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

LONG DAY AND LONG NIGHT. 125 but which, in inter-glacial times, appeared to have caused no further inconvenience than what might result from darkness, long and continuous darkness for a number of days, though, by itself, it was not a desirable state of things, and the end of which must have been eagerly looked for by men who had to undergo such ex- perience. There are many passages in the Ṛig-Veda that speak of long and ghastly darkness, in one form or another, which sheltered the enemies of Indra, and to destory which Indra had to fight with the demons or the Dâsas, whose strongholds are all said to be concealed in this darkness. Thus in I, 32, 10, Vṛitra, the traditional enemy of Indra, is said to be engulfed in long darkness (dîrgham tamaḥ âshayad Indra-shatruḥ), and in V, 32, 5, Indra is described as having placed Shuṣhṇa, who was anxious to fight, in ‘the darkness of the pit’ (tamasi harmye), while the next verse speaks of asûrye tamasi (lit. sunless darkness), which Max Muller renders by ‘ghastly darkness.’* In spite of these passages the fight between Vṛitra and Indra is considered to be a daily and not a yearly struggle, a theory the validity of which will be examined when we come to the discussion of Vedic myths. For the present it is sufficient to note that the above expressions lose all their propriety, if the darkness, in which the various enemies of Indra are said to have flourished, be taken to be the ordinary darkness of twelve, or, at best, of twenty-four hours’ duration. It was, in reality, a long and a ghastly or sunless dark- ness, which taxed all the powers of Indra and his associate Gods to overcome. But apart from this legendary struggle, there are other verses in the Ṛig-Veda which plainly indicate the existence of a night longer than the longest cis-Arctic night. In the first place the Vedic bards are seen frequently invoking

• See S. B. E. series, Vol. XXXII, p. 218.