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

178 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. the king Varuṇa is said to rule, or which flow by his commands, or for which he is said to have dug out a channel (VII, 49, 1-4 ; II, 28, 4 ; VII, 87, 1) and so cut out a path for Sûrya, and which being released by Indra from the grasp of Vṛitra, bring on the sun (I, 51, 4). Prof. Max Muller, in his Contributions to the Science of Mythology (Vol. II, pp. 583-598), has shown that most of the achievements of the Ashvins can be rationally explained by taking them as referring to the decaying sun. The legend of Dîrgha- tamas is thus only a mythical representation of the Arctic sun, who ascends above the 'bright ocean' (VII, 60, 4), becomes visible for mânushâ yugâ, or ten months, and then drops again into the ne- ther waters. What these waters are and how their nature has been long misunderstood will be fufther explained in a subsequent chapter, when we come to the discussion of Vedic myths. Suffice it to say for the present that the legend of Dîrghatamas, interpreted as above, is in full accord with the legend of the Dashagvas, who are described as holding their sacrificial session only for ten months. I have discussed here the meaning of yuga and mânushâ yugâ at some length, because the phrases have been much misunderstood, in spite of clear passages shewing that 'a period of time' was intended to be denoted by them. These passages (V, 52, 4 ; X, 140, 6) establish the fact that mânushâ yugâ denoted 'human ages,' and the association of these ages with the 'first dawn' (I, 124, 2 ; I, 115, 2) further shews that the length of a yuga was regarded to be shorter than a year. The mention of the tenth yuga finally settles the meaning of yuga as 'one month.' That is how I have arrived at the meaning of these phrases, and I am glad to find that I have been anticipated in my conclusions by Prof. Rangâchârya, of Madras, on different grounds. In his es- say on the yugas,* he discusses the root meaning of yuga, and,

• The Yugas, or a Question of Hindu Chronology and History, p. 19.