Page 530 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

THE A VESTIC EVIDENCE 311

going to fall on the land ruled over by the latter, and the descrip-
tion of glaciation by which the happy land was to be ruined.
The warning is in the form of a prophecy, but any one who
reads the two Fargards carefully can see that the passage really
gives us a description of the Glacial epoch witnessed by the
ancestors of the Iranians. We give below the translation of the
passage both by Darmesteter and Spiegel.
VENDIDAD, FARGARD II

Darmesteter Spiegel
22 And Ahura Mazda spake 46 Then spake Ahura Mazda
unto Yima saying " 0 fair to Yima: "Yima the fair, the
Yima, son of Vivanghat ! son of VivanMo,
Upon the material world the 47 Upon the corporeal world
fatal winters are going to will the evil of winter come :
fall, that shall bring the 48 Wherefore a vehement,
fierce, foul frost; upon the destroying frost will arise.
material world the fatal 49 Upon the corporeal world
winters are going to fall, that will the evil of winter come :
shall make snowflakes fall 50 Wherefore snow will fall
thick, even an aredv£ deep in great abundance,
on the highest tops of 51 On the summits of the
mountains. mountains, on the breadth of
the heights.
23 And all the three sorts 52 From three ( places ), 0
of beasts shall perish those Yima, let the cattle depart,
that live in the wilderness, 53 If they are in the most
and those that live on the fearful places,
tops of the mountains, and 54 If they are on the tops of
those that live in the bosom the mountains,
of the dale, under the shelter 55 If they are in the depths
of stables. of the valleys.
56 To secure dwelling places.
24 Before that winter, those 57 Before this winter the
fields would bear plenty of country produced pasture;
grass for cattle : now with 58 Before flow waters, behind
floods that stream, with is the melting of the snow.
snows that melt, it will seem 59 Clouds, 0 Yima, will come
a happy land in the world, over the inhabitated regions,