Page 522 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

THE A VESTIC EVIDENCE 303

or if ten manu~M yuga followed by a long wintry night of two
months as described in the previous chapters. It may be urged
that the Vendidad does not say that the two winter months
were all dark, and we have, therefore, no authority for converting
two winter months into two months of continuous darkness.
A little reflection will, however, show that the objection is utterly
untenable. In order to have a winter of ten months at the present
day, we must place the Airyana Vaejo in the Arctic regions; and
once we do so, a long night of one, two or three months follows
as a matter of course. This long night will now fall in the middle
of the winter of ten months; but before the last Glacial epoch,
or the invasion of Angra Mainyu, when there was a summer of
ten months in the Arctic regions, the duration of the long night
and that of the winter of two months must have been co-extensive·
That is an important difference in the description of the paradise
of the Aryans, as it is at present and as it was before the last
Glacial epoch. The long night characterised these regions before
the Glacial period as it does at present. But when the winters
were short they corresponded with, and were confined only to,
the long night; while at the present day, since the winter in the
Arctic regions lasts for ten months, the long night falls in the
middle of such winter. The description of the Airyana Vaejo
in the Vendidad, therefore, naturally leads us to infer that ten
months sunshine or summer followed by two months dark
winter represented the climatic conditions of the place before
the invasion of Angra Mainyu, who converted summer into winter
and vice versa, by introducing ice and snow into the land. We have
already referred to the maximum period of a hundred nights
during which Tishtrya fought with Apaosha, and to the
custom of keeping the dead bodies in the house for two nights,
three nights or a month long in winter, until waters and light,
which stood still in winter, again began to flow or come up,
showing that the period was one of continuous darkness. These
passages taken in conjunction with the aforesaid description of
the Airyana Vaejo clearly establish the fact that the paradise of
the Iranians was situated in the extreme north or almost near the
North Pole, and that it was characterised by long delightful
summers, and ' short and warm but dark winters, until it was
rendered unfit for human habitation by the invasion of Angra
Mainyu, or the advent of the Glacial epoch, which brought in