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

VEDIC MYTHS—THE MATUTINAL DEITIES. 343 Ṛig-Veda, but in X, 67, 1, “our father,” meaning the father of the Aṅgirases, is said to have acquired seven-headed (sapta- shīrṣhṇī) devotion or intelligence (dhī). Seven divisions of the earth are mentioned in I, 22, 16. But the earths are said to be ten (dashāvanī) in X, 94, 7, (also cf. I, 52, 11). The cows’ stable which the Ashvins opened is said to be saptāsya or seven-mouthed in X, 40, 8. But a ten-fold cows’ stable (dashavraja) is mentioned in VIII, 8, 20; 49, 10; 50, 9. In X, 93, 4, Aryaman, Mitra, Varuṇa, Rudra, Maruts, Pūṣhan and Bhaga are mentioned as seven kings. But ten gold-like (hiraṇyasaṅdṛisha) kings are referred to in VIII, 5, 38, and ten non-sacrificing (ayajyavaḥ) kings are mentioned in VII, 83, 7. The Atharva Veda, XI 8, 10, further tells us that there were only ten ancient gods. These references will make it clear that if the horses of the sun are mentioned as seven in one place, they are said to be ten in another; and so there are seven devotions and ten devo- tions; seven earths and ten earths; seven cowpens and ten cowpens, and so on. This double division may not be equally explicit in all cases; but, on the whole, there can be no doubt that the several objects mentioned in the above passages are conceived as divided in a double manner, once an seven- fold and once as ten-fold. To this double division may be added the three-fold division of the heaven, the earth and the nether world or Nir-ṛiti; and the eleven-fold division of gods in the heaven, the earth and waters mentioned previously. In the Atharva Veda XI, 7, 14, nine earths, nine oceans and nine skies are also mentioned, and the same division again occurs in the Atharvashiras Upanishad, 6. Now it is evident that the theory started by Yâska cannot explain all these different methods of division. We might say that the three-fold division was suggested by the heaven, the earth and the lower world. But how are we to account for all kinds of division from seven to