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

THE COWS' WALK. 227 In the light of what has been stated above, we can now better understand the original nature and meaning of the Ati- râtra sacrifice. It is a nightly sacrifice, performed during the night, even at present, and the Mîmâṁsakas have not succeeded in converting it into a day-sacrifice. So far it is all right; but the question is why should the sacrifice be called Ati-râtra ? The pre- fix ati (corresponding with Latin trans) ordinarily denotes 'some- thing beyond,' 'something on the other side, or at the other end,' and not 'something pervading, extending, or spreading through the whole extent of anything.' Even Sâyaṇa in his commentary on VII, 103, 7, the only place where the word Ati-râtra occurs in the Ṛig-Veda, explains it to mean 'that which is past or beyond the night' (râtrim atîtya vartate iti atirâtraḥ), and Rudradatta in his commentary on the Âpastamba Shrauta Sûtra (XIV, 1, 1), gives the same explanation. The Ati-râtra, therefore, denotes a trans-nocturnal sacrifice, that is, performed at either end of the night. Now according to the Aitareya Brâhmaṇa (IV, 5), the Ati-râtra sacrifice is performed for the purpose of driving out the Asuras from the darkness of night; and the Tâṇḍya Brâhmaṇa (IV, 1, 4-5) tells us that Prajâpati, who first perceived the sacri- fice, created from it the twin of day and night (aho-râtre). It follows from this that the Ati-râtra was performed at the close of such night as gave rise to the ordinary days and nights, or, in other words, the regular succession of days and nights follow- ed its performance. This can only be the case if we suppose that the Ati-râtra was performed at the end of a long continu- ous night in regions where such night occurred. With us in the temperate or the tropical zone, ordinary days and nights regularly succeed each other throughout the year without any break, and it is meaningless, if not absurd, to speak of the cycle of day and night, as produced from a particular night in the year. Again, on the theory of a daily struggle between light and darkness the Asuras must be turned out of darkness every