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

252 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. with the region on this or the nearer side. The Devayāna is similarly contrasted with the Pitṛiyāna, and means the north- ern celestial hemisphere. The clouds over the head of the ob- server cannot be said to be either in the distant region, or at the gate of the Devayāna; nor can we speak of them as en- veloped by sun-less darkness. It is, therefore, highly impro- bable that the rain-clouds could have been the scene of battle between Indra and Vṛitra. It was the sea on the other side, the dark ocean as contrasted with the bright ocean (shukram arṇaḥ) which the sun mounts in the morning, where the battle was fought according to the passages referred to above; and the description is appropriate only in the case of the nether world, the celestial hemisphere that lies underneath, and not in the case of clouds moving in the sky above. I do not mean to say that Indra may not have been the god of rain or thunder- storm, but as Vṛitrahan, or the killer of Vṛitra, it is impossible to identify him with the god of rain, if the description of the fight found in the Vedic passages is not to be ignored or set aside. The third objection to the current interpretation of the Vṛitra myth, is that it does not satisfactorily explain the pass- ages, which give the time of Indra's fight with the demon. On the Storm theory, the fight must be placed in the rainy season or Varshā; but the forts of Vṛitra, which Indra is said to have destroyed and thus acquired the epithet purabhid or purandara, are described in the Ṛig-Veda as autumnal or shāradīḥ i.e., belonging or pertaining to Sharad, the season which follows Varshā. The discrepancy may be accounted for, by supposing that Varshā and Sharad, were once included under one sea- son which was named not Varshā but Sharad. But the ex- planation is opposed to another passage in the Ṛig-Veda (X, 62, 2), which says that Vala was killed at the end of the year (parivatsare), unless we again suppose that the year com- menced with Sharad in those days. Nor can we explain how