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

THE COWS' WALK. 201 but also in the Greek mythology ; and we can, therefore, now give a better account of the origin of this sacrificial session than that it was a session of bovine animals for the purpose of obtaining horns. Speaking of cows in the Aryan mythology, Prof. Max Muller in his Contributions to the Science of Mythology (Vol. II. p. 761) writes as follows :— "There were thus three kinds of cows, the real cows, the cows in the dark cloud (rain=milk), and the cows stepping forth from the dark stable of the night (the rays of the morning). These three are not always easy to distinguish in the Veda, nay, while we naturally try to distinguish between them, the poets- themselves seem to delight in mixing them up. In the passage quoted above (I, 32, 11), we saw how the captive waters were compared to cows that had been stolen by Paṇi (niruddhāḥ āpaḥ Paṇinā iva gāvaḥ), but what is once compared in the Veda is soon identified. As to the Dawn, she is not only compared to a cow, she is called the cow straight out. Thus when we read, R. V. I, 92, 1, 'These dawns have made a light on the east- ern half of the sky, they brighten their splendour, the bright cows approach, the mothers,' the cows, gāvaḥ, can only be the dawns themselves, the plural of dawn being constantly in the Veda used where we should use the singular. In R. V. I, 93, 4, we read that 'Agnîshomau deprived Paṇi of his cows and found light for many.' Here again the cows are the dawns kept by Paṇi in the dark stable or cave of the night, discovered by Saramâ and delivered every morning by the gods of light." "We read in R. V. I, 62, 3, that Bṛihaspati split the rock and found the cows." "Of Indra it is said, II, 19, 3, that he produced the sun and found the cows ; of Bṛihaspati, II, 24, 3, that he drove out the cows, that he split the cave by his word, that he hid the darkness, and lighted up the sky. What can be clearer ? The Maruts also, II, 34, 1, are said to uncover the cows, and Agni,