Page 533 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

314 SAMAGRA TILAK -2 • THE ARCTIC HOME

It will be seen from the foregoing discussion that the tra-
ditional evidence preserved in the first two Fargards of the
Vendidad is especially important for our purpose. The Dawn-
hymns in the ~ig-Veda supply us with the evidence of a long
continuous dawn of thirty days in the ancient home and there
are passages in the Vedas which speak of a long continuous
night of six months or of shorter duration, and a year of seven
or ten months. It can also be shown that several Vedic myths
and deities bear an unmistakable stamp of their Arctic origin.
But, as stated before, in the whole Vedic literature there is no
passage which will enable us to determine the time when the
Polar regions were inhabited, or to ascertain the reason why
they were abandoned. For that purpose we drew upon geology
which has recently established the fact that the climate of the
drcum-polar regions, which is now so cold as to render the land
unsuited for human habitation, was mild and genial before the
last Glacial period. It followed, therefore that if the Vedic evid-
ence pointed to an Arctic home, the forefathers of the Aryan
race must have lived therein not after but before the last Glacial
epoch. But the traditions preserved in the Avesta dispense with
the necessity of relying on geology for this purpose. We have
now direct traditional evidence to shew ( 1 ) that the Airyana
V~jo had originally a good climate, but Angra Mainyu convert-
ed it into a winter of ten and a summer of two months, ( 2 )
that the Airyana Vaejo was so situated that the inhabitants of
Yima's Vara therein regarded the year only as a day, and saw
the sun rise only once a year, and ( 3 ) that the happy land was
rendered uninhabitable by the advent of a Glacial epoch which
destroyed all life therein. It is true, that but for recent geologi-
cal discoveries these statements, howsoever plain and distinct,
would have remained unintelligible, or regarded as improbable
by scholars, who would have always tried, as Darmesteter has
already done, to put some artificial or unnatural construction
upon these passages to render the same comprehensible to
them. We cannot, therefore, deny that we are indebted to these
scientific discoveries for enabling us to determine the true mean-
ing of the Avestic traditions, and to clear the mist of misinter-
pretation that has gathered round them. But nevertheless, the
value of this traditional testimony is not thereby impaired in
any way. It is the oldest traditional record, preserved by human