Page 439 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

220 SAMAGRA TILAK - 2 • THE ARCTIC HOME
from the lower celestial hemisphere, or the bright from the dark
ocean. This explanation of the Vritra legend may sound strange to
many scholars, but it should be borne in mind that the co-relation
between the flow of water and the rising of the dawn and the sun
here described is not speculative. If the Vedic works do not
express it in unambiguous terms, the deficiency is fully made up
by the Parsi scriptures. Thus in Khorshed Yasht (VI, 2 and 3)
we are told that " When the sun rises up, then the earth becomes
clean', the running waters become clean .... Should the sun not
rise up, then the Daevas would destroy all the things that are in
the seven Karshvares. " The passages in the Farvardin Yasht
are still more explicit. This Y asht is devoted to the praise of
the Fravashis which correspond to the Pitris of the Rig-Veda.
These ancient fathers are oftep described, even in the Rig-Veda,
as taking part, along with the gods, in the production of the
cosmical phenomena. Thus the Pitris are said to have adorned
the sky with stars, and placed darkness in the night and light in
the day ( X, 68,11 ), or to have found the hidden light and generated
the dawn (VII, 76, 4; X, 107, 1 ). The Fravashis in the Parsi
scriptures are said to have achieved the same or similar exploits.
They are described ( Yt. XIII, 53 and 54) as having " shown the
beautiful paths to the waters, which had stood before for a long
time in the same place, without flowing "; and the waters are
then said to have commenced to flow " along the path made by
Mazda, along the way made by the gods, the watery way appointed
to them. " Immediately after ( Yt. XIII, 57 ), the Fravashis are
said to have similarly showed " the p.aths to the stars, the moon,
the sun and the endless lights, that had stood before, for a long
time, in the same place, without moving forward, through the
oppression of the Daevas and the assaults of the Daevas. " Here
we have the co-relation between the flowing of waters and the:
moving forward of the sun distinctly enunciated. It was the
Fravashis, who caused to move onwards the waters and the sun;
both of which " had stood still for a long time in the same place. "
Prof. , Darmesteter adds a note saying that it was ' in winter '
that this cessation of motion occurred, ( cf. Vend. V, 10-12;
VIII, 4-10, cited and discussed infra). The Fravashis are further:
described ( Yt. XIII, 78) as " destroying the malice of the fiend,
Angra Mainyu (the Avestic representative of Vritra ), so that
the waters did not stop flowing, nor did the plants stop growing. ','