Artic Home of the Aryans by Lokamanya Bal ... - Mandhata Global

336
ends with Rangha, which corresponds with the Vedic Rasa, 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.
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 Vedidad, 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; while if it is found impossible to locate the Airyana
Vaêjo except in the far north, the countries from Samarkand and
Sughdha to Hapta Hendu 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