वेदों की प्राचीनता एवं काल-निर्णय / ओरायन (लोकमान्य बाल गंगाधर तिलक - खगोलीय वैदिक शोध)

256 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. for. We have seen that by the Storm theory we can account for the release of waters, but not the recovery of the dawn; while if the legend is taken to represent a struggle between light and darkness, as implied by the Dawn theory, we can account for the recovery of the dawn and the sun, but not for the release of waters. Under these circumstances it is neces- sary to examine the nature and character of waters as des- cribed in the Vedas, before we accept or reject either or both of the above-mentioned theories. It has been noticed above that the passages, where waters are said to be released by Indra after killing Vṛitra do not refer expressly to the rain-cloud. The words parvata, giri, and the like are used to denote the place where the waters were con- fined, and āpaḥ, or sindhus, to denote the waters themselves. Now āpaḥ, or waters generally, are mentioned in a number of places in the Ṛig-Veda, and the word in many places denotes the celestial or aerial waters. Thus we are told that they follow the path of the gods, and are to be found beside the sun, who is with them (I, 23, 17). In VII, 49, 2, we have an express state- ment that there are waters, which are celestial (divyāḥ, āpaḥ), and also those that flow in earthly channels (khanitrimāḥ), thus clearly distinguishing between terrestrial and celestial waters. In the same verse they are said to have the sea or the ocean for the goal; and in VIII, 69, 12, the seven rivers are said to flow into the jaws of Varuṇa as into a surging abyss. Varuṇa again is described as the god, who, like Indra, makes the rivers flow (II, 28, 4); and we have seen that the sage Dīrghatamas is said to have been borne on the waters wending to their goal (I, 158, 6). But it is needless to cite more authorities on this point, for scho- lars are agreed that both celestial and terrestrial waters are mentioned in the Ṛig-Veda. The nature, the character, or the movements of celestial waters appear, however, to be very im- perfectly understood; and this is the sole reason why scholars

VEDIC MYTHS—THE CAPTIVE WATERS. 257 have not yet been able to connect the release of the waters with the recovery of the dawn in the Vṛitra legend. It seems to have been supposed that when the Ṛig-Veda speaks of the celestial waters (divyâḥ âpaḥ) only the rain-waters are intended. But this is a mistake ; for, in passages which speak of the crea- tion of the world ( X, 82, 6 ; 129, 3 ), the world is said to have once consisted of nothing but undifferentiated waters. In short, the Ṛig-Veda, like the Hebrew Testament, expressly states that the world was originally full of waters, and that there were the waters in the firmament above and waters below. The Shata- patha Brâhmaṇa (XI, 1, 6, 1), the Aitareya Upaniṣhad (I, 1,) and Manu (I, 9), all say that the world was created from watery vapours. There can, therefore, be no doubt that the idea of celestial waters was well-known to the ancestors of the Vedic bards in early days ; and as the celestial waters were conceived to be the material out of which the universe was created, it is probable that the Vedic bards understood by that phrase what the modern scientists now understand by ' ether ' or ' the nebulous mass of matter ' that fills all the space in the universe. We need not, however, go so far. It is enough for our purpose to know that the celestial waters (divyâḥ âpaḥ), or the watery vapours (purîsham), are mentioned in the Ṛig- Veda, and that the Vedic bards considered the space or the region above, below, and around them to be full of these celestial vapours which are said to be co-eval with the world in X, 30, 10. It is, however, alleged by Wallis in his Cosmology of the Ṛig-Veda (p. 115) that the Vedic bards were not acquainted with the regions below the earth, and that every thing, which is described in the Vedas as occurring in the atmosphere, in- cluding the movements of the sun during night and day, must be placed in the regions of the sky, which were over the head of these bards. This view appears to be adopted by Macdonell in his Vedic Mythology; and if it be correct, we shall have to 17

