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

VEDIC MYTHS—THE MATUTINAL DEITIES. 321 Sûrya's chariot is described in the Ṛig-Veda as having but one wheel (I, 164, 2), though the wheel is said to be seven-fold ; and in the later mythology it is distinctly stated that the chariot of the sun is eka-chakra or a monocycle. If this wheel is taken away, the progress of the sun must cease, bringing everything to a dead lock. It seems, however, that the wheel of the sun means the sun himself in the present legend. Thus in I, 175, 4, and IV, 30, 4, the phrase used is sûryam chakram, evidently meaning that the solar orb itself is conceived as a wheel. When this wheel is said to be stolen, we must, there- fore, suppose that the sun himself was taken away, and not that one of the two wheels of his carriage was stolen, leaving the carriage to run on one wheel as best as it could. What did Indra do with this solar wheel, or the sun himslf, which he stole in this way ? We are told that he used solar rays as his weapon to kill or burn the demons (VIII, 12, 9). It is, there- fore, clear that the stealing of the solar wheel and the conquest over the demons are contemporaneous events. Indra's fight with the demons is mainly for the purpose of regaining light, and it may be asked how Indra can be described to have used the solar orb as a weapon of attack for the purpose of regaining Sûrya that was lost in darkness ? For it amounts to saying that the solar orb was used as a weapon in recovering the sun himself, which was believed to be lost in darkness. But the difficulty is only apparent and is due to the modern notions of light or darkness. Sûrya and darkness, according to the modern notions, cannot be supposed to exist in the same place ; but the Ṛig-Veda distinctly speaks of " the sun dwelling in darkness " in two places at least (III, 39, 5 ; I, 117, 5) ; and this can be explained only on the supposition that the Vedic bards believed that the sun was deprived of his lustre when he sank below the horizon, or that his lustre was temporarily obscured during his struggle with the demons of darkness. It is impossible to explain the expression tamasi kshiyantam 21