Page 97 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

84 SAM j,QRA TILAK - 2 • THE ORION

ship at tbef entrance of the other world and these can be easily
identified with the Greek constellations of Argo Navis Canis, if
we suppose the Milky Way to be the boundary of Heaven in these
days. I do not mean to say that these conceptions had their origin
in the appearance of the heavens. On the contrary, a comparison
with the non-Aryan legends shows it to be more likely that the
heavenly bodies received their names from the pre-existing beliefs,
about the other world, amongst the people. Herbert Spencer tells
us that amoilgst the non-Aryan savage races the journey to the
next world is believed to lie over land down a river or across the
sea and that in consequence the practice of burying their dead in
boats prevails amongst some of them. • The North Americans
w~ are further told, say that the Milky Way is ' the Path of
Spirits, ' ' the Road of the Souls' where they travel to the land
b!yond the grave, and where their camp fires may be seen blazing
as brighter stars. "t This coincidence between the Aryan and the
n n-Aryan legends makes it highly probable that the figures of the
c:>nstellations were conceived by the Aryans according to notions
o ~ the next world prevailing amongst them at that time. It may be
n Jticed, however, that the non-Aryan races do not connect the
idea of time, e. g., of the year and the seasons,. with these beliefs,
while it is the chief characteristic of tbe Aryan -legends. -Jv·e are,
for instance, told that the dog commenced the year ( ~ig. i. 161.
13) and that the Devayana comprised the th.ree seasons of Vasant,
Grt,hma and Var'ba ( Shat. Br. ii. 1. 3. 1 ).t It is this feature of
the Aryan legends that is most important for the purpose of our
enquiry, while the coincidence, above pointed out, confirms, in a
remarkable way, the genesis of the Aryan legends here proposed.
The chief elements in the traditions of the three Aryan nations may
thus be satisfactorily explained.
It may, however, be contended that the two dogs of Yama
spoken of in the ]:tigveda may not be the same as the Avesta dogs
at the bridge. A closer examination of the several passages in the
Rigveda will, however, dispel such doubts. In the Vendidad xiii.

• See Herbert Speneer's Principles of Sociology Vol. 1, chap. xv,
ISt Ed.
t Principle~ of Sociology 1 Vol. ·r_..-ehap. uiv, p. 399. rst Ed.
t For German legends iadicating time, see the next. chapter.