258 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. place all the waters in the upper heaven. But I do not think that Wallis has correctly interpreted the passages quoted by Prof. Zimmer in support of his theory that a rajas (region) exists below the earth; and we cannot, therefore, accept Wallis' conclusions, which are evidently based upon prepossessions derived most probably from the Homeric controversy. Prof. Zimmer refers to three passages (VI, 9, 1 ; VII, 80, 1; V, 81, 4) to prove that a rajas beneath the earth was known to the Vedic people. The first of these passages is the well-known verse regarding the bright and the dark day. It says, " the bright day and the dark day, both roll the two rajas by the well-known paths." Here the two rajas are evidently the upper and the lower celestial hemisphere ; but Wallis asks us to compare this verse with I, 185, 1, where day and night are said "to revolve like two wheels," that is, to circle round from east to west, the one rising as the other goes down, and observes that " we are in no way obliged to consider that the progress of either is continued below the earth." I am unable to understand how we can draw such an inference from these passages. In VI, 9, 1, quoted by Zimmer, two rajas or atmospheres are mentioned, and the bright and the dark day are said to roll along both these rajas or regions. But if we hold with Wallis that the progress of either begins in the east and stops in the west, without going below the earth, the whole movement becomes confined to one rajas or region and does not extend over the two. Zimmer's interpretation is, there- fore, not only more probable, but the only one that explains the use of rajasî (in the dual), or the two regions, in the verse. The next passage (VII, 80, 1) is also misunderstood by Wallis. It describes the dawn as "unrolling the two regions (rajasî), which border on each other (samante), revealing all things." Now the dawn always appears on the horizon and the two rajas, which it unrolls and which are said to border on each other, must meet on this horizon. They can, therefore, only represent

VEDIC MYTHS—THE CAPTIVE WATERS. 259 the lower and the upper celestial sphere. But Wallis would have us believe that both these rajasī are above the earth, and that narrowing down together towards east and west they meet on the horizon like two arched curves over one's head ! The arti- ficial character of this explanation is self-evident, and I see no reason why we should adopt it in preference to the simple and natural explanation of Zimmer, unless we start with a precon- ceived notion that references to the regions below the earth ought not to be and cannot be found in the Ṛig-Veda. The third passage pointed out by Zimmer is V, 81, 4, which says “O Savitṛi ! Thou goest round (pariyase) the night, on both sides (ubhayataḥ).” Here Wallis proposes to translate pariyase by ‘en- compassest’; but pariyase ordinarily means ‘goest round,’ and there is no reason why the idea of motion usually implied by it should be here abandoned. It will thus be seen that the con- clusion of Wallis is based upon the distortion of passages which Zimmer interprets in a simpler and a more natural way ; and that Zimmer’s view is more in accordance with the natural meaning of these texts. But if an express passage be still need- ed to prove conclusively that the region below the earth was known to the Vedic bards, we refer to VII, 104, 11, where the bard prays for the destruction of his enemies and says, “Let him (enemy) go down below the three earths, (tisraḥ pṛithivīḥ adhaḥ).” Here the region below the three earths is expressly mentioned; and since the enemy is to be condemned to it, it must be a region of torment and pain like the Hades. In X, 152, 4, we read, “One, who injures us, let him be sent to the nether darkness (adharam tamaḥ),” and, comparing this with the last passage, it is evident that the region below the earth was concei- ved as dark. In III, 53, 21, we have, “Let him, who hates us, fall downwards (adharaḥ),” and in II, 12, 4, the brood of the Dasyu, whom Indra killed, is said to be “sent to the unknown nether world (adharam guhākaḥ).” These passages directly show that

260 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. region below the earth was not only known to the Vedic bards, but was conceived as filled with darkness, and made the scene of Indra's fight with Vṛitra. It may, however, be alleged that "below the three earths" may simply mean underneath the sur- face of the earth. But, in that case, it was not necessary to speak of all the three earths; and since we are told that the region is below all the three earths, it can refer only to the nether world. This is further proved by the passage which describes what is above the three earths. The expression, corresponding to tisraḥ pṛithivīḥ adhaḥ or "the region below the three earths," will be tisraḥ pṛithivīḥ upari or "the region above the three earths," and as a matter of fact this expression is also found in the Ṛig-Veda. Thus in I, 34, 8, we are told that "the Ashvins, moving above the three earths (tisraḥ pṛithivīḥ upari), protect the vault or the top of heaven (divo nākam) through days and nights"; and Ashvins are said to have come on their car from a distant region (parāvat) in the preceding verse of the same hymn. The phrase divo nākam occurs several times in the Ṛig-Veda and means the top or the vault of the heaven. Thus in IV, 13, 5, the sun is said to guard (pāti) the vault of the heaven (divo nākam); and as regards the three-fold division of the earth it is mentioned in several places in the Ṛig-Veda (I, 102, 8; IV, 53, 5; VII, 87, 5), and also in the Avesta (Yt. XIII, 3; Yasna, XI, 7). In IV, 53, 5, this three-fold division is further extended to antarikṣha, rajas, rochana and dyu or heaven. This shows what we are to understand by 'three earths.' It is the one and the same earth, regarded as three-fold; and since the Ashvins are described as protecting the vault of heaven by moving "above the three earths,' it is clear that in contrast with the vault above, a nether region, as far below the three earths as the heaven is above them, must have been conceived and denoted by the phrase "below the three earths," and that the latter expression did not merely mean an

