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

324 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. think, safer to ascertain the meaning of prapitve direct from those Vedic passages where it occurs in contrast with other words. Thus in VII, 41, 4, (Vâj. Sam, XXXIV, 37) and VIII, 1, 29, we find prapitve very distinctly contrasted with madhye (the middle) and uditâ (the beginning) of the day; and in both these places prapitve can mean nothing but 'the decline or the end of the day.'* Mahîdhara, on Vâj. Sam. XXXIV, 37, explains prapitve as equivalent to prapatane or astamaye, meaning "the decline, fall, or end of the day." Adopting this meaning, the phrase ahnaḥ prapitve ni barhîḥ, in IV, 16, 12, would then mean that Shuṣhṇa was killed 'when the day had declined.' Now if Shuṣhṇa was killed when the day had de- clined the phrase dasha prapitve ought to be, by analogy, inter- preted in the same way. But it is difficult to do so, so long as dasha is separated from prapitve, as is done in the Pada text. I propose, therefore, that dasha-prapitve be taken as one word, and interpreted to mean "at the decline of the ten," meaning that Shuṣhṇa was killed at the end or completion of ten (months). In I, 141, 2, the phrase dasha-pramatim is taken as a compound word in the Pada text, but Oldenberg, following the Petersberg Lexicon, splits it into dasha and pra- matim. I propose to deal exactly in the reverse way with the phrase dasha prapitve in the passage under consideration, and translate the verse thus:—"O Indra! in the striving for cows do thou, with Kutsa, fight against Shuṣhṇa, the Ashuṣha and Kuyava. On the decline (or the completion) of the ten (scil. months), thou stolest the wheel of Sûrya and didst destroy cala- mities (or, according to Oldenberg, manifest manly works)." The passage thus becomes intelligible, and we are not required

• Ṛig. VII, 41, 4,—उतेदानीं भगवंतः स्यामोत प्रपित्व उत मध्ये अह्नां । उतोदिता मघवन्सूर्यस्य वयं देवानां सुमतौ स्याम ॥ Ṛig. VIII, 1, 29—मम त्वा सूर उदिते मम मध्यंदिने दिवः। मम प्रपित्वे अपिशर्वरे वसवा स्तोमासो अवृत्सत ॥ These two passages clearly prove that prapitve, used with reference to the day, denotes decline or the termination thereof.