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

134 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. night, and in the Uttarâyaṇa of day.'"* Mâdhava's Vivaraṇa is a scarce book, and I take the above quotation from an extract from his commentary given in a footnote to the Calcutta edition of the Sâma-Veda Saṁhitâ, with Sâyaṇa's commentary, published by Satya-vrata Sâmashramî, a learned Vedic scholar of Calcutta. It is not known who this Mâdhava is, but Pandit Satyavrata states that he is referred to by Durga, the commentator of Yâska. We may, therefore, take Mâdhava to be an old commentator, and it is satis- factory to find that he indicates to us the way out of the difficulty of interpreting the phrases vishurûpe and virûpe, occuring so many times in the Ṛig-Veda, in connection with the couple of Day and Night. The word 'form' (rûpa) or body (vapus) can be used to denote the extent, duration, or length of days and nights, and virûpe would naturally denote the varying lengths of days and nights, in addition to their colour, which can be only two-fold, dark or bright. Taking our cue from Mâdhava, we may, therefore, interpret the first half of the verse as meaning "The twin pair assume various (nânâ) lengths (vapûṁshi); of the two one shines and the other is dark." But though the first half may be thus interpreted, another diffi- culty arises, as soon as we take up the third quarter of the verse. It says, "Two sisters are they, the dark (shyâvi) and the bright (arûshî)." Now the question is whether the two sisters (svasârau) here mentioned are the same as, or different from, the twin pair (yamyâ) mentioned in the first half of the verse. If we take them as

• See Sâma-Veda, Cal. Ed., Utta. 19, 4, 2, 3. The verse in the Veda is,—समानो अध्वा स्वस्रोरनंतस्तमन्यान्या चरतो देवशिष्टे । न मेथेते न तस्थतुः सुमेके नक्तोषासा समनसा विरूपे ॥ Mâdhava's Vivaraṇa says, सुमेके—संवत्सरे, दक्षिणायने रात्रेर्वृद्धिः, उत्तरायणे त्वह्नः, नक्तं रात्रिः— उषाकालप्रभृत्यहः।”