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

LONG DAY AND LONG NIGHT. 129 have a similar Mantra or prayer addressed to Night in these words:—"O Chitrâvasu! let me safely reach thy end." A little further, (I, 5, 7, 5,) the Saṁhitâ itself explains this Mantra, or prayer thus:—"Chitrâvasu is (means) the night; in old times (purâ), the Brâhmans (priests) were afraid that it (night) would not dawn." Here we have an express Vedic statement, that, in old times, the priests or the people, felt apprehensions regard- ing the time when the night would end. What does it signify? If the night was not unusually long, where was the necessity for entertaining any misgivings about the coming dawn? Sâyaṇa, in commenting on the above passage, has again put forward his usual explanation, that nights in the winter were long and they made the priest apprehensive in regard to the coming dawn. But here we can quote Sâyaṇa against himself, and show that he has dealt with this important passage in an off-hand manner. It is well known that the Taittirîya Saṁhitâ often explains the Mantras, and this portion of the Saṁhitâ is called Brâhmaṇa, the whole of the Taittirîya Saṁhitâ being made up in this way of Mantras and the Brâhmaṇa, or prayers and their explanations or commentary mixed up together. The statement regarding the apprehensions of the priests about the coming dawn, therefore, falls under the Brâhmaṇa portion of the Saṁhitâ. Now the contents of the Brâhmaṇas are usually classified by Indian divines under the ten following heads*:—(1) Hetu or reason; (2) Nirvachana, or etymological explanation; (3) Nindâ, or censure; (4) Prashamsâ, or praise; (5) Saṁshaya, or doubt; (6) Vidhi, or the rule; (7) Parakriyâ, or others' doings; (8) Purâ-kalpa, or ancient rite or tradition; (9) Vyavadhâraṇa-kalpanâ or determining the

• These are enumerated in the following verses:— हेतुर्निर्वचनं निंदा प्रशंसा संशयोविधिः । परक्रिया पुराकल्पो व्यवधारणकल्पना ॥ उपमानं दशैवैते विधयो ब्राह्मणस्य तु । एतद्वै सर्ववेदेषु नियतं विधिलक्षणम् ॥