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

THE VEDIC DAWNS. 87 MUIR, (following Aufrecht) :—How great is the interval that lies between the Dawns which have arisen, and those which are yet to rise ? Uṣhas yearns longingly after the former Dawns, and gladly goes on shining with the others (that are to come). But in spite of these different renderings, the meaning of the verse, so far as the question before us is concerned, can be easily gathered. There are two sets of dawns, one of those that have past, and the other of those that are yet to shine. If we adopt Wilson's and Griffith's translations, the meaning is that these two classes of dawns, taken together, occupy such a long period of time as to raise the question,—How long they will be together? In other words, the two classes of dawns, taken together, were of such a long duration that men began to question as to when they would terminate, or pass away. If, on the other hand, we adopt Aufrecht's translation, a long period appears to have interve- ned between the past and the coming dawns ; or, in other words, there was a long break or hiatus in the regular sequence of these dawns. In the first case, the description is only possible if we suppose that the duration of the dawns was very long, much longer than what we see in the temperate or the tropical zone; while in the second, a long interval between the past and the present dawns must be taken to refer to a long pause, or night, occurring immediately before the second set of dawns com- menced their new course,—a phenomenon which is possible only in the Arctic regions. Thus whichever interpretation we adopt—a long dawn, or a long night between the two sets of dawns,—the description is intelligible, only if we take it to refer to the Polar conditions previously mentioned. The Vedic passages, discussed hereafter, seem, however, to support Sâyaṇa's or Max Muller's view. A number of dawns is spoken