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

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two months as described in the previous chapters. It may be urged
that the Vendidad does not say that the two winter months were all
dark, and we have, therefore, no authority for converting two winter
months into two months of continuous darkness. A little reflection will,
however, show that the objection is utterly untenable. In order to have
a winter of ten months at the present day, we must place the Airyana
Vaêjo in the Arctic regions; and once we do so, a long night of one,
two or three months follows as a matter of course. This long night will
now fall in the middle of the winter of ten months; but before the last
Glacial epoch, or the invasion of Angra Mainyu, when there was a
summer of ten months in the Arctic regions, the duration of the long
night and that of the winter of two months must have been coextensive.
That is an important difference in the description of the
paradise of the Aryans, as it is at present and as it was before the last
Glacial epoch. The long night characterized these regions before the
Glacial period as it does at present. But when the winters were short
they corresponded with, and were confined only to, the long night;
while at the present day, since the winter in the Arctic regions lasts
for ten months, the long night falls in the middle of such winter. The
description of the Airyana Vaêjo in the Vendidad, therefore, naturally
leads us to infer that ten months sunshine or summer followed by two
months dark winter represented the climatic conditions of the place
before the invasion of Angra Mainyu, who converted summer into
winter and vice versa, by introducing ice and snow into the land. We
have already referred to the maximum period of a hundred nights
during which Tishtrya fought with Apaosha, and to the custom of
keeping the dead bodies in the house for two nights, three nights or a
month long in winter, until waters and light, which stood still in winter,
again began to flow or come up, showing that the period was one of
continuous darkness. These passages taken in conjunction with the
aforesaid description of the Airyana Vaêjo clearly establish the fact
that the paradise of the Iranians was situated in the extreme north or
almost near the