Page:The Life of Lokamanya Tilak.djvu/420

 between Indra and Vritra is a daily fight between light and darkness. But X, 62, 2 shows that the struggle was annual. This proves the Arctic Home hypo- thesis.

The Avesta contains two passages (first two Fargards) which also point to this theory. The first Fargard (chapter) of the Vendidad enumerates 16 lands created by Ahura Mazda. As soon as each land was created Angra Mainyu, the evil spirit created different evils and plagues to invade the land and make it unfit for human habitation. Out of these 16 lands 10 can be still identified with certainty. This proves that the account is real and not mythological. The Airyana Vaejo is described as 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. This sudden change in the climate of the Airyana Valjo, converting ten months summer and two months winter into ten months severe winter and two months cold summer was clearly due to the advent of the Glacial period as established by modern geologists. The second Fargard of the Vendidad gives us a graphic description of the actual advent of ice and snow. It also informs us that a Vara or enclosure was made to provide against the calamity and that in this Vara, the sun, the moon and the stars rose but once a year.

The cumulative weight of these and other researches incontrovertibly establishes Mr. Tilak's theory.