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

cycle of time known as 'human ages,' or that 'the human ages' were reckoned from the first dawn. This association of mânushâ yugâ, or 'human ages,' with the 'first dawn' at once enables us to definitely determine the length or duration of 'human ages'; for if these ages (yugas) commenced with ths first dawn of the year, they must have ended on the last (avamâ) dawn of the year. In other words mânushâ yugâ collectively denoted the whole period of time between the first and the last dawn of the year, while a single yuga denoted a shorter division of this period. Apart from the legend of Dîrghatamas, we have, therefore, sufficient evidence in the Ṛig-Veda to hold that the word yuga was used to denote a period of time, shorter than one year, and that the phrase mânushâ yugâ meant 'human ages,' or 'the period of time between the first and the last dawn of year,' and not 'hu- man generations.' The statement that "Dîrghatamas grew old in the tenth yuga" is now not only easy to understand, but it enables us to determine, still more definitely, the meaning of yuga in the days of the Ṛig-Veda. For, if yuga was a part of mânushâ yugâ, that is, of the period between the first and the last dawn of the year, and the legend of Dîrghatamas a solar legend, the statement that "Dîrghatamas grew old in the tenth yuga" can only mean that 'the sun grew old in the tenth month.' In other words, ten yugas were supposed to intervene between the first and the last dawn, or the two termini, of the year; and as ten days or ten fortnights would be too short, and ten seasons too long a period of time to lie between these limits, the word yuga in the phrase dashame yuge, must be interpreted to mean 'a month' and nothing else. In short, Dîrghatamas was the sun that grew old in the tenth month, and riding on the aerial waters was borne by them to their goal, that is, to the ocean (VII, 49, 2) below the horizon. The waters here referred to are, in fact, the same over which