Page 538 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

THE A VESTIC EVIDENCE 319
He:pdu, a name not preserved even in the later Vedic literature,
is said also to point to the same conclusion.
We may here refer to certain passages cited by Muir in his
Original Sanskrit Texts (3rd Ed. Vol II. pp. 322-329) to show that
the reminiscences of the northern home have been preserved
in the Indian literature. He first refers to the expression shatam
hima!J, or ' a hundred winters, ' occurring in several places in the
~ig-Veda (I, 64, 14; II, 33, 2; V, 54, 15; Vl, 48, 8 ), and remarks
that though the expression sharada{1 shatam or ' a hundred
autumns,' also occurs in the ~ig-Veda (II, 27, 10; VII, 66, 16 ),
yet shatam hima!J may be regarded as a relic of the period when
the recollection of the colder regions from which the Vedic Aryas
migrated had not yet been entirely forgotten. The second
passage quoted by him is from the Aitareya Brahmapa ( Vlll,
14) which says ·• wherefore in this northern region all the people
who dwell beyond the Himavat, (called) the Uttar Kurus and
the Uttara Madras are consecrated to the glorious rule ( V air<ljyam).'
The Uttara Kurus are again described in the same Brahmapa
( VID, 23 ) as the land of gods which no mortal may conquer,
showing that the country had come to be regarded as the domain
of mythology. The Uttara Kurus are also mentioned in the
Ramaya11a (IV, 43, 38) as the abode of those who perform-
ed the meritorious works, and in the Mahabha.rata ( Sabha-
Parvan, Ch. 28) Arjuna is told "Here are the Uttara Kurus
whom no one attempts to combat. " That the Uttara Kurus
were not a fabulous land is shown by the fact that a mountain,
grant whatever he asked, he prayed that men and companions might
be sent to hun in his soliLude; accordingly Zeus directed both him and
Pyrrha (his wife) to ,;ast stones over their heads; those cast by Pyrrha
became women, those by Deukali6n men. And thus the "stony race
of men" (if we may be allowed to translate an etymology which the
Greek language presents exactly, and which has not been disdained
by Hesiod, by Pindar, by Epicharmas, and by Virgil) came to tenant
the soil of Greece. Deukalion on landing from the ark sacrificed a
grateful offering to Zeus Phyxios, or the God of escape; he also erected
altars in Thessaly to the twelve great gods of Olympus."
In commenting upon the above story Grote remarks that the
reality of this deluge was firmly believed throughout historical ages of
Greece, and even Aristotle, in h1s meteorological work, adn;its and
reasons upon it as an unquestionable fact.