VEDIC MYTHS—THE CAPTIVE WATERS. 261 interterranean ground. When we meet with two such phrases as the heaven "above the three earths," and the region "below the three earths," in the Ṛig-Veda, phrases, which cannot be mistaken or misunderstood, the hypothesis that the Vedic bards were not acquainted with the nether world at once falls to the ground. Mr. Wallis seems to think that since rajas is said to be divided three-fold, like the earth, and since the highest rajas is mentioned as the seat of waters, there is no scope in the Vedic division of rajas for a region beneath the earth; for the three rajas are exhausted by taking them as the rajas of the earth (pârthivam), the rajas of the sky (divo rajaḥ) and the highest (paramam) rajas, the seat of waters. But this objection is quite untenable, inasmuch as six different rajas are also mentioned in the Ṛig-Veda (I, 164, 6). We can, therefore, suppose that there were three rajas above the earth and three below it, and so meet the apparent difficulty pointed out by Wallis. The three rajas can in some places be also interpreted to mean the earthly rajas, the one above the earth and the one below it, (X, 82, 4,). In I, 35, 2, the Savitṛi is described as moving through the dark rajas (kṛiṣhṇena rajasâ), and in the next verse we are told that he comes from the distant (parâvat) region, which shows that the dark rajas and the parâvat region are synonymous, and that the sun ascends the sky after passing through the dark rajas. Again the use of the word 'ascend' (ud-yan or ud-âcharat, I, 163, 1; VII, 55, 7), to describe the rising of the sun in the morning from the ocean, shows, by contrast, that the ocean which the sun is said to enter at the time of setting (X, 114, 4) is really an ocean underneath the earth. In I, 117, 5, the sun is described as sleeping in "the lap of Nir-ṛiti," and "dwelling in darkness"; while in I, 164, 32 and 33, the sun is said to have travelled in the interior of heaven and earth and finally gone into Nir-ṛiti, or as Prof. Max Muller renders it, 'the exodus in the west.' Now, in X,

262 , THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. 114, 2, there are three Nir-ṛitis mentioned, evidently corres- ponding to the three earths and three heavens; and in X, 161, 2, the lap of Nir-ṛiti is identified with the region of death. Purûravas is again said (X, 95, 14) to have gone to the distant region (param parāvatam) and there made his bed on the lap of Nir-ṛiti; while the Maruts are described as mounting up to the firmament from the bottom-less Nir-ṛiti in VII, 58, 1. All these passages taken together show that Nir-ṛiti, or the land of dis- solution and death, commenced in the west, that the sun lying in darkness travelled through the distant region (parāvat) and eventually rose in the east from the lap of Nir-ṛiti, and that the whole of this movement was placed not in the upper heaven, but on the other side of the vault through which the sun travel- led before he entered into Nir-ṛiti. ` In other words, the Nir-ṛitis extended below the earth from west to east; and since the region below the three earths is expressly mentioned in the Ṛig- Veda, the three Nir-ṛitis must be understood to mean the three regions below the earth corresponding to the three-fold division of the earth or of the heaven above it. Zimmer is, therefore, correct in stating that the sun moved through the rajas below the earth during night and that the Vedic poets knew of this nether rajas. There are other passages in the Ṛig-Veda which fully sup- port the same view. Thus corresponding to the rajasī, or the two rajas, we have another expression in the dual, namely, ubhau ardhau, which literally denotes 'the two halves,' and when applied to heaven, 'the two celestial hemispheres.' The expression ardhau occures in II, 27, 15, and the two halves are there asked to be propitious to the sacrificer. Wallis, however, interprets ubhau ardhau to mean 'heaven and earth.' But this is a mistake for there is a passage in the Ṛig-Veda where we have the phrases pare ardhe (in the farther half) and upare ardhe (in the nearer half) of heaven (divaḥ), showing that the heaven alone (and not heaven and

