The Arctic Home in the Vedas c14: Chapter XI. The Avestic Evidence

The Arctic Home in the Vedas c14

Language: English

c14.3 — 4 parts
c14.26 — 4 parts
c14.29 — 3 parts
c14.s1 Vendidad, Fargard I — 11 parts
c14.s2 Vendidad, Fargard II — 11 parts

Chapter XI. The Avestic Evidence

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Nature of Avestic evidence stated —Different views of scholars regarding its character —Necessity of re-examining the subject —An abstract of the first Fargard of the Vendidad —Sixteen lands created by Ahura Mazda with their modern equivalents &c. —Airyana Vaejo, the first created land represents the Paradise of the Iranians —Different views regarding its position —Darmesteter, Spiegel and others locate it in the east; Haug and Bunsen in the far north —Darmesteter’s argument examined —Airyana Vaejo cannot be determined from the position of Vanguhi —Identification of Rangha with the Caspian Sea or the westernmost river doubtful —Rangha is probably the same as Rasâ in the Rig-Veda X, 75, 6 —Unsoundness of Darmesteter’s reasoning —The position of the Airyana Vaejo must be determined from its special characteristics found in the Avesta —The passage where ten months winter is said to be such a characteristic cited —Ten months winter first introduced into the happy land by Angra Mainyu —Indicates that before the fiend’s invasion there must have been ten months summer and two months winter in the land —Sudden change in the Polar climate fully confirmed by latest geological researches —Two months winter necessarily synchronous with long Arctic night —The tradition about seven months summer and five months winter also refers to the original climate in the Airyana Vaejo —Mentioned in the Bundahish —Not inconsistent with the tradition of ten months summer recorded in the original passage —Both possible in the Arctic regions —Similar statements in the Rig-Veda —Coincidence between seven months summer, the legend of Aditi, and the date of Indra’s fight with Shambara, pointed out —Summary of the second Fargard —Yima’s Vara in the Airyana Vaejo —Annual sun-rise and a year-long day therein —Shows that the Airyana Vaejo must be located near the North Pole and not to the east of Iran —The account too graphic to be imaginary or mythical —Represents the advent of the Glacial epoch in the land —It is the oldest human testimony to the advent of the Ice-age, destroying the Arctic home —Special importance of the Avestic evidence pointed out —Fully corroborated by scientific evidence —Migration from Airyana Vaejo rendered necessary by glaciation —Sixteen lands in the first Fargard therefore represent successive stages of migration to Central Asia —Establishes the historical character of the first Fargard —The legend of deluge in the Shatapatha Brâhmana —Probably refers to the same event as the Avestic legends —Other Vedic passages indicating the northern origin of Indian Aryas —Conclusion to be drawn from the Vedic and Avestic evidence combined.

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IN dealing with the Vedic evidence, both direct and circumstantial, we have by way of comparison quoted or referred to some Avestic legends or myths in the foregoing chapters. But the Avesta contains some important passages directly bearing upon the question of the original Aryan home in the far north, and migrations therefrom to the regions watered by the Oxus, the Jaxartes or the Indus; and it is necessary to discuss these passages in a separate chapter, because they not only confirm and supplement the conclusions we have previously arrived at by the examination of the Vedic evidence, but constitute, what may be called, independent evidence pointing out to the same result. As regards the antiquity of the Avesta, it is superfluous to adduce any proofs in this place; for it is admitted by scholars that the Vedas and the Avesta are but two branches of the same parent stream, though the latter may not be as well preserved as the former. To use a Vedic phrase, the sacred books of the Brâhmans and the Parsis are the twin books of the Aryan race; and they can, therefore, be safely taken to supplement each other whenever it is necessary and possible to do so. This character of the two books is well exhibited with regard to the subject in hand.

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We have seen that while there are a number of passages in the Vedic literature, which speak of long dawns, continuous darkness, or a sacrificial session of ten months, we have no text or legend which directly refers to the home in the far north or to the cause or causes which forced the ancient Aryans to abandon their primeval home and migrate southwards. But fortunately for us, the Avesta, though not generally as well preserved as the Vedas, contains a passage which supplies the omission in a remarkable way; and we mean to discuss this passage at some length in this chapter. The Avestic legends and traditions quoted in the foregoing chapters show that a day and a night of six months each were known to the ancestors of the Iranians, and that the appointed time for the appearance of Tishtrya before the worshipper, after his fight with Apaosha, varied from one to a hundred nights, thus indicating that a long darkness extending over a hundred nights was also known to the forefathers of the worshippers of Mazda. The stoppage of the flow of waters and of the movement of the sun in winter, as described in the Farvardîn Yasht, have also been referred to; and it is shown that the custom of keeping a dead body in the house for two nights, three nights or a month long in winter, until the floods begin to flow, must be ascribed to the absence of sunlight during the period when the floods as well as light were shut up in the nether world by the demons of darkness.

