The Arctic Home in the Vedas c16.9.1

c16.9.1

Prof. Rangâchârya and especially Mr. Aiyer have ably treated this subject in their essays, and I agree in the main with them in their conclusions. I use the words ‘in the main’ deliberately, for though my researches have independently led me to reject the hypothesis of ‘divine years,’ yet there are certain points which cannot, in my opinion, be definitely settled without further research. I have shown previously that the word yuga is used in the Ṛig-Veda to denote ‘a period of time,’ and that in the phrase mânuṣhâ yugâ it cannot but be taken to denote ‘a month.’ Yuga is, however, evidently used to denote a longer period of time in such expressions as Devânâm prathame yuge in the Ṛig-Veda, X, 72, 3; while in the Atharva Veda VIII, 2, 21, which says “We allot to thee a hundred, ten thousand years, two, three, (or) four yugas,” a yuga evidently means a period of not less than 10,000 years;¹ and Mr. Aiyer is right in pointing out that the omission of the word ‘one’ in the above verse is not accidental. According to this view a yuga may be taken to have, at the longest, denoted a period of 10,000 years in the days of the Atharva Veda Samhitâ. Now it is found that Manu and the Mahâbhârata both assign 1000, 2000, 3000 and 4000 years to the four yugas of Kali, Dvâpara, Tretâ and Krita respectively. In other words, the durations of Dvâpara, Tretâ and Krita are obtained by doubling, trebling and quadrupling the duration of Kali; and taking into consideration that Krita (which Mr.