VEDIC MYTHS—THE CAPTIVE WATERS. 263 earth) was conceived as divided into two halves (I, 164, 12). A few verses later on (I, 164, 17), the cow with her calf (the dawn with the sun) is described as having appeared below the upper and above the lower realm, i. e., between heaven and earth, and a question is then asked "To what half (ardham) has she departed?" which again shows that the (ardham) here referred to is quite distinct from heaven and earth. In the Atharva Veda, X, 8, 7 and 13, the 'two halves' are refer- red to, and the poet asks, "Prajâpati with one half (ardham) engendered all creation; what sign is there to tell us of the other half?" Here the other half cannot mean the earth; and Griffith accordingly explains it as referring to the sun at night. Another expression used to denote the upper and the lower world is samudrau, or the two oceans, (X, 136, 5). These two oceans are said to be one on this side (avara) and one on the other (para) side in VII, 6, 7; and a yonder ocean (parâvati samudre) is mentioned in VIII, 12, 17. I have al- ready quoted above the passages which speak of the bright arṇaḥ or ocean (V, 45, 10), and of arṇava or an ocean pervaded with darkness (II, 23, 18). The two words parastât and avastât are also employed to convey the same idea. They de- note a region on the nearer side and a region on the farther side. Thus in VIII, 8, 14, parâvat region is contrasted with ambara or the heaven above, and in III, 55, 6, the sun is des- cribed as sleeping in the parâvat region. We have seen above that Savitṛi is said to come up from the parâvat region, and that he moves through the dark region before ascending the sky. The two words parâvat and arvâvat thus separately denote the same regions that are jointly denoted by the dual words rajasî, ardhau or samudrau; and when both the upper and the lower hemispheres were intended the word ubhayataḥ was employed. Thus in III, 53, 5, we read, "O Maghavan! O brother Indra! go beyond (parâ) and come hither (â), you are wanted in both places, (ubhayatra)." The passages where

264 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. Savitṛi is described as going round the night on both sides is already referred to above. With these passages before us, we cannot reasonably hold that the Vedic bards were ignorant of the lower celestial hemisphere, as supposed by Wallis and some other scholars. Nor is the hypothesis a priori probable, for I have shown else- where that the Vedic bards knew enough of astronomy to calculate the movements of the sun and the moon tolerably correct for all practical purposes; and the people, who could do this, could not be supposed to be so ignorant as to believe that the sky was nailed down to the earth at the celestial hori- zon, and that when the sun was not seen during the night, he must be taken to have disappeared somewhere in the upper regions of the heaven. The passage from the Aitareya Brāhmaṇa (III, 44), which is quoted by Wallis, and which tells us that the sun, having reached the end of the day, turns round as it were, and makes night where there was day before and day on the other side, and vice versa, is very vague and does not prove that the sun was believed to return by night through a region, which is somewhere in the upper heaven. The words used in the original are avastāt and parastāt; and Dr. Haug correctly trans- lates parastāt by 'what is on the other side.' Muir and others, however, interpret parastāt to mean 'upper,' thus giving rise to the hypothesis that the sun returns during night by a passage through the upper region of the heaven. But in the face of the express passages in which regions below and above all the three earths are unmistakably mentioned, we cannot accept a hy- pothesis based upon a doubtful translation of a single word. It is a hypothesis that has its origin either in the preconceived notion regarding the primitive man, or in a desire to import into the Vedas the speculations of the Homeric cosmography. The knowledge of the Vedic bards regarding the nether world may not have been as exact as that of the modern astronomers, and we,

VEDIC MYTHS—THE CAPTIVE WATERS. 265 therefore, meet with such questions in the Ṛig-Veda (I, 35, 7) as "Where is Sûrya now (after sunset) and which celestial region his rays now illumine?" But there is enough explicit evidence to prove that the Vedic people knew of the existence of a region below the earth, and if some of their notions about this underworld were not very distinct, that does not, in the least, affect the value of this evidence. If we, therefore, dismiss from our mind the idea that the lower world was not known to the Vedic people,—an assumption, which is quite gratuitous, the movements and character of the celestial waters become at once plain and intelligible. The ancient Aryans, like the old Hebrews, believed that the subtle matter, which filled the whole space in the universe, was nothing but watery vapours; and secondly that the movements of the sun, the moon and other heavenly bodies were caused by these vapours which kept on constantly circulating from the nether to the upper and from the upper to the lower celestial hemi- sphere. That is the real key to the explanation of many a Vedic myth; and unless we grasp it thoroughly, we cannot rightly understand some of the utterances of the Vedic poets. These waters were sometimes conceived as rivers or streams, moving in the heaven, and eventually falling into the mouth of Varuṇa, or the nether ocean (VII, 49, 2; VIII, 69, 12). The nether world was, so to say, the seat or the home of these waters, called yahvatîḥ or the eternal (IX, 113, 8); and they formed the kingdom of Varuṇa and Yama, as well as the hidden (ninya) abode of Vṛitra. This movement of waters is very clearly expressed in the Parsi scriptures. In the Vendi- dad, XXI, 4-5 (15-23), the waters are described as follows,— "As the sea Vouru-Kasha is the gathering place of waters, rise up, go up the aerial way and go down on the earth; go down on the earth and go up the aerial way. Rise up and roll along! thou in whose rising and growing Ahura Mazda made the

