Page 524 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

THE A VESTIC EVIDENCE 305

Din, Vohfu:nan and Spendarmad; and we are told that Rapttvi
GAb is not celebrated during this period as Rapttvtn goes under-
ground during winter and comes up from below the ground in
summer. The seven months of summer are similarly described
in the same book as extending " from the auspicious day AO.h-
armazd ( first ) of the month Farvardin to the auspicious day
AnirAn ( last) of the month Mitra, " ( XXV, 7 ). It seems from this
account that the tradition of seven months summer and five
months winter in the Airyana Va~jo was an old tradition, and
the Bundahish, in recording it, gives us the climatic conditions,
in the ancient home and not, as supposed by some, those which
the writer saw in his own day. For in the twentieth paragraph
of the arne chapter twelve months and four seasons are enumerat-
ed, and the season of winter is there said to comprise only the
last three months of the year, viz., Din, VohO.man and Spendarmad.
I have shown elsewhere that the order of months in the ancient
Iranian calendar was different from the one given in the
Bundahish. But whatever the order may be, the fact of the
prevalence of seven months summer and five months winter
in the Airyana Va{}jo seems to have been traditionally preserv-
ed in these passages; and the old Zend commentators on
Vendidad appear to have incorporated it into the original text,
by way of, what may be called, a marginal note, in their
anxiety to preserve an old tradition. We have thus two diffe-
rent statements regarding the climatic conditions of the Airyana
Vaejo before it was invaded by Angra Mainyu; : one, that there
were ten months of summer and two of winter, the reverse of
the conditions introduced by Angra Mainyu; and the other,
traditionally preserved by the commentators, viz., that there
were seven summer months and five winter months therein. It is
supposed that the two statements are contradictory; and contra-
dictory they undoubtedly are so long as we do not possess the true
key to their interpretation. They are inconsistent, if we make the
Airyana Va~jo the easternmost boundary of the ancient Iran;
but if the paradise is placed in the circum-polar regions in the far
north the inconsistency at once disappears, for then we can
have seven months summer and ten months summer at the
same time in the different parts of the original home of the
Iranians. We have seen in the discussion of the Vedic evidence
that the legend of Aditi indicates seven months summer or sun-
A. 20