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All these traditions have their counterparts in the Vedic literature. But the Avestic tradition regarding the original home in the far north and its destruction by snow and ice stands by itself, though in the light of the Vedic evidence discussed in the previous chapters, we can now clearly show that it has a historical basis and that it preserves for us a distinct reminiscence, howsoever fragmentary, of the ancient Aryan home. This tradition is contained in the first two Fargards or chapters of the Vendidad, or the law book of the Mazda-yasnians. They have no connection with the subsequent chapters of the book, and appear to be incorporated into it simply as a relic of old historical or traditional literature. These two Fargards have not failed to attract the attention of Zend scholars ever since the discovery of the Avesta by Anquetil; and many attempts have been made not only to identify the places mentioned therein, but to draw historical conclusions therefrom. Thus Heeren, Rhode, Lassen, Pictel, Bunsen, Haug and others have recognized in these accounts of the Vendidad, a half historical, half mythical reminiscence of the primeval home and the countries known to the followers of the Avesta, when these Fargards were composed. Professor Spiegel at first took the same view as Rhode, but has latterly retracted his opinion.

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On the other hand, Kiepert, Breal, Darmesteter and others have shown that no historical conclusion can be drawn from the description contained in the first two chapters of the Vendidad; and this view seems to be now mainly accepted. But it must be borne in mind that this view was formulated at a time when the Vedic evidence in support of the Arctic theory, set forth in the previous chapters, was entirely unknown, and when the existence of an Arctic home in ancient times was not regarded as probable even on geological grounds, man being believed to be post-Glacial and the Arctic regions always unsuited for human habitation. The recent discoveries in Geology and Archæology have, however, thrown a flood of new light on the subject; and if the interpretation of the Vedic traditions noticed in the previous chapters is correct, it will, I think, be readily admitted that a reconsideration of the Avestic tradition from the new standpoint is a necessity and that we should not be deterred from undertaking the task by the recent verdict of Zend scholars against the views of Bunsen and Haug regarding the historical character of the first two Fargards of the Vendidad.

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The first Fargard of the Vendidad is devoted to the enumeration of sixteen lands created by Ahura Mazda, the Supreme God of the Iranians. As soon as each land was created Angra Mainyu, the evil spirit of the Avesta, created different evils and plagues to invade the land and made it unfit for human habitation. There were thus sixteen creations of Ahura Mazda, and sixteen counter-creations of Angra Mainyu; and the first Fargard of the Vendidad contains a description of all these creations, and counter-creations, stating in detail how each good land was created by Ahura Mazda and how Angra Mainyu rendered it unfit for human residence by creating some evil or plague therein. The Fargard is too long to be quoted here in full; and I, therefore, borrow Muir's abstract of the same prepared from the versions of Spiegel and Haug, inserting in some places Darmesteter's renderings with the aid of his translation of the Vendidad in the Sacred Books of the East Series. The paragraphs are marked first according to Darmesteter, and then according to Spiegel by figures within brackets.

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1, 2, (1-4):— "Ahura Mazda spake to the holy Zarathustra: 'I formed into an agreeable region that which before was nowhere habitable. Had I not done this, all living things would have poured forth after Airyana Vaêjo.'"

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3, 4, (5-9):— "I, Ahura Mazda, created as the first best region, Airyana Vaêjo, of the good creation, (or, according to Darmesteter, by the good river Dâitya). Then Angra Mainyu, the destroyer, formed in opposition to it, a great serpent and winter [or snow], the creation of the Daêvas. There are there ten months of winter, and two of summer."

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5, (13, 14):— "I, Ahura Mazda, created as the second best region, Gaû (plains), in which Sughdha is situated. Thereupon in opposition to it, Angra Mainyu, the death-dealing, created a wasp which is death to cattle and fields."

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6, (17, 18):— "I, etc., created as the third best region, Môuru, the mighty, the holy."

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[Here, and in most of the following cases the counter-creations of Angra Mainyu are omitted.]

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7, (21, 22):— "I, etc., created as the fourth best region, the fortunate Bâkhdhi, with the lofty banner."

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8, (25, 26):— "I, etc., created as the fifth best region, Nisaya, [ situated between Môuru and Bâkhdhi. ]."

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9, (29, 30) :—"I, etc., created as the sixth best region, Harôyu, abounding in the houses [or water]."

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10, (33-36) :—"I, etc., created as the seventh best region, Vaêkereta where Dujak is situated (or, according to Darmesteter, of evil shadows). In opposition to it, Angra Mainyu, the destroyer, created the Pairika Khnathaiti, who clung to Keresâspa,"

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11, (37, 38) :—"I, etc., created as the eighth best region Urva, full of pastures."

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12, (41, 42) :—"I, etc., created as the ninth best region, Khnenta (a river) in Vehrkâna."

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13, (45, 46) :—"I, etc., created as the tenth best region, the fortunate Harahvaiti."

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14, (49, 50) :—"I, etc., created as the eleventh best region, Haêtumant, the rich and shining."

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16, (59, 60) :—"I, etc., created as the twelfth best region, Ragha, with three fortresses [or races]."

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17, (63,64) :—"I, etc., created as the thirteenth best region, Chakhra, the strong."

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18, (67, 68) :—"I, etc., created as the fourteenth, best region, Varena, with four corners ; to which was born Thraêtaona, who slew Azi Dahâka."

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19, (72, 73) :—"I, etc., created as the fifteenth best country, Hapta Hendu [from the eastern to the western Hendu]. In opposition, Angra Mainyu created untimely evils, and pernicious heat [or fever]."