266 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. aerial way. Up! rise up and roll along! thou swift-horsed sun, above Hara Berezaiti, and produce light for the world, and mayest thou rise up there, if thou art to abide in Garo-nmânem, along the path made by Mazda, along the way made by the gods, the watery way they opened." Here the aerial waters are said to start from their gathering place, the sea Vouru-Kasha, go up into heaven and come back again to the sea to be purified before starting on a second round. Prof. Darmesteter in a note on this passage observes that "waters and light are believed to flow from the same spring and in the same bed," and quotes Bundahish, XX, 4, which says, "just as the light comes in through Albûrz (Hara Berezaiti, the mountain by which the earth is surrounded) and goes out through Albûrz, the water also comes out through Albûrz and goes away through Albûrz." Now waters are described in the Ṛig-Veda as following the path of the gods (VII, 47, 3), much in the same way as the waters in the Avesta are said to follow the path made by Mazda or the way made by the gods. Like the Avestic waters, the waters in the Ṛig-Veda have also the sea for their goal, and going by the aerial way eventually fall into the mouth of Varuṇa. But the Avesta supplies us with the key which establishes the con- nection of waters and light in unambiguous terms, for, as remarked by Prof. Darmesteter, it states clearly that both of them have the same source, and, in the passage quoted above, the swift-horsed sun is accordingly asked to go along the watery way in the skies above. In the Aban Yasht (V, 3), the river Ardvi Sûra Anâhita is described as running powerfully from the height Hukairya down to the sea Vouru-Kasha, like the river Sarasvatî, which is described in the Ṛig-Veda as tearing the peaks of mountains, and is invoked to descend from the great mountain in the sky to the sacrifice (V, 43, 11). Both are aerial rivers, but by coming down upon the earth they are said to fill up all the terrestrial streams. The terrestrial waters,

VEDIC MYTHS—THE CAPTIVE WATERS 267 nay, all things of a liquid nature on the earth, e.g., the plant-sap, the blood, &c., were thus supposed to be produced from the aerial waters above by the agency of clouds and rain. The Parsi scriptures further tell us that between the earth and the region of infinite light ( the parame vyoman of the Ṛig-Veda), there are three intermediate regions, the star region, which has the seeds of waters and plants, the moon region, and the sun region, the last being the highest (Yt. XII, 29-32). When the Ṛig-Veda, therefore, speaks of the highest rajas as being the seat of waters, it is not to be understood, as supposed by Wallis, that there are no nether waters, for it is the nether waters that come up from the lower world and moving in the uppermost region of the heaven produce terrestrial waters by giving rise to rain and clouds. Thus Ardvi Sûra Anâhita is said to run through the starry region (cf. Yt. VIII, 47), and has to be worshipped with sacrifice in order that her waters may not all run up into the region of the sun, thereby producing a drought on the surface of the earth, (Yt. V, 85 and 90). In the Ṛig-Veda, the Sarasvatî is similarly described as filling the earthly region and the wide atmospheric space (VI, 61, 11), and is besought to come swelling with streams, and along with the waters. But the most striking resemblance between Ardvi Sûra Anâhita and Sarasvatî is that while the latter is described as Vṛitra-slayer or Vṛitra-ghnî in Ṛig. VI, 61, 7, Ardvi Sûra Anâhita is described in the Aban Yasht (V, 33 and 34) as granting to Thrâetaona, the heir of the valiant Âthwya clan (Vedic Trita Âptya), who offered up a sacrifice to her, a boon that he would be able to overcome Azi Dahâk, the three-mouthed, three-headed and six-eyed monster. This is virtually the same story which is found in the Ṛig-Veda X, 8, 8, where Trita Âptya, knowing his paternal weapons and urged by Indra, is said to have fought against and slew the three- headed son of Tvaṣhṭṛi and released the cows. This clearly establishes the connection between waters, as represented by

