Page 272 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

THE NIGHT OF THE GODS 59

his information. It may also be considered as based on astrono-
mical calculations made in later days, what was originally an
astronomical inference being subsequently converted into a real
observed fact. The last of these suppositions would have appeared
probable, if the tradition had been confined only to the Post-Vedic
literature, or merely to the astronomical works. But we cannot
suppose that during the times of the Brahma~as the astronomical
knowledge was so far advanced as to make it possible to fabricate
a fact by mathematical calculation, even supposing that the Vedic
poets were capable of making such a fabrication. Even in the days
of Herodotus the statement that 'there existed a people who slept
for six months' was regarded' incredible' (IV, 24 ), and we must,
therefore, give up the idea, that several centuries before Herodotus,
a statement regarding the day or the night of the Gods could have
been fabricated in the way stated above. But all doubts on the
point are set at rest by the occurrence of an almo t identical tate-
ment in the sacred books of the Parsis. In the Vendidad, Fargard
II, para 40, (or according to Spiegel, para 133 ), we find the sen-
tence, Tae cha oyara mainyaente yot yare, meaning "They regard,
as a day, what is a year. " This is but a paraphrase of the state-
ment, in the Taittirtya Brahma11a and the context in the Parsi
scriptures removes all possible doubts regarding the Polar character
of the statement. The latter part of the second Fargard, where-
in this passage occurs, contains a discourse between Ahura Mazda
and Yima. * Ahura Mazda warns Yim.a, the first king of men, of
the approach of a dire winter, whkh is to destroy every living
creature by covering the land with a thick sheet of ice, and advises
Yima to build a Vara, or an enclosure, to preserve the seeds of
every kind (Jf animals and plants. The meeting is said to have taken
place in the Airyana Vaejo, or the paradise of the Iranians. The
Vara, or the enclosure, advised by Ahura Mazda, is accordingly
prepared, and Yima asked Ahura Mazda, " 0 Maker of the material
world, thou Holy One ! What lights are there to give light in the
Vara which Yima made ? " Ahura Mazda answered, "There are
uncreated lights and created lights. There the stars, the moon and
the sun are only once ( a year ) seen to rise and set, and a year seems
only as a day". I have taken Darmesteter's rendering but Spiegel's
is substantially the same. This paassage is important from various

" See Sa(Nd Books of the East Series, Vol. IV, pp. 15-31.