Page 523 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

304 SAMAGRA TILAK- 2 • THE ARCTIC HOME
severe winter and snow causing the land to be covered with an
ice-cap several hundreds of feet in thickness.
There is one more ·point which deserves to be noticed in
this connection. We have seen that to the description of the
Airyana Vaejo quoted above, the old Zend commentators have
added what is believed to be an inconsistent statement, viz., that
" There are seven months of summer and five of winter there-
in. " Dr. Haug thinks that the paragraph " The latter are cold
as to water etc. " is also a later addition, and must, therefore, be
taken with the five months of winter." But both Spiegel and
Darmesteter, as well as the commentator, are of opinion that
the phrases " And these are cold as to the water etc. " form
a part of the original text, and must, therefore, be taken to refer
to the two summer months; and this view seems to be more re-
asonable, for a later insertion, if any, is more likely to be a short
one than otherwise. The only addition to the original text thus
seems to be the statement, " It is known that there are seven
months of summer and five of winter; " and this must be taken
as referring to the climatic conditions which obtained in the
Airyana Vaejo before the invasion of Angra Mainyu, for the
latter reduced the duration of summer only to two months, which
again were cold to th~ water, the earth and the trees. It has been
-shown above that as the Airyana Vaejo was originally a happy
land, we must suppose that the first climatic conditions therein
were exactly the reverse of those which were introduced into it
by Angra Mainyu; or in other words, a summer of ten months
and a winter of two months must be said to have originally
prevailed in this happy land. But the Zend commentators have
stated that there were seven months of summer and five of winter
therein; and this tradition appears to have been equally old
for we read in the Bundahish (XXV, 10-14) that " on .the day
At1harmazd (first day) of A van the winter acquires strength
and enters into the world ... and on the auspicious day Ataro
of the month of Din ( the ninth day of the tenth month ) the
winter arrives, with much cold, at Airan-vej, and until the end, in
the auspicious month Spendarmad, winter advances through
the whole world; on this account they kindle a fire everywhere
on the day Ataro of the month Din, and it forms an indication
that the winter has come. " Here the five months of winter in the
Airyana Vaejo are expressly mentioned to be AvAn, Ataro,