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

VEDIC MYTHS—THE CAPTIVE WATERS. 269 It is impossible to grasp the real meaning of the Vṛitra legend, without first realising the true nature and importance of the movements of the aerial waters as conceived by the ances- tors of the Indo-Iranian people. As observed by Dramesteter, celestial waters and light were believed to flow from the same spring or source, and they both ran a parallel course. It was these aerial waters that made the heavenly bodies move in the sky, just as a boat or any other object is carried down by the current of a stream or river. If the waters, therefore, ceased to flow, the consequences were serious; for the sun, the moon, the stars, would then all cease to rise, and the world would be plunged in darkness. We can now fully understand the magni- tude of the mischief worked by Vṛitra by stopping the flow of these waters. In his hidden home, at the bottom of rajas, that is, in the lower hemisphere, he encompassed the waters in such a way as to stop their flow upwards through the mountain, and Indra’s victory over Vṛitra meant that he released these waters from the clutches of Vṛitra and made them flow up again. When the waters were thus released, they naturally brought with them, the dawn, the sun and the cows, i.e., either days or the rays of the morning; and the victory was thus naturally described as four-fold in character. Now we can also understand the part played by parvatas, or mountains, in the legend. It was the mountain Albûrz, or Hara Berezaiti; and as Vṛitra, by stretching his body across, closed all the apertures in his moun- tainous range, through which the sun and the waters came up, Indra had to uncover or open these passages by killing Vṛitra. Thus the Bundahish (V, 5) mentions 180 apertures in the east and 180 in the west through Albûrz; and the sun is said to come and go through them every day, and all the movements of the moon, the constellations and the planets are also said to be closely connected with these apertures. The same idea is also expressed in the later Sanskrit literature when the sun is