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

260 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. region below the earth was not only known to the Vedic bards, but was conceived as filled with darkness, and made the scene of Indra's fight with Vṛitra. It may, however, be alleged that "below the three earths" may simply mean underneath the sur- face of the earth. But, in that case, it was not necessary to speak of all the three earths; and since we are told that the region is below all the three earths, it can refer only to the nether world. This is further proved by the passage which describes what is above the three earths. The expression, corresponding to tisraḥ pṛithivīḥ adhaḥ or "the region below the three earths," will be tisraḥ pṛithivīḥ upari or "the region above the three earths," and as a matter of fact this expression is also found in the Ṛig-Veda. Thus in I, 34, 8, we are told that "the Ashvins, moving above the three earths (tisraḥ pṛithivīḥ upari), protect the vault or the top of heaven (divo nākam) through days and nights"; and Ashvins are said to have come on their car from a distant region (parāvat) in the preceding verse of the same hymn. The phrase divo nākam occurs several times in the Ṛig-Veda and means the top or the vault of the heaven. Thus in IV, 13, 5, the sun is said to guard (pāti) the vault of the heaven (divo nākam); and as regards the three-fold division of the earth it is mentioned in several places in the Ṛig-Veda (I, 102, 8; IV, 53, 5; VII, 87, 5), and also in the Avesta (Yt. XIII, 3; Yasna, XI, 7). In IV, 53, 5, this three-fold division is further extended to antarikṣha, rajas, rochana and dyu or heaven. This shows what we are to understand by 'three earths.' It is the one and the same earth, regarded as three-fold; and since the Ashvins are described as protecting the vault of heaven by moving "above the three earths,' it is clear that in contrast with the vault above, a nether region, as far below the three earths as the heaven is above them, must have been conceived and denoted by the phrase "below the three earths," and that the latter expression did not merely mean an