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

THE VEDIC DAWNS. 101 sent forth the Dawns, a closely gathered band, immaculate, unanimous, brightly refulgent in their homes." * Here all the adjectives of the dawns clearly indicate a group of undivided dawns acting harmoniously; and yet, strange to say, Griffith, who translates correctly, misses the spirit altogether. We have thus sufficient direct authority for holding that it is a 'team,' or in Griffith's words, 'a closely gathered band' of thirty continuous dawns that is described in the Vedic hymns, and not the evane- scent dawn of the temperate or the tropical zone, either single or as a series of consecutive dawns. It is interesting to examine how Sâyaṇa explains the existence of as many as thirty dawns, before we proceed to other authorities. In his commentary on the Taittirîya Saṁhitâ IV, 3, 11, he tells us that the first dawn spoken of in the first verse in the Anuvâka, is the dawn at the beginning of the creation, when every thing was undistinguishable according to the Brâh- maṇa. The second dawn in the second verse is said to be the ordinary dawn that we see every day. So far it was all right ; but the number of dawns soon outgrew the number of the kinds of dawn known to Sâyaṇa. The third, fourth and fifth verses of the Anuvâka describe three more dawns, and Sâyaṇa was at last forced to explain that though the dawn was one yet by its Yogic or occult powers it assumed these various shapes ! But the five dawns multiplied into thirty sisters in the next verse, and Sâyaṇa finally adopted the explanation that thirty separate dawns repre- sented the thirty consecutive dawns of one month. But, why only thirty dawns of one month out of 360 dawns of a year should thus be selected in these Mantras is nowhere explained. The explanations, besides being mutually inconsistent,

• Ath. Veda, VII, 22, 2,—प्रत्नः समीचीरुषसः समैरयन् । अरेपसः सचेतसः स्वसरे मन्दुमत्तमाश्रिते गोः ॥