of
the Zend Avesta, Part III, in the Sacred Books of the East Series
( P. 238) :- " Forth has Mazda borne to thee, the star-bespan-
gled girdle, the spirit-made, the ancient one, the Mazda-Yasnian
Faith. " Dr. Haug takes paurvantm in the original to mean ' leading
the paurvas, " which l~tter he believes to be the Persian
name for the Pleiades, which is variously written pa~. parvah,

• See Smith's Dictionary of Classical Mythology.