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

90 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. one might think that they were pervaded with darkness. The poet, therefore, further adds, in the second relative clause, that though these days were anterior to the rising of the sun, yet they were such that 'the Dawn was seen to move after or about them as after a lover, and not like a woman who for- sakes.' In short, the verse states in unmistakable terms (1) that many days (bahulâni ahâni) passed between the appearance of the first morning beams and sunrise, and (2) that these days were faithfully attended by the Dawn, meaning that the whole period was one of continuous Dawn which never vanished during the time. The words as they stand convey no other meaning but this, and we have now to see how far it is intelli- gible to us. To the commentators the verse is a perfect puzzle. Thus Sâyaṇa does not understand how the word 'days' (ahâni) can be applied to a period of time anterior to sunrise; for, says he, "The word day (ahaḥ) is used only to denote such a period of time as 'is invested with the light of the Dawn.'"* Then, again, he is obviously at a loss to understand how a number of days can be said to have elapsed between the first beams of the dawn and sunrise. These were serious difficulties for Sâyaṇa, and the only way to get over them was to force an unnatural sense upon the words, and make them yield some intelligible meaning. This was no difficult task for Sâyaṇa. The word ahâni, which means 'days,' was the only stumbling block in his way, and instead of taking it in the sense in which it is ordinarily used, without exception, everywhere in the Ṛig-Veda, he went back to its root-meaning, and interpreted it as equivalent to 'light' or 'splendour.' Ahan is derived from the root ah (or philologically dah), 'to burn,' or 'shine,' and Ahanâ meaning 'dawn' is derived from the same root.

• उषःप्रकाशयुक्तस्यैव कालस्याहःशब्दव्यवहारात ।