Page 273 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

60 SAMAGRA TILAK - 2 • THE ARCTIC HOME

standpoints. First of all it tells us, that the Airyana Vaejo, or the
orginial home of the Iranians, was a place which was rendered
uninhabitable by glaciation; and secondly that in this original
home the sun rose and set only once in the year, and that the year
was like a day to the inhabitants of the place. The bearing of the
passage in regard to glaciation will be discussed later on. For
the present, it is enough to point out how completely it corroborates
and ellucidates the statement in the Taittiriya Brahma!la stated
and discussed above. The yearly rising and setting of the sun is
possible only at the North Pole and the me.ntion of this charac-
teristic leaves no room for doubting that the Vara and the Airyana
Vaejo were both located in the Arctic or Circum-Polar regions,
and that the passage in the Taittiriya Brilhma!la also refers to the
Polar year. The fact that the statement is found both in the Iranian
and the Indian literature further negatives the probability of it$
being a fabrication from mathematical calculation. Nor can w~
suppose that both the branches of the Aryan race became acqua-
inted with this fact simply by an effort of una si ted imagination,
or that it was a mere metaphor. The only remaining alteroativt;
to hold, as Sir Charle Lyell* has remarked, that the tradition
was " founded on the observation of Nature. "
It is true, that the statement, or anything similar to it, is not
found in the ~ig-Veda; but it will be shewn later on that there are
many other passages in the ~ig-Veda which go to corroborate
this statement in a remarkable way by referring to other Polar
characteristics. I may, however, mention here the fact that the
oldest Vedic year appear to have been divided only into two por
tions, the Devayfula and the Pit~iyana which originally corres-
ponded with the Uttarciya!la and the Dak~h4tayana or the day
and the night of the God . The word Devayana occur several
times in the ~ig-Veda Samhita, and denotes ' the path of the
Gods. ' Thus in the ~ig. I, 72, 7, gni is aid to be cognizant
of the Devayana road and in ~ig. I, 183, 6, and 184, 6, the poet'
says, " We have, 0 hvins ! reached the end of darkness; now·
come to us by the Derayr2na road."t In VII, 76, 2 we again read,

* See Elements of Geology, r rth Ed., Vol. I, p.- 8.
t ~ig. I, r83, 6,-'"fflR"+l' ff+!B<:'1K~ - l!"Rr 9i 'ffitm af~9\:llrt 1-
~ <>mt ~AA<!~~': II ~ig. VII, 76, 2, -lf ~ tMT ~TOfT ~~ ... ~
~:~<:om:1 -