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

140 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. hymn celebrates the exploits of Indra, all of which are per- formed in aerial or heavenly regions. In the first verse the killing of Vṛitra, and the releasing of the dawns and the waters are mentioned; and in the second the sun is said to have been made to shine by the same process. The third verse* is as follows:— Vi sūryo madhye amuchad rathan divo vidad dāsāya pratimānam āryaḥ । Dṛiḍhāni Pipror asurasya māyinaḥ Indro vyāsyach chakṛivāṁ Ṛijishvanā ॥ The fourth, fifth and the sixth verses all refer to the destru- ction of Vṛitra's forts, the chastisement of Uṣhas and the placing of the moons in the heaven. But the third verse quoted above is alone important for our purpose. The words are simple and easy, and the verse may be thus translated, "The sun unyoked his car in the midst of heaven; the Ârya found a counter-measure (pratimānam) for the Dāsa. Indra, acting with Ṛijishvan, overthrew the solid forts of Pipru, the conjur- ing Asura." It is the first half of the verse that is relevant to our purpose. The sun is said to have unyoked his car, not at sunset, or on the horizon, but in the midst of heaven, there to rest for some time. There is no uncertainty about it, for the words are so clear; and the commentators have found it difficult to explain this extraordinary conduct of the sun in the midway of the heavens. Mr. Griffith says that it is, perhaps, an allusion to an eclipse, or to the detention of the sun to enable the Aryans to complete the overthrow of their ene- mies. Both of these suggestions are, however, not satisfactory. During a solar eclipse the sun being temporarily hidden by the moon is invisible wholly or partially and is not besides stationary. The description that the sun unyoked his car in the mid-heaven

• Ṛig. X, 138, 3—वि सूर्यो मध्ये अमुचद्रथं दिवो. विंदद्दासाय प्रति- मानमार्यः । दृळ्हानि पिप्रोरसुरस्य मायिनः इंद्रो व्यासच्चकृवाँ ऋजिश्वना ॥

LONG DAY AND LONG NIGHT. 141 cannot, therefore, apply to the eclipsed sun. As regards the- other suggestion, viz., that the sun remained stationary for a while to allow his favourite race, the Aryans, to overthrow their enemies, it seems to have had its origin in the Biblical passage (Joshua, X, 12, 13), where the sun is said to have stood still, at the word of Joshua, until the people had avenged them- selves upon their enemies. But there is no authority for importing this Biblical idea into the Ṛig-Veda. Indra's exploits are described in a number of hymns in the Ṛig-Veda, but in no other hymn he is said to have made the sun stand still for the Aryans. We must, therefore, reject both the explanations suggested by Griffith. Sâyaṇa gets over the difficulty by interpreting the phrase, ratham vi amuchat madhye divaḥ, as meaning that “ the sun loosened (vi-amuchat) his carriage, that is, set it free to travel, towards the middle (madhye) of heaven, (ratham prasthânâya vi-muktavân).” Sâyaṇa's meaning, therefore, is that when Indra obtained compensation from Vṛitra, he let loose- the chariot of the sun to travel towards the midst of the sky. But the construction is evidently a strained one. The verb vi much is used in about a dozen places in the Ṛig-Veda in relation to horses, and everywhere it means to ‘unharness,’ ‘unyoke,’ or ‘separate the horses from the carriage for rest;’ and even Sâyaṇa has interpreted it in the same way. Thus vi-muchya is explained by him as rathat vishliṣhya in I, 104, 1, and rathât vi-muchya in III, 32, 1, and rathât visṛijya in X, