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

CHAPTER IV. THE NIGHT OF THE GODS. Vedic sacrifices, regulated by the luni-solar calendar—A year of six seasons and twelve months, with an intercalary month in the Taittirîya Saṁhitâ—The same in the Ṛig-Veda—Present results of the Vedic mythology—All presuppose a home in the temperate or the tropical zone—But further research still necessary—The special character of the Ṛig-Veda explained— Polar tests found in the Ṛig-Veda—Indra supporting the heavens with a pole, and moving them like a wheel—A day and a night of six months, in the form of the half-yearly day and night of the Gods—Found in the Sûrya Sidhânta and older astronomical Saṁhitâs—Bhâskarâchârya's error explained—Gods' day and night mentioned by Manu and referred to by Yâska— The description of Meru or the North Pole in the Mahâbhârata —In the Taittirîya Araṇyaka—The passage in the Taittirîya Brâhmaṇa about the year-long day of the Gods—Improbability of explaining it except as founded. on the observation of nature —Parallel passage in the Vendidad—Its Polar character clearly established by the context—The Vara of Yima in the Airyāna Vaejo—The sun rising and setting there only once a year—The Devayâna and the Pitriyâna in the Ṛig-Veda—Probably repre- sent the oldest division of the year, like the day and the night, of the Gods—The path of Mazda in the Parsi scriptures—Death during Pitriyâna regarded inauspicious—Bâdarâyaṇa's view— Probable explanation suggested—Death during winter or Pitriyâna in the Parsi scriptures—Probably indicates a period of total darkness—Similar Greek traditions—Norse Twilight of the Gods —The idea of half yearly day and night of the Gods thus proved to be not only Indo-Iranian, but Indo-Germanic—A sure indica- tion of an original Polar home. AT the threshold of the Vedic literature, we meet with an elaborately organised sacrificial system so well regulated by the luni-solar calendar as to show that the