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20, (76, 77) :— "I, etc., created as the sixteenth and best, the people who live without a head on the floods of Rangha (or according to Haug ‘on the seashore ’)."

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21, (81) :— "There are besides, other countries, fortunate, renowned, lofty, prosperous and splendid."

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Spiegel, Haug and other scholars have tried to identify the sixteen lands mentioned in this description, and the following tabular statement sums up the results of the investigations of these scholars in this direction. The letters S, H, and D, stand for Spiegel, Haug and Darmesteter.

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The old Persian and Greek names in the above table are taken from the inscriptions of the Achæmenian kings and the works of Greek writers after the overthrow of the Achæmenian dynasty by Alexandar the Great. They show that at least 10 out of 16 lands can be still identified with certainty; and if so, we can safely say that the account in the first Fargard is real and not mythical. But with regard to the land mentioned first in the list, there has been a difference of opinion amongst Zend scholars. The Airyana Vaêjo is the first created happy land, and the name signifies that it was the birthland (Vaêjo = seed, Sans. bīja) of the Aryans (Iranians), or the Paradise of the Iranian race. Was this a mythical region or a real country representing the original home of the Aryans, and if it was a real country where was it situated? This is the first question which we have to answer from the evidence contained in the first two Fargards of the Vendidad; and secondly, we have to decide whether the sixteen lands mentioned above were the successive countries occupied by the ancestors of the Iranian race in their migrations from the original home in the north. The Fargard says nothing about migration. It simply mentions that so many lands were created by Ahura Mazda and that in opposition thereto Angra Mainyu, the evil Spirit of the Avesta, created so many different evils and plagues which rendered the lands unfit for human residence.

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It is inferred from this that the Fargard does not contain an account of successive migrations, but merely gives us a description of the countries known to the ancestors of the Iranians at the time when the Fargards were composed. In other words, the chapter is geographical and not historical, containing nothing but a specification of the countries known to the Iranians at a particular time; and it is argued that it would be converting geography into history to take the different countries to represent the successive stages of migrations from the primeval home, when not a word about migration is found in the original text. Professor Darmesteter further observes that as the enumeration of the sixteen lands begins with Airyana Vaêjo by the river Vanguhi Dâitya and ends with Rangha, which corresponds with the Vedic Rasâ, a mythical river that divides the gods from the fiends, and that as the Vanguhi and the Rangha were originally the celestial rivers that came down from heaven (like the two heavenly Gânges) to surround the earth, the one in the east and the other in the west, (Bundahish, XX), the Airyana Vaêjo and the Rangha must be taken to denote the eastern and the western boundaries of the countries known to the ancient Iranians at the time when the Fargard was composed.

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Spiegel also takes the same view, and places Airyana Vaêjo " in the farthest east of the Iranian plateau, in the region where the Oxus and Jaxartes take their rise;" and Darmesteter seems to quote with approval the identification of the Rangha or the sixteenth land, in the commentary on the Vendidad, with Arvastân-i-Rûm or Roman Mesopotamia. The whole Fargard is thus taken to be a geographical description of the ancient Iran, and Professor Darmesteter at the end of his introduction to the Fargard observes "It follows hence no historical conclusion can be drawn from this description : it was necessary that it should begin with the Vanguhi and end with the Rangha. To look to it for an account of geographical migrations is converting cosmology into history." Bunsen and Haug, on the other hand, maintain that the Airyana Vaêjo represents the original home of the Iranians in the far north, and the countries mentioned in the Fargard must, therefore, be taken to represent the lands through which the Aryans passed after leaving their ancient home. The first question which we have, therefore, to decide is whether the Airyana Vaêjo was merely the easternmost boundary of the ancient Iran, or whether it was the primeval abode of the Iranians in the far north. In the former case we may take the Fargard to be merely a chapter on ancient geography;

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while if it is found impossible to locate the Airyana Vaêjo except in the far north, the countries from Samarkand and Sughdha to Hapta Heṇdu or the Panjaub mentioned in the Fargard would naturally represent the route taken by the ancient Iranians in their migrations from the ancient home. Everything thus depends upon the view that we take of the situation of the Airyana Vaêjo; and we shall, therefore, first see if there is anything in the Avestic description of the land which will enable us to determine its position with certainty.

