The Arctic Home in the Vedas c14.26.3

c14.26.3

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;