Page:The Life of Lokamanya Tilak.djvu/418

 Brahmana which says "There are twelve months of the year; these are the Adityas." It therefore the twelve Adityas represent the twelve months of the year, the seven Adityas must have once (purvyam yugam) represented the seven months of the year. The legend of the Dashagvas or Dirghatamas points to the existence of an year of ten months; and as these cannot be accounted for except on the Arctic theory, the chain of evidence is strengthened by these legends.

The sacrificial literature also helps us in arriving at the same hypothesis. Once in the Aitaraya Brahmana and twice in the Taittiriya Samhita, we meet with descriptions regarding the Gavam-Ayanam, or the "cows' walk" wherein cows are represented as holding a sacrificial session. This session could be completed in 10 or 12 months. Why the session could be completed in 10 months seems to have puzzled Sayana and others, who merely content themselves with remarking that it is an "immemorial customs." The Arctic theory throws quite a new light on this tradition. The Gavam-ayanam of ten months and the old Roman year of ten months are relics of the period when the Aryans lived within the circumpolar regions. The 'cows' were not really cows, but the Adityas (month-gods).

If we turn to Vedic mythology, we find several stories, which cannot be properly explained either on the Dawn or Storm theory. The description of Indra's fight with Vritra records four simultaneous effects (i) the release of the cows (2) the release of the waters (3) the production of the dawn and (4) the production of the Sun. Advocates of the Storm theory describe Vrita as a storm-cloud and by smiting it with his