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It may be observed at the outset that the river Vanguhi is not mentioned in the Fargard along with the Airyana Vaêjo. The original verse speaks only of the "good dâitya of Airyana Vaêjo," but it is doubtful if "dâitya" denotes a river in this place. The Zend phrase *Airyanem Vaêjô vanghuyâô dâityayô*, which Darmesteter translates as "the Airyana Vaêjo, by the good (*vanghuhi*) river Dâitya," is understood by Spiegel to mean "the Airyana Vaêjo of the good creation," while Haug takes it as equivalent to "the Airyana Vaêjo of good capability." It is therefore, doubtful if the Dâitya river is mentioned along with the Airyana Vaêjo in this passage.¹ But even supposing that Darmesteter’s rendering is correct, he gives us no authority for identifying Dâitya with Vanguhi. The Bundahish (XX, 7 and 13) mentions Vêh (Vanguhi) and Dâtîk (Dâitya) as *two* distinct rivers, though both seem to be located in the Aîrân-vêj (Airyana Vaêjo). We cannot again lose sight of the fact that it is not the Vanguhi (Vêh) alone that flows through the Airyana Vaêjo, but that the Rangha (Arag) has the same source and flows through the same land, *viz.*, the Airyana Vaêjo. Thus in the very beginning of Chapter XX of the Bundahish, we read that the Arag and the Vêh are the chief of the eighteen rivers, and that they "flow forth from the north, part from Albûrz and part from the Albûrz of Auhar-mazd; one towards the west, that is the Arag; and one towards the east, that is the Vêh river." The Bundahish (VII, 15) further informs us that the Vêh river flows out from the same source as the Arag river, and Dr. West in a footnote observes that both these rivers flow out from "the north side of the Arêdvîvsûr (Ardvi Sûra Anâhita) fountain of the sea, which is said to be on the lofty Hûgar (Hukairya), a portion of Albûrz." Even according to Bundahish, the Vanguhi is, therefore, the eastern and the Rangha the western river, in the northern part of Albûrz; or, in other words, they represent two rivers in a country, situated in the north, one flowing towards the east, and one to the west, in that region. It would, therefore, be, to say the least, unsafe to infer from this that the Airyana Vaêjo represents the easternmost country, because the name Vêh or Vanguhi was in later times attached to the easternmost river in Irân. For by parity of reasoning, we can as well place the Airyana Vaêjo in the far west, in as much as the name Arag or Rangha was given, as stated by Darmesteter himself, in later times to the western-most river.

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¹ See Dr. West’s note on Bundahish XX, 13. The original passage mentions the Dâtîk river coming out from Aîrân vêj; but Dr. West observes that this may not be a river though the phrase (in the Avesta) has, no doubt, led to locating the river Dâtîk in Aîrân-vêj.

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It is again a question why Rangha should be identified with the Caspian Sea, or some western river in Iran. The Fargard does not say anything about the situation of Rangha. It simply states that the fifteenth land created by Ahura Mazda was Hapta Heṇdu, and the sixteenth was on the floods of Rangha. Now if Hapta Heṇdu is identified with Sapta Sindhu, or the Panjaub, why take a big and a sudden jump from the Panjaub to the Caspian Sea, to find out the Rangha river. Rangha is Sanskrit Rasâ, and in the Rig-Veda (X, 75, 6) a terrestrial river, by name Rasâ, is mentioned along with the Kubhâ, the Krumu and the Gomatî, which are all known to be the affluents of the Indus. Is it not, therefore, more likely that Rangha may be the Vedic Rasâ, a tributary of the Indus? If the context is any guide to the determination of the sense of ambiguous words, the mention of Hapta Heṇdu, as the fifteenth land, shows that Rasâ the sixteenth must be sought for somewhere near it, and the point is pretty well settled when we find Rasâ actually mentioned in the Rig-Veda along with some other tributaries of the Indus. The identification of Rangha with the westernmost river is, therefore, at best doubtful, and the same may be said of Vanguhi, which by-the-by is not mentioned in the Fargard at all. But Darmesteter's reasoning does not stop here.

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On the strength of this doubtful identification he would have us believe that the ancient land of the Airyana Vaêjo was situated in the same region where the river named Vanguhi, or Vêh, in later times was said to flow. But the reasoning is obviously erroneous. The names of the two rivers Vanguhi and Rangha in the primeval home may have been subsequently transferred to the real rivers in the new settlement; but we cannot infer therefrom that the country through which these *new* rivers flowed was the original site of the Airyana Vaêjo. It is a well-known fact that persons migrating from their motherland to new countries often name the places they come across after the names of places familiar to them in their motherland. But on that account no one has ventured to place England in America or Australia; and it is strange how such a mistake should have been committed by Zend scholars in the present case. For even if a province or country in Central Asia had been named Airyana Vaêjo, we could not have located the original home in that province; just as the abode of Varuṇa cannot be placed in the land named Varena, which is the Zend equivalent of Varuṇa. The whole of Darmesteter's reasoning must, therefore, be rejected as unsound and illogical, and but for the preconceived notion that the original home of the Iranians cannot be placed in the far north, I think no scholar would have cared to put forward such guesses.

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There are express passages in the Avesta, which describe in unmistakable terms the climatic characteristics of the Airyana Vaêjo, and so far as I am aware, no valid reason has yet been assigned why we should treat this description as mythical and have recourse to guess-work for determining the position of the primeval home. Thus at the beginning of the first Fargard, we are told that the Airyana Vaêjo was the first good and happy creation of Ahura Mazda, but Angra Mainyu converted it into a land of ten months winter and two months summer, evidently meaning that at the time when the Fargard was composed it was an ice-bound land. The winter of ten months’ duration, therefore, naturally points to a position in the far north, at a great distance beyond the Jaxartes; and it would be unreasonable to ignore this description which is characteristic only of the Arctic regions, and, relying on doubtful guesses, hold that the Airyana Vaêjo was the easternmost boundary of the ancient Iran. As the passage, where the ten months’ winter is described as the present principal climatic characteristic of the Airyana Vaêjo, is very important for our purpose, I give below the translations of the same by Darmesteter, Spiegel and Haug:—