268 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. Ardvi Sûra Anâhita or Sarasvatî, and the slaughter of Vṛitra. Many Vedic scholars have tried to identify Sarasvatî with the river of that name in the Panjaub ; but as the latter is an insigni- ficant stream, the identification has not been generally accepted. The above comparison now shows that the mighty Sarasvatî, like Ardvi Sûra Anâhita, is an aerial stream, which rises up from the nether store-house of waters, travels over the sky and again falls back into the lower ocean. A portion of these waters is brought down upon the earth in the form of rain by the sacrifices offered to the river, and along with it come the seeds of all the plants growing upon the surface of the earth. Thus in the Vendidad, V, 19 (56), the tree of all the seeds is described as growing in the middle of the sea Vouru-Kasha, and the seeds are then said to be brought up by the aerial rivers and sent down by them to the earth by means of rain, an idea similar to that found in the Ṛig-Veda, I, 23, 20, where the sacrificer informs us that Soma has told him that all medicines (medicinal herbs) are contained in the waters. We have thus a complete account of the cosmic circulation of the aerial waters and the production of the terres- trial waters and plants therefrom. The nether world or the lower celestial hemisphere is the home of these waters, and it is expressly said to be bounded on all sides by a mountainous range like that of Hara Berezaiti. When the aerial waters are allowed to come up through this mountain, they travel over the upper hemisphere and again fall into the sea Vouru-Kasha, or the lower ocean, producing, during their course, rains which fertilise the earth and make the plants grow upon its surface. But instead of descending down in the form of rain, these aerial waters were, it was apprehended, apt to turn away into the region of the sun and deprive us of rain. It was, therefore, necessary to worship them with sacrifices and invoke their blessings.

VEDIC MYTHS—THE CAPTIVE WATERS. 269 It is impossible to grasp the real meaning of the Vṛitra legend, without first realising the true nature and importance of the movements of the aerial waters as conceived by the ances- tors of the Indo-Iranian people. As observed by Dramesteter, celestial waters and light were believed to flow from the same spring or source, and they both ran a parallel course. It was these aerial waters that made the heavenly bodies move in the sky, just as a boat or any other object is carried down by the current of a stream or river. If the waters, therefore, ceased to flow, the consequences were serious; for the sun, the moon, the stars, would then all cease to rise, and the world would be plunged in darkness. We can now fully understand the magni- tude of the mischief worked by Vṛitra by stopping the flow of these waters. In his hidden home, at the bottom of rajas, that is, in the lower hemisphere, he encompassed the waters in such a way as to stop their flow upwards through the mountain, and Indra’s victory over Vṛitra meant that he released these waters from the clutches of Vṛitra and made them flow up again. When the waters were thus released, they naturally brought with them, the dawn, the sun and the cows, i.e., either days or the rays of the morning; and the victory was thus naturally described as four-fold in character. Now we can also understand the part played by parvatas, or mountains, in the legend. It was the mountain Albûrz, or Hara Berezaiti; and as Vṛitra, by stretching his body across, closed all the apertures in his moun- tainous range, through which the sun and the waters came up, Indra had to uncover or open these passages by killing Vṛitra. Thus the Bundahish (V, 5) mentions 180 apertures in the east and 180 in the west through Albûrz; and the sun is said to come and go through them every day, and all the movements of the moon, the constellations and the planets are also said to be closely connected with these apertures. The same idea is also expressed in the later Sanskrit literature when the sun is

270 . THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. said to rise above the mountain in the east and set below the mountain in the west. The mountain on which Indra is said to have found Shambara (II, 12, 11), and the rock of Vala wherein the cows were said to have been imprisoned by the demon (IV, 3, 11 ; I, 71, 2) and which was burst open by Aṅgirases, also re- present the same mountainous range, which separated the upper from the lower celestial hemisphere, or the bright from the dark ocean. This explanation of the Vṛitra legend may sound strange to many scholars, but it should be borne in mind that the co-relation between the flow of water and the rising of the dawn and the sun, here described, is not speculative. If the Vedic works do not express it in unambiguous terms, the defi- ciency is fully made up by the Parsi scriptures. Thus in Khor- shed Yasht (VI, 2 and 3,) we are told that "When the sun rises up, then the earth becomes clean, the running waters become clean. ... ... ...Should the sun not rise up, then the Daevas would destroy all the things that are in the seven Karshvares." The passages in the Farvardîn Yasht are still more explicit. This Yasht is devoted to the praise of the Fravashis, which corres- pond to the Pitṛis of the Ṛig-Veda. These ancient fathers are often described, even in the Ṛig-Veda, as taking part, along with the gods, in the production of the cosmical phenomena. Thus the Pitṛis are said to have adorned the sky with stars, and placed darkness in the night and light in the day (X, 68, 11), or to have found the hidden light and generated the dawn (VII, 76, 4 ; X, 107, 1). The Fravashis in the Parsi scriptures are said to have achieved the same or similar exploits. They are described (Yt. XIII, 53 and 54) as having "shown the beautiful paths to the waters, which had stood before for a long time in the same place, without flowing"; and the waters are then said to have commenced to flow "along the path made by Mazda, along the way made by the gods, the watery way appointed to them." Immediately after (Yt. XIII, 57), the Fravashis are said to

