Page 277 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

64 SAMAGRA TILAK - 2 • THE ARCTIC HOME

convenient to discus these passage , after examining the whole
of the Vedic evidence in favour of the Arctic home. I have referred
to them here to how the complete corre pondence between the
Hindu and the Parsi scripture regarding the day and the night
of the God , and their unmistakable Polar characteristics indicating
the existence of an early home within the Arctic circle.
The same traditions are also found in the literature of orher
branches of the Aryan race, besides the Hindus and the Parsis.
For instance, Dr. Warren quotes Greek traditions similar to those
we have discussed above. Regarding the primitive revolution of
the sky Anaxi.menes, we are told, likened the motions of the heaven
in early day to '· the rotating of a man's hat on his head. ' *
Another Greek writer is quoted to show that " at fir t the Pole-
taralwaysappearedinthezenith." Itisal ostated,ontheauthority
of Anton Krichenbauer, that in the Iliad and Ody sey two kind of
day are continually referred to, one of a year's duration, e pecially
when de cribing the life and exploits of the God, and the other
<lf twenty-four hour . The night of the God has it parallel al o in
the Nor e mythology, which mentions" the Twilight of the Gods "
,denoting by that phrase the time when the reign of Odin and the
2Esir, or Gods, would come to an end, not forever, but to be again
revived· for we are told that ' from the dead sun spring · a
daughter more beautiful than her sire, and mankind starts afresh
from the life-raiser and his bride- Life. "t If these traditions and
statements are correct, they show that the idea of half-yearly
night and day of the Gods i not only Indo-Iranian, but Indo-
Germanic, and that it must therefore, have originated in the original
borne of the Aryan . Comparative mythology, it will be shown in
a sub equent chapter fully supports the view of an original Arctic
home of the Aryan race , and there is nothing surpri ing if the
traditions about a day and a nigb1 of six months are found not only
in the Vedic and the Iranian, but also in the Gr.eek and the Norse
literature. It seems to have been an idea traditionally inherited by
all the branches of the Aryan race, and, as it is distinctly Polar in
character, it is alone enough to establish the existence of an Arctic

• See Paradise Found, roth Ed., pp. 1 9 2 and 200 .
. t See Cox's :\fythology of Aryan ~ation s, p. 41, quoting Brown's
R eligion ·and :\Iythblogy of the "tryans of th e ~orth of Europe
Arts. I s - r 7.