Page 509 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

290 SAMAGRA TILAK - 2 • THE ARCTIC HOME

In dealing with the Vedic evidence, both direct and circum-
stantial, we have by way of comparison quoted or referred
to some Avestic legends or myths in the foregoing chapters. But
the A vesta contains some important passages directly bearing
upon the question of the original Aryan home in the far north,
and migrations therefrom to the regions watered by the Oxus,
the Jaxartes or the Indus; and it is necessary to discuss these
passages in a separate chapter, because they not only confirm
and supplement the conclusions we have previously arrived at
by the examination of the Vedic evidence but constitute, what
may be called, independent evidence pointing out to the same
result. As regards the antiquity of the A vesta, it is superfluous
to adduce any proofs in this place; for it is admitted by
scholars that the Vedas and the Avesta are but two branches
of the same parent stream, though the latter may not be as well
preserved as the former. To use a Vedic phrase, the sacred
books of the Brahma~s and the Parsis are the twin books of
the Aryan race; and they can, therefore, be safely taken to
supplement each other whenever it is necessary and possible to
do so. This character of the two books is well exhibited with
regard to the subject in hand. We have seen that while there
are a number of passages in the Vedic literature, which speak
of long dawns, continuous darkness, or a sacrificial session of
ten months, we have no text or legend which directly refers to
the home in the far north or to the cause or causes which forced
the ancient Aryans to abandon their primeval home and mig-
rate southwards. But fortunately for us, the Avesta, though not
generally as well preserved as the Vedas, contains a passage
which supplies the omission in a remarkable way; and we mean
to discuss this passage at some length in this chapter. The
A vestic legends and traditions quoted in the foregoing chapter
show that a day and a night of six months each were known
to the ancestors of the Iranians, and that the appointed time
for the appearance of Tishtcya before the worshipper, after
his fight with Apaosha, varied from one to a hundred nights,
thus indicating that a long darkness extending over a hundred
nights was also known to the forefathers of the worshippers
of Mazda. The stoppage of the flow of waters and of the move-
ment of the sun in winter, as described in the Farvardin Yasht,
have also been referred to; and it is shown that the custom of