VEDIC MYTHS—THE CAPTIVE WATERS. 271 have similarly showed " the paths to the stars, the moon, the sun and the endless lights, that had stood before, for a long time, in the same place, without moving forward, through the oppression of the Daevas and the assaults of the Daevas." Here we have the co-relation between the flowing of waters and the moving forward of the sun distinctly enunciated. It was the Fravashis, who caused to move onwards the waters and the sun, both of which " had stood still for a long time in the same place." Prof. Darmesteter adds a note saying that it was 'in winter' that this cessation of motion occurred, (Cf. Vend. V, 10-12; VIII, 4-10, cited and discussed infra). The Fravashis are further described (Yt. XIII, 78) as "destroying the malice of the fiend Angra Mainyu (the Avestic representative of Vṛitra), so that the waters did not stop flowing, nor did the plants stop growing." In Yasna LXV (Sp. LXIV), 6, the Fravashis, who had "borne the waters up stream from the nearest ones," are invoked to come to the worshipper; and a little further on the waters are asked to "rest still within their places while the Zaota (Sans. Hotâ) shall offer," evidently meaning that it is the sacrifice offered by the invoking priest that eventually secures the release or the flow of waters. There are other references to the flowing of waters (Yt. X, 61) in the Parsi scriptures, but those cited above are sufficient to prove our point. The main difficulty in the rational explanation of the Vṛitra legend was to connect the flow of waters with the rising of the dawn, and the passages from the Farvardin Yasht quoted above furnish us with a clue by which this connec- tion can be satisfactorily established. There are two passages in the Vendidad, which give us the period during which these aerial waters ceased to flow, and it is necessary to quote them here, inasmuch as they throw further light on the circulation of aerial waters. It has been stated above that according to Prof. Darmesteter these waters ceased to flow during winter; but the point is made perfectly

272 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. clear in Fargards V and VIII of the Vendidad, where Ahura Mazda declares how the corpse of a person dying during winter is to be dealt with, until it is finally disposed of according to the usual rites at the end of the season. Thus in Fargard V, 10 (34), Ahura Mazda is asked, "If the summer is passed and the winter has come, what shall the worshipper of Mazda do?" To which Ahura Mazda answers, "In every house, in every borough they shall raise three Katas for the dead, large enough not to strike the skull, or the feet or the hands of the man; ... and they shall let the lifeless body lie there for two nights, three nights or a month long, until the birds begin to fly, the plants to grow, the floods to flow, and the wind to dry up the waters from off the earth. And as soon as the birds begin to fly, and the plants to grow, and the floods to flow, and the wind to dry up the waters from off the earth, then the worshipper of Mazda shall lay down the dead (on the Dakhma), his eyes towards the sun." I have referred to this passage previously, but as the theory of the circu- lation of aerial waters was not then explained, the discussion of the passage had to be postponed. We now clearly see what is meant by the phrases like 'floods to flow' and 'plants to grow.' They are the same phrases, which are used in the Farvardin Yasht and are there connected with the moving forward of the sun and the moon, that had stood still, or without moving, in the same place for a long time. In other words, the waters, as well as the sun, ceased to move during winter; and the worshipper of Mazda is ordered not to dispose of the corpse until the floods began to flow and the sun to move, be it for two nights, three nights, or a month long. The Mazda-worshippers believed that the corpse was cleansed by its exposure to the sun, and dead bodies could not, therefore, be disposed of during night. The passage from the Vendidad, above referred to, therefore, clearly indicates that the season of winter was once marked by long darkness extending over two nights,