Vendidad, Fargard I

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| Darmesteter. | Spiegel. | Haug and Bunsen. |
| 3. The first of the good lands and countries, which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the Airyana Vaêjo, by the good river Dâitya. | 5. The first and best of regions and places have I created, I who am Ahura Mazda ; | 3. As the first best of regions and countries I, who am Ahura Mazda, created Airyana Vaêjo of good capability ; thereupon in opposition, to him Angra Mainyus, the death-dealing, created a mighty serpent and snow, the work of the Daêvas. |
| Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counteracted by his witchcraft the serpent in | 6. The Airyana Vaêjo of the good creation. | |
| | 7. Then Angra Mainyus, who is full of death, created an opposition to the same ; | |
| | 8. A great Serpent | |

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| *Darmesteter.* | *Spiegel.* | *Haug and Bunsen.* |
| the river and winter, a work of the Daêvas. | and Winter, which the Daêvas have created. | |
| 4. There are ten winter months there, two summer months ;* and those are cold for the waters, cold for the earth, cold for the trees. Winter falls there, with the worst of its plagues. | 9. Ten winter months are there, two summer months, | 4. Ten months of winter are there, two months of summer. |
| | 10. And these are cold as to the water, cold as to the earth, cold as to the trees. | [Seven months of summer are there; five months of winter there were; the latter are cold as to water, cold as to earth, cold as to trees; there (is)—midwinter, the heart of winter; there all around falls deep snow; there is the direst of plagues.]† |
| | 11. After this to the middle of the earth, then to the heart of the earth, | |
| | 12. Comes the winter; then comes the most evil. | |

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* N. B.—Darmesteter states in a note that after summer months the Vendidad Sâdah adds, "It is known that [in the ordinary course of nature] there are seven months of summer and five of winter."

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† N. B.—According to Haug the whole of the passage within brackets is a later addition.

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It will be seen from the above translations that they all agree in the main points, *viz.*, (1) that the Airyana Vaêjo was the first good land created by Ahura Mazda, (2) that severe winter and snow were first introduced into it by Angra Mainyu, and (3) that after the invasion of Angra Mainyu there were ten winter months and two summer months in that land. The only difference between the three versions is that while Darmesteter and Spiegel regard the last sentence "And these are cold for the waters, etc." as a part of the original text Haug regards it as a subsequent addition. All the translators again agree in holding that the statement "Seven months of summer are and five months of winter" is a later insertion. But we shall take up this question afterwards. For the present we are concerned with the statement that "Ten months of winter are there, two months of summer," and it will be seen that there is no difference on this point in the three renderings given above. Another important fact mentioned in the passage is that the prolonged duration of winter was the result of Angra Mainyu’s counter-action, meaning thereby that before the invasion of Angra Mainyu different climatic conditions prevailed in that region. This view is further strengthened by the consideration that the Iranians could never have placed their Paradise in a land of severe winter and snow. Bunsen has, therefore, rightly observed that the Airyana Vaêjo was originally a perfect country and had a very mild climate, until the hostile deity created a powerful serpent and snow, so that only two months of summer remained while winter prevailed during ten. In short, the passage in question speaks of a sudden change in the climate of the original home, a change that converted the paradise into a kind of ice-bound land with long and severe winters. If we, therefore, want to know what the land was like before the invasion of Angra Mainyu, we must reverse the climatic conditions that obtained after the invasion, and suppose that this cradle of the Iranian race was situated in the extreme north where long cool summers of ten months and short mild winters of two months originally prevailed. It was Angra Mainyu who altered this genial climate by means of glaciation and rendered it unbearable to man. The description of the two summer months after the invasion, viz., that “These were cold as to the water, cold as to the earth, cold as to the trees,” shows that after glaciation even the summer climate was unsuited for human habitation.

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We have stated above that the passage in question indicates a sudden change in the climate of the Airyana Vaêjo, converting ten months summer and two months winter into ten months severe winter and two months cold summer. Thirty or forty years ago such a statement or proposition would have been regarded not only bold, but impossible or almost insane, for the geological knowledge of the time was not sufficiently advanced to establish the existence of a mild climate round about the North Pole in ancient times. It was probably this difficulty which stared Zend scholars in the face when they declined to place the Airyana Vaêjo in the far north, in spite of the plain description clearly indicating its northernmost position. Happily the recent discoveries in Geology and Archæology have not only removed this difficulty by establishing, on scientific grounds, the existence of a warm and genial climate near the North Pole in inter-glacial times, but have proved that the Polar regions were invaded, at least twice, by glaciation which destroyed their genial climate. Thus it is now a settled scientific fact that the Arctic regions were once characterised by warm and short winters and genial and long summers, a sort of perpetual spring, and that this condition of things was totally upset or reversed by the advent of the Glacial period which made winters long and severe and summers short and cold.

