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

VEDIC MYTHS—THE CAPTIVE WATERS. 287 this misconception ; and though Vedic scholars were unable to explain why Shambara, according to their interpretation, should be described as having been found in the 40th year, yet they seemed to have accepted the interpretation because no other meaning appeared possible to them. The alternative construction proposed by me above is very simple. Instead of taking chatvâriṁ- shyâm as an adjective qualifying sharadi, I take the two words as independent locatives, but the change in the meaning caused thereby is very striking and important ; and so long as the Arctic theory was unknown, the attention of scholars was not likely to be drawn to this alternative construction.* But now we can very well understand why Indra is said to have found Sham- bara on the 40th (day) of Sharad, and why the forts, which gave shelter to the demon, are described as shâradîḥ, as well as why Arbuda or the watery demon is said to be killed by ice (hima). I have stated before that the forts (puraḥ) of Shambara must be understood to mean 'days,' and the adjective shâradîḥ only serves to

• A similar phrase is found also in the Atharva Veda (XII, 3, 34 and 41). The hymn describes the preparation of Brahmaudana, or the porridge given as a fee to the Brâhmans, and in the 34th verse it is stated that "The treasurer shall fetch it in sixty autumns, (shashṭyâm sharatsu nidhîyâ abhîchhât)." But, as remarked by Prof. Bloomfield (vide his translation of A.V. with notes in S. B. E. Series, Vol. XLII, p. 651), the meaning of the phrase "sixty autumns" is obscure; and the only other alternative possible is to take shashṭyâm as the loca- tive of shashṭî (feminine form, in long î, of shashṭa) meaning "the 60th"; and interpret the original phrase to mean "On the 60th (tithi) in autumns". "The word shashṭa cannot be used in classical Sanskrit as an ordinal numeral according to Pâṇini (V, 2, 58); but the rule does not seem to hold strictly in Vedic Sanskrit (See Whitney's Grammar, § 487). Even in the post-Vedic literature we meet with such ordinal forms as shashṭa ashîta, &c. Thus the colophon of the 60th chapter of the Sabhâ and the Udyoga-parvan of the Mahâbhârata (Roy's Cal. Ed.) reads thus:--Iti...shashṭaḥ.adhyâyaḥ, shewing that shashṭa was used at the time as an ordinal numeral, (See Pet Lex. s. v. shashṭa). The Brahmaudana is, according to this interpretation, to be cooked on the 60th day in autumns, i. e., at the end of Sharad every year.