VEDIC MYTHS—THE CAPTIVE WATERS. 273 three nights, or a month; and that during the period, the floods ceased to flow and the plants to grow. It was during such a winter that the difficulty of disposing the corpse arose, and Ahura Mazda is asked what the faithful should do in such cases. The question has no meaning otherwise, for, if in the ancient home of the Mazdayasnians the sun shone every day during winter, as he does with us in the tropical regions, there would have been no difficulty in the disposal of the corpse by exposing it to the sun the next morning; and it would be absurd to ask the faithful to keep the uncleanly dead body in his house for two nights, three nights, or a month long, until the winter passed away. The passage from Fargard V quoted above makes no mention of darkness, though it can be easily inferred from the statement that the body is, at last, to be taken out and laid down on the Dakhma with its eyes towards the sun, evidently meaning that this ceremony was impossible to be performed during the time the dead body was kept up in the house. But Fargard VIII, 4 (11), where the same subject is again taken up, mentions darkness distinctly. Thus Ahura Mazda is asked "If in the house of the worshipper of Mazda a dog or a man happens to die, and it is raining, or snowing, or blowing, or the darkness is coming on, when the flocks and the men lose their way, what shall the worshipper of Mazda do?" To this Ahura Mazda gives the same reply as in Fargard V. The faithful is directed, VIII, 9, (21), to dig a grave in the house, and there "let the life- less body lie for two nights, three nights, or a month long, until the birds begin to fly, the plants to grow, the floods to flow, and the wind to dry up the waters from off the earth." Here in the question asked to Ahura Mazda darkness is distinctly mentioned along with snowing and blowing; and in the Far- vardin Yasht we have seen that the flowing of waters and the moving of the sun are described as taking place at the same time. The passage from Tir Yasht, where the appointed time 18

274 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. for the appearance of Tishtrya after conquering Apaosha in the watery regions is described as one night, two nights, fifty, or one hundred nights, has already been referred to in the last chapter. From all these passages taken together, it inevitably follows that it was during winter that the water ceased to flow, and the sun to move, and that the period of stagnation lasted from one night to a hundred nights. It was a period of long darkness, when the sun was not seen above the horizon ; and if a man died during the period, his corpse had to be kept in the house until the waters again commenced to flow, and the sun appeared on the horizon along with them. I have pointed out previously how the Hindu belief that it is inauspicious to die in the Dakshiṇâyana must be traced to this primeval practice of keeping the dead body undisposed of during the long Arctic night. The word Kata which is used for 'grave' in the Parsi scriptures occurs once in the Ṛig-Veda, I, 106, 6, where the sage Kutsa, lying in Kâṭa is described as invoking the Vṛitra-slaying Indra for his protection; and I think that we have here, at least, an indirect reference to the practice of keeping dead bodies in a Kâṭa, until Vṛitra was killed, and the waters and the sun made free to run their usual course. We are, however, concerned here only with the circulation of the celestial waters ; and from the Avestic passages quoted above, it is clear that the aerial waters ceased to flow during winter for several days or rather nights, and that, since light sprang from the same source as waters, the sun also ceased to move during the period and stood still in the watery regions, until the Fravashis, who helped the gods in their struggle for waters or in their conflict with powers of darkness, made the waters and the sun move onwards to take their usual course in the upper celestial hemisphere. We can now understand why Indra is described as moving by his might the stream upwards (udañcha) in II, 15, 6, and how the rivers are said to be set free to move on (sartave) by killing

VEDIC MYTHS—THE CAPTIVE WATERS. 275 Vṛitra (I, 32, 12), or how in I, 80, 5, Indra is said to have made the lights of heaven shine forth without obstruction and set the waters (apaḥ) free to flow (sarmaṇa). There are many other passages in the Ṛig-Veda, where the flowing of waters and the appearance of the sun or the dawn are spoken of as taking place simultaneously, as may be seen from the quotations from Macdonell's Vedic Mythology given above. All these passages become intelligible only when interpreted on the theory of the cosmic circulation of aerial waters through the upper and the lower celestial hemispheres. But as the theory was little understood or studied in this connection, the Vedic scholars, ancient and modern, have hitherto failed to interpret the Vṛitra legend in a rational and intelligible way, especially the four simultaneous effects of the conquest of Indra over Vṛitra mentioned therein. The cosmic circulation of aerial waters described above, is not peculiar to the Indo-Iranian mythology. Dr. Warren, in his Paradise Found, states that a similar circulation of aerial waters is mentioned in the works of Homer. Homer describes the sun as returning to the flowing of the ocean, or sinking into it, and again rising from it and mounting the sky. All rivers and every sea and all fountains and even deep wells are again said to arise from the deep flowing ocean, which was believed to encircle the earth.* Hêlios or the sun is further described as sailing from west to east in a golden boat or cup, evidently meaning that the underworld was supposed to be full of waters. But Homeric scholars seem to have raised unnecessary difficulties in the proper interpretation of these passages by assuming that Homer conceived the earth to be flat and that as the Hades was a region of complete darkness, the sun could not be said to go there even after his setting. Dr. Warren has, however, shown that the assumption is entirely groundless,

• See Dr. Warren's Paradise Found, 10th Edition (1893), Part V, Chap. V, pp. 250-260.