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The description of the climatic changes introduced by Angra Mainyu into the Airyana Vaêjo is, therefore, just what a modern geologist would ascribe to the Glacial epoch; and when the description is so remarkably and unexpectedly corroborated by the latest scientific researches, I fail to see on what ground we can lightly set it aside as mythical or imaginary. If some Zend scholars have done so in the past, it was because geological knowledge was not then sufficiently advanced to establish the probability of the description contained in the Avesta. But with new materials before us which go to confirm the Avestic description of the Airyana Vaêjo in every detail, we shall be acting unwisely if we decline to revise the conclusions of Zend scholars arrived at some years ago on insufficient materials. When we look at the question from this point of view, we have to place the site of the Airyana Vaêjo in the Arctic regions, where alone we can have a winter of ten months at the present day. We can escape from such a conclusion only by denying the possibility that the passage in question contains any traditional account of the ancient home of the Iranians; and this course seems to have been adopted by some Zend scholars of the day. But with the Vedic evidence, set forth and discussed in the previous chapters, before us, we need not have any of those apprehensions which have hitherto led many Zend scholars to err on the side of caution and moderation.

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We have seen that there are strong grounds for holding that the ancient Indo-European year was a year of ten months followed by a long night of two months; in other words, it was a year of ten summer months and two winter months, that is, exactly of the same kind as the one which prevailed in the Airyana Vaêjo before the happy land was invaded by the evil spirit. The word for summer in Zend is *hama*, the same as Sanskrit *samâ*, which means "a year" in the Rig-Veda. The period of ten summer months mentioned in the Avesta would, therefore, mean a year of ten months' sunshine, or of ten *mânushâ yugâ*, followed by a long wintry night of two months as described in the previous chapters. It may be urged that the Vendidad does not say that the two winter months were all dark, and we have, therefore, no authority for converting two winter months into two months of continuous darkness. A little reflection will, however, show that the objection is utterly untenable. In order to have a winter of ten months at the present day, we must place the Airyana Vaêjo in the Arctic regions; and once we do so, a long night of one, two or three months follows as a matter of course. This long night will now fall in the middle of the winter of ten months; but before the last Glacial epoch, or the invasion of Angra Mainyu, when there was a summer of ten months in the Arctic regions, the duration of the long night and that of the winter of two months must have been co-extensive.

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That is an important difference in the description of the paradise of the Aryans, as it is at present and as it was before the last Glacial epoch. The long night characterised these regions before the Glacial period as it does at present. But when the winters were short they corresponded with, and were confined only to, the long night; while at the present day, since the winter in the Arctic regions lasts for ten months, the long night falls in the middle of such winter. The description of the Airyana Vaêjo in the Vendidad, therefore, naturally leads us to infer that ten months sunshine or summer followed by two months dark winter represented the climatic conditions of the place before the invasion of Angra Mainyu, who converted summer into winter and vice versa, by introducing ice and snow into the land. We have already referred to the maximum period of a hundred nights during which Tishtrya fought with Apaosha, and to the custom of keeping the dead bodies in the house for two nights, three nights or a month long in winter, until waters and light, which stood still in winter, again began to flow or come up, showing that the period was one of continuous darkness.

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These passages taken in conjunction with the aforesaid description of the Airyana Vaêjo clearly establish the fact that the paradise of the Iranians was situated in the extreme north or almost near the North Pole, and that it was characterised by long delightful summers, and short and warm but dark winters, until it was rendered unfit for human habitation by the invasion of Angra Mainyu, or the advent of the Glacial epoch, which brought in severe winter and snow causing the land to be covered with an icecap several hundreds of feet in thickness.

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There is one more point which deserves to be noticed in this connection. We have seen that to the description of the Airyana Vaêjo quoted above, the old Zend commentators have added what is believed to be an inconsistent statement, viz., that "There are seven months of summer and five of winter therein." Dr. Haug thinks that the paragraph "The latter are cold as to water etc." is also a later addition, and must, therefore, be taken with the "five months of winter." But both Spiegel and Darmesteter, as well as the commentator, are of opinion that the phrases "And these are cold as to the water etc." form a part of the original text, and must, therefore, be taken to refer to the two summer months; and this view seems to be more reasonable, for a later insertion, if any, is more likely to be a short one than otherwise. The only addition to the original text thus seems to be the statement "It is known that there are seven months of summer and five of winter;" and this must be taken as referring to the climatic conditions which obtained in the Airyana Vaêjo before the invasion of Angra Mainyu, for the latter reduced the duration of summer only to two months, which again were cold to the water, the earth and the trees. It has been shown above that as the Airyana Vaêjo was originally a happy land, we must suppose that the first climatic conditions therein were exactly the reverse of those which were introduced into it by Angra Mainyu;

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or, in other words, a summer of ten months and a winter of two months must be said to have originally prevailed in this happy land. But the Zend commentators have stated that there were seven months of summer and five of winter therein; and this tradition appears to have been equally old, for we read in the Bundahish (XXV, 10-14) that "on the day Aûharmazd (first day) of Âvân the winter acquires strength and enters into the world,...and on the auspicious day Atarô of the month Dîn (the ninth day of the tenth month) the winter arrives, with much cold, at Aîrân-vêj, and until the end, in the auspicious month Spendarmad, winter advances through the whole world; on this account they kindle a fire everywhere on the day Atarô of the month Dîn, and it forms an indication that the winter *has come*." Here the five months of winter in the Airyana Vaêjo are expressly mentioned to be Âvân, Atarô, Dîn, Vohûman and Spendarmad; and we are told that Rapîtvîn Gâh is not celebrated during this period as Rapîtvîn 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 Aûharmazd (first) of the month Farvardîn to the auspicious day Anîrân (last) of the month Mitrô," (XXV, 7).

