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

288 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. strengthen the same view. The disappearance of the sun below the horizon in the-beginning of the 8th month in autumn, follow- ed by a long twilight, a continuous dark night of about 100 days, and a long dawn of 30 days in the Arctic regions, is the basis of the legend, and every incident therein can be naturally and intelligibly explained only on this theory. There is one more incident in the Vṛitra legend which re- quires to be considered before we close its examination. We have seen that water and light are described as having been simultane- ously liberated by Indra after slaughtering Vṛitra. These waters are sometimes spoken of as streams or rivers (II, 15, 3 ; II, 2), which flow upwards or udañcha (II, 15, 6), and are said to be seven in number (I, 32, 12; II, 12, 12). ‘The theory of the cosmic cir- culation of aerial waters explains why these waters are described as flowing upwards simultaneously with the dawn, for as the sun was believed to be carried in the sky by aerial currents, the light of the sun appeared above the horizon when the aerial rivers began to flow up from the nether world where they had been blocked before by Vṛitra. The waters or the rivers were, therefore, aptly described as flowing upwards and bringing the light of the sun with them. But we have still to answer the question why the rivers or waters are described as seven in number, and it is alleged that the Storm theory supplies us with a satisfactory reply to this question. Thus it has been suggested by Western scholars that the seven rivers, here referred to, are the seven rivers of the Panjaub which are flooded during the rainy season by waters released by Indra from the clutches of the demon who confines them in the storm-cloud. The rivers of the Panjaub may therefore, it is urged, be well described as being set free to flow (sartave) by Indra himself, and in support of this explanation we are refer- red to the Ṛig-Veda X, 75, and to the phrase hapta-hindu oc- curring in Fargard I of the Vendidad, where it is said to denote