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

292 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. located in seven different regions and producing seven months of sun-shine of different temperatures. But how could the seven suns move in seven different parts of heaven except by the agency of seven different aerial rivers coming up from the nether world, each with its own sun ? In short, when the close connection between waters and light is once established, it is not difficult to perceive why the waters and light are each said to be seven-fold. The seven celestial rivers are expressly mentioned in the Ṛig-Veda (IX, 54, 2), and the flowing forth of the seven rivers and the appearance of the dawn on the horizon are described as simultaneous in many passages, some of which have been already referred to above. Neither the Storm theory, nor the geography of the Panjaub, satisfactorily accounts for the simultaneous happening of these events; and so long as this difficulty is not solved, except by the Arctic theory and the cosmic circulation of aerial waters, we cannot accept the hypothesis of Western scholars referred to above, howso- ever eloquently expounded it may be. As regards the origin of the phrase Hapta-hindu, which is believed to denote India in the Avesta, I think, we can explain it by supposing that the expression sapta sindhavaḥ was an old one, carried by the Aryans with them to their new home, and there applied to new places or countries, just as the 'British colonists now carry the old names of their mother country to their new places of settlement. Hapta-hindu is not the only expression which occurs in the Avesta in the enumeration of the Aryan coun- tries. We have, Vârena, Haêtumant, Rangha and Harahvaiti in the list, which are the Zend equivalents of Varuṇa, Se- tumat, Rasâ and Sarasvatî.* But it is never argued from it

• Darmesteter, in his introduction to Fargard I of the Vendidad, observes that "names, originally belonging to mythical lands, are often, in later times, attached to real ones." If this is true of Varena, Rangha- (Rasâ), and other names, there is no reason why Hapta-hindu should not be similarly explained, especially when it is now clear that the phrase sapta sindhavaḥ denotes celestial rivers in the Vedas.