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

70 . THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. splendours of the Aurora Borealis visible at the North Pole. So far as the Post-Vedic literature is concerned, we have, therefore, not only the tradition of the half-year-long night and day of the Gods persistently mentioned, but the Mount Meru, or the North Pole, is described with such accuracy as to lead us to believe that it is an ancient tradition, whose origin must be traced to a time when these phenomena were daily observed by the people ; and this is confirmed by the fact that the tradition is not confin- ed only to the Post-Vedic literature. Passing on, therefore, to the Vedic literature, we find Mount Meru described as the seat of seven Âdityas in the Tait- tirîya Âraṇyaka I, 7, 1, while the eighth Âditya, called Kashyapa, is said never to leave the great Meru or Mahâmeru. Kashyapa is further described as communicating light to the seven Âdityas, and himself perpetually illumining the great mountain. It is, however, in the Taittirîya Brâhmaṇa, (III, 9, 22, 1), that we meet with a passage which clearly says, "That which is a year is but a single day of the Gods." The statement is so clear that there can be no doubt whatever about its meaning. A year of the mortals is said to be but a day of the Gods ; but, at one time, I considered it extremely hazardous* to base any theory even upon such a clear statement, inasmuch as it then appeared to me to be but solitary in the Vedic literature. I could not then find anything to match it in the Saṁhitâs, and especially in the Ṛig Veda , and I was inclined to hold that Uttarâyaṇa and Dakṣiṇâyana were, in all probability, described in this way as 'day' and 'night' with a qualifying word to mark their special nature. Later researches have however forced on me the conclusion that the tradition, represented by

• Taitt. Br. III, 9, 22, 1,—एकं वा एतद्देवानामहः यत्संवत्सरः । See Orion, p. 29, note