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

216 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. stated above that if we accept the explanation of the Mîmâmsakas, we cannot explain why the series of the night-sacrifices should abruptly end with the Shata-râtra or a hundred nights' sacrifice; but by the Arctic theory we can explain the fact satisfactorily by supposing that the duration of the long night in the ancient home varied from one night (of 24 hours) to a hundred continuous nights ( of 2400 hours ) according to latitude, and that the hundred nightly Soma sacrifices corresponded to the different durations of the night at different places in the ancient home. Thus where the darkness lasted only for ten nights ( 240 hours ) a Dasha-râtra sacrifice was performed, while where it lasted for 100 nights ( 2400 hours ) a Shata-râtra sacrifice was necessary. There are no sacrifices after the Shata-râtra because a hundred con- tinuous nights marked the maximum duration of darkness ex- perienced by the ancient sacrificers of the race. We have seen that the legend of Aditi indicates a period of seven months sunshine ; join to it the Dawn and the Twilight of 30 days each, and there are left three months, ( or if we take the year to consist of 365 days, then 95 days ) , for the duration of the long continuous night,—a result which remarkably corresponds to the longest duration of the night-sacrifices known in the Vedic literature. The Dawn marked the end of the long night, and could not, therefore, be included in the latter at least for sacrificial pur- poses. In fact separate sacrifices are enjoined for the Dawn in sacrificial works ; and we may, therefore, safely exclude the long Dawn from the province of the nightly sacrifices, and the same may be said of the period of the long evening twilight. A hundred nights' sacrifice thus marked the maximum dura- tion of darkness during which Indra fought with Vala and was strengthened by the Soma libations offered to him in this sacrifice. As there is no other theory to account for the exist- ence of the night-sacrifices, and especially for their number, to wit, one hundred, these sacrifices may be safely taken to