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

312 THE ARCTIC HOME IN. THE VEDAS. sacrifice like two swans; and in the fourth, Atri, thrown into a pit, is said to have called on them, like a wailing woman, for assistance. The 5th and the 6th verses narrate the story of Saptavadhri, shut up in a tree or a wooden case, whose sides are asked to tear asunder like the side of her who bringeth forth a child. After these six verses come the last three (the hymn containing only nine verses), which describe the delivery of a child that was in the womb for 10 months; and Vedic scholars have not as yet been able to explain what rational connection these three verses could possibly have with the preceding six verses of the hymn.* According to Sâyaṇa, these three verses constitute what is called the Garbhasrâviṇî- upaniṣhad or the liturgy of child-birth; while Ludwig tries to ex- plain the concluding stanzas as referring to the delivery of a child, a subject suggested by the simile of a wailing woman in the 4th verse, or by the comparison of the side of the tree with the side of a parturient woman. It seems, how- ever, extraordinary, if not worse, that a subject, not relevant except as a simile or by way of comparison, should be described at such length at the close of the hymn. We must, therefore, try to find some other explanation, or hold with Sâyaṇa that an irrelevant matter, viz., the liturgy of child-birth, is here inserted with no other object but to make up the number of verses in the hymn. These verses may be literally translated as follows:— “7. Just as the wind shakes a pool of lotuses on all sides, so may your embryo (garbha) move (in your womb), and come out after being developed for ten months (dasha- mâsyah).”

• The last five verses of the hymn are as follows:— वि जिहीष्व वनस्पते योनिः सूषन्त्या इव। श्रुतं मे अश्विना हवं सप्तवध्रिं च मुंचतम् ॥ ५॥ भीताय नाधमानाय ऋषये सप्तवध्रये। मायाभिरश्विना युवं वृक्षं सं च वि चाच- थः ॥ ६ ॥ यथा वातः पुष्करिणीं समिंगयति सर्वतः। एवा ते गर्भ एजतु निरैतु दशमास्यः ॥ ७ ॥ यथा वातो यथा वनं यथा समुद्र एजति । एवा त्वं दशमास्य सहावेहि जरायुणा ॥ ८ ॥ दश मासाञ्छशयानः कुमारो अधि मातरि । निरैतु जीवो अक्षतो जीवो जीवंत्या अधि ॥ ९ ॥