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

168 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. the nine months' to the Navagvas. For navan in Navagva is only a numerical variation for dashan in Dashagva, and it follows, therefore, that what the Dashagvas did by tens, the Navagvas did by nines. There is another circumstance connected with the Aṅgi- rases which further strengthens our conclusion, and which must, therefore, be stated in this place. The Aṅgirases are sometimes styled the Virūpas. Thus in ·III, 53, 7, the Aṅgi- rases are described as "Virūpas, and sons of heaven"; and the name Virūpa once occurs by itself as that of a single being, who sings the praises of Agni, in a stanza (VIII, 75, 6) imme- diately following one in which Aṅgiras is invoked, showing that Virūpa is here used as a synonym for Aṅgiras. But the most explicit of these references is X, 62, 5 and 6. The first of these verses states that the Aṅgirases are Virūpas, and they are the sons of Agni; while the second describes them along with the Navagva and the Dashagva in the following terms, "And which Virūpas were born from Agni and from the sky; the Navagva or the Dashagva, as the best of the Aṅgirases (Aṅgiras-tama), prospers in the assemblage of the gods."* Now Virūpas literal- ly means 'of various forms,' and in the above verses it seems to have been used as an adjective qualifying Aṅgirases to de- note that there are many species of them. We are further told that the Navagvas and the Dashagvas were the most important (Aṅgiras-tamaḥ) of these species. In the last chapter I have discussed the meaning of the adjective Vi- rūpa as applied to a couple of Day and Night and have shown, on the authority of Mādhava, that the word, as applied to days and nights, denotes their duration, or the period of time over which they extend. Virūpas in the present instance appears to be used precisely in the same

• Rig. X, 62, 6,—ये अग्नेः परि जज्ञिरे विरूपासो दिवस्परि । नवग्वो नु दशग्वो अंगिरस्तमः सचा देवेषु मंहते ॥