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It seems from this account that the tradition of seven months summer and five months winter in the Airyana Vaêjo 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 same chapter twelve months and four seasons are enumerated, and the season of winter is there said to comprise only the last three months of the year, viz., Dîn, Vohûman 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 Vaêjo seems to have been traditionally preserved in these passages; and the old Zend commentators on the 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 different statements regarding the climatic conditions of the Airyana Vaêjo 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;

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and contradictory they undoubtedly are so long as we do not possess the true key to their interpretation. They are inconsistent, if we make the Airyana Vaêjo the easternmost boundary of the ancient Iran;

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but if the paradise is placed in the circumpolar 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-shine, and the legend of the Dashagvas a sacrificial session, or a period of sun-shine, of ten months. It has also been pointed out that between the North Pole and the Arctic circle the sun is above the horizon for any period longer than seven and less than twelve months according to the latitude of the place. There is, therefore, nothing strange, extraordinary or inconsistent, if we get two statements in the Avesta regarding the duration of summer in the primeval home; and we need not assume that the commentators have added the statement of seven months summer simply because the description of two months summer and ten months winter did not appear to them suitable to the first land of blessing. It is not possible that they could have misunderstood the original text in such a way as to suppose that the climatic conditions introduced by Angra Mainyu were the conditions which obtained originally in the Airyana Vaêjo.

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We must, therefore, reject the explanation which tries to account for this later insertion on the ground that it was made by persons who regarded the description in the original as unsuited to the first created happy land. If the original text is properly read and interpreted, it gives us a summer of ten months in the Airyana Vaêjo before Angra Mainyu’s invasion, and the statement regarding the summer of seven months refers to the same place and time. We have the same thing in the Rig-Veda where the sun is once represented as having seven rays and once as having ten rays, meaning seven months and ten months of sun-shine, both of which are possible only in the Arctic regions. The two Avestic traditions stated above must, therefore, be taken to represent the Arctic climatic conditions prevailing in the ancient home in the far north; and the correctness of the explanation is proved by the discussion in the foregoing chapters. With regard to the custom of kindling a fire on the ninth day of Dîn or the tenth month, noticed in the Bundahish, it seems to me that instead of taking it to be an indication that winter "has come," it is better to trace its origin to the commencement of winter at that time in some part of the original home; for if a fire is to be kindled there is greater propriety in kindling it to commemorate the commencement of winter rather than the expiry of two out of five winter months.

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If the custom is so interpreted, it will imply that a year of nine months and ten days was once prevalent in some part of the Aryan home, a conclusion well in keeping with the ancient Roman year of ten months. But apart from this suggestion, there is a striking coincidence between the Vedic and the Avestic tradition in this respect. According to the Bundahish (XXV, 20), the year is divided into four seasons of three months each, Farvardîn, Ardavahisht and Horvadad constituting the season of the spring; Tîr, Amerôdad and Shatvaîrô the summer; Mitrô, Âvân and Âtarô the autumn; and Dîn, Vohûman and Spendarmad, the winter. The fortieth day of Sharad or autumn would, therefore, represent the tenth day (Abân) of Âvân; and the Vedic statement discussed in the ninth chapter, that Indra's fight with Shambara commenced "on the fortieth day of Sharad" agrees well (only with a difference of ten days) with the statement in the Bundahish that the winter in the Airyana Vaêjo commenced with the month of Âvân the second month in autumn. We have thus a very close resemblance between the Vedic and the Avestic tradition about the end of summer in the original Arctic home; and the corresponding Roman and Greek traditions have been previously noticed. In short, a year of seven or ten months sun-shine can be traced back to the Indo-European period;

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and since its double character can be explained only by placing the original home in the circumpolar regions, we are inevitably led to the conclusion that the Airyana Vaêjo must also be placed in the same region. The Avestic account is by itself plain and intelligible, and the apparent inconsistencies would have been explained in a natural way long ago, if Zend scholars had not created unnecessary difficulties by transferring the site of this Paradise to the east of the ancient Iran. Under these circumstances it is needless to say which of the two theories regarding the position of the Airyana Vaêjo is correct; for no one would accept a hypothesis which only enhances the confusion, in preference to one which explains everything in a natural and satisfactory manner.

