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

138 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. nights within the Arctic Circle. Whether Ahanî means a couple of Day and Night distinct from Uṣhásá-naktá in every place where the word occurs, it is difficult to say. But that in some places, at least, it denotes a peculiar couple of the Day and Night, not included in, and different from, Uṣhásá-naktá is evident from IV, 55, 3. Now if Ahanî really means the couple of the long day and the long night, as distinguished from the ordinary days and nights, there is another way in which these two couples can be differentiated from each other. The ordinary days and nights follow each other closely, the day is succeeded by the night and the night by the day; and the two members of the couple, representing these days and nights, cannot be described as separated from each other. But the long night and the long day, though of equal duration, do not follow each other in close succession. The long night occurs about the time when the sun is at the winter solstice, and the long day when he is at the sum- mer solstice; and these two solstitial points are separated by 180°, being opposite to each other in the ecliptic. This character of Ahanî seems to have been traditionally known in the time of the Âraṇyakas. Thus the Taittirîya Âraṇyaka, I, 2, 3, in discussing the personified Year,* first says that the Year has one head, and two different mouths, and then remarks that all this is 'season-characteristic,' which the commentator explains by stating that the Year-God is said to have two mouths 'because it has two Ayanas, the northern and the southern, which include the seasons. But the statement important for our purpose is the one which follows next. The Âraṇyaka continues "To the right and the left side of the Year- God (are) the bright and the dark (days); and the following verse refers to it:—'Thy one (form) is bright, thy another sacrificial (dark), two

• Taitt. Âran. 1, 2, 3,--एक हि शिरो । नाना मुखे । कृत्स्नं तदृतुलक्षणम् ॥