________________
a body the Aryans of the Rig Veda were certainly not acquainted with either ocean. Some straggling adventurers probably pushed down the Indus, but Zimmer doubtless is correct in asserting that the popular emigration did not extend further south than the junction of the Indus and the Pa[=n]canada (the united five rivers)-[20] The extreme south-eastern geographical limit of the Rig Vedic people may be reckoned (not, however, in Oldenberg's opinion, with any great certainty) as being in Northern Beh[=a]r (M[=a]gadha). The great desert, Marusthala, formed an impassable southern obstacle for the first immigrants.[21]
On the other hand, the two oceans are well known to the Atharva Veda, while the geographical (and hence chronological) difference between the Rik and the Atharvan is furthermore illustrated by the following facts: in the Rig Veda wolf and lion are the most formidable beasts; the tiger is unknown and the elephant seldom alluded to; while in the Atharvan the tiger has taken the lion's place and the elephant is a more familiar figure. Now the tiger has his domicile in the swampy land about Benares, to which point is come the Atharvan Aryan, but not the Rig Vedic people. Here too, in the Atharvan, the panther is first mentioned, and for the first time silver and iron are certainly referred to. In the Rig Veda the metals are bronze and gold, silver and iron being unknown.[22] Not less significant are the trees. The ficus religiosa, the tree later called the 'tree of the gods' (deva-sadana, acvattha), under which are fabled to sit the divinities in heaven, is scarcely known in the Rig Veda, but is well known in the Atharvan; while India's grandest tree, the nyagrodha, ficus indica, is known to the Atharvan and Brahmanic period, but is utterly foreign to the Rig Veda. Zimmer deems it no less significant that fishes are spoken of in the Atharvan and are mentioned only once in the Rig Veda, but this may indicate a geographical difference less than one of custom. In only one doubtful passage is the north-east monsoon alluded to. The storm so vividly described in the Rig Veda is the south-west monsoon which is felt in the northern Punj[=a]b. The north-east monsoon is felt to the southeast of the Punj[=a]b, possibly another indication of geographical extension, withal within the limits of the Rig Veda itself.