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We have so far discussed the passage in the first Fargard which describes the climate of the Airyana Vaêjo. The passage, even when taken by itself, is quite intelligible on the Arctic theory; but in ascertaining the original climate of the Airyana Vaêjo we supposed that it was the reverse of the one introduced by the invasion of Angra Mainyu. The second Fargard of the Vendidad, which is similar in character to the first, contains, however, a passage, which does away with the necessity of such assumption, by giving us a graphic description of the actual advent of ice and snow which ruined the ancient Iranian Paradise. This Fargard is really a supplement to the first and contains a more detailed account of the Airyana Vaêjo and a description of the paradisiacal life enjoyed there before Angra Mainyu afflicted it with the plague of winter and snow. This is evident from the fact that the coming of the severe winter is foretold in this Fargard and Yima is warned to prepare against it; while in the first Fargard the happy land is described as actually ruined by Angra Mainyu's invasion. Darmesteter divides this Fargard into two parts, the first comprising the first twenty (or according to Spiegel forty-one) paragraphs, and the second the remaining portion of the Fargard. In the first part Ahura Mazda is said to have asked king Yima, the ruler of the Airyana Vaêjo, who is called sruto Airyênê vaêjahê, ‘famous in Airyana Vaêjo’, to receive the law from Mazda; but Yima refused to become the bearer of the law, and he was, therefore, directed by Ahura Mazda to keep his people happy and make them increase. Yima is accordingly represented as making his men thrive and increase by keeping away death and disease from them, and by thrice enlarging the boundaries of the country which had become too narrow for its inhabitants. Whether this fact represents a gradual expansion of the oldest Aryan settlements in the Arctic home we need not stop to inquire. The second part of the Fargard opens with a meeting of the celestial gods called by Ahura Mazda, and “the fair Yima, the good shepherd of high renown in the Airyana Vaêjo,” is said to have attended this meeting with all his excellent mortals. It was at this meeting that Yima was distinctly warned by Ahura Mazda that fatal winters were going to fall on the happy land and destroy everything therein. To provide against this calamity the Holy One advised Yima to make a Vara or enclosure, and remove there the seeds of every kind of animals and plants for preservation. Yima made the Vara accordingly, and the Fargard informs us that in this Vara the sun, the moon and the stars “rose but once a year,” and that “a year seemed only as a day” to the inhabitants thereof. The Fargard then closes with the description of the happy life led by the inhabitants of this Vara of which Zarathushtra and his son Urvatadnara are said to be the masters or overseers.

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Yima’s Vara here described is something like Noah’s ark. But there is this difference between the two that while the Biblical deluge is of water and rain, the Avestic deluge is of snow and ice; and the latter not only does not conflict with geological evidence but is, on the contrary, fully and unexpectedly confirmed by it. Secondly, the description that "a year seemed only as a day" to the inhabitants of this Vara, and that the sun and stars "rose only once a year therein," serves, in an unmistakable manner, to fix the geographical position of this Vara in the region round about the North Pole; for nowhere on the surface of the earth can we have a year-long day-and-night except at the Pole. Once the position of Yima's Vara is thus fixed the position of the Airyana Vaêjo is at once determined; for Yima's Vara, as stated in the Mainyô-i-khard, must obviously be located in the Airyana Vaêjo. Here is, therefore, another argument for locating the Airyana Vaêjo in the extreme north and not to the west of the ancient Iran, as Spiegel, Darmesteter and others have done. For whether Yima's Vara be real or mythical, we cannot suppose that the knowledge of a year-long day and of the single rising of the sun during the whole year was acquired simply by a stretch of imagination, and that it is a mere accident that it tallies so well with the description of the Polar day and night.

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The authors of the Fargard may not have themselves witnessed these phenomena, but there can be no doubt that they knew these facts by tradition; and if so, we must suppose that their remote ancestors must have acquired this knowledge by personal experience in their home near the North Pole. Those that locate the Airyana Vaêjo in the extreme east of the Iranian highland try to account for ten months winter therein by assuming that a tradition of a decrease in the earth's temperature was still in the mind of the author of this Fargard, or that the altitude of the table-land, where the Oxus and the Jaxartes take their rise, was far higher in ancient times than at present, thereby producing a cold climate. Both these explanations are however artificial and unsatisfactory. It is true that a high altitude produces a cold climate; but in the present instance the climate of the Airyana Vaêjo was mild and genial before the invasion of Angra Mainyu, and we must, therefore, suppose that the Iranian table-land was not elevated at first, until Angra Mainyu upheaved it and produced a cold climate. But the present altitude of the plateau is not so great as to produce a winter of ten months, and this requires us again to assume the submergence of this land after the invasion of Angra Mainyu. Unfortunately there is no geological evidence forthcoming to support the upheaval and submergence of this land in the order mentioned above.

First 57 of 89 passages. Read on

Linked texts (13)

Ṛgvedasaṃhitā — Sanskrit
Kauṣītakibrāhmaṇa — Kauṣītaki, Sanskrit
Aṣṭādhyāyī — Pāṇini, Sanskrit
Aitareyabrāhmaṇa — Mahidāsa Aitareya, Sanskrit
Vālmīkirāmāyaṇa — Vālmīki, Sanskrit
Śatapathabrāhmaṇa — Yājñavalkya & Śāṇḍilya (Vedic teacher), Sanskrit
Bhāgavatapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
Matsyapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
Vīdēvdād — Avestan
Mahābhārata — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
P. Vergilius Maro — Latin
Atharvavedasaṃhitā — Atharvan & Aṅgiras, Sanskrit
Ἀριστοτέλης — Ἀριστοτέλης, Ancient Greek

The Arctic Home in the Vedas c14: Chapter XI. The Avestic Evidence

Contents

Chapter XI. The Avestic Evidence

Vendidad, Fargard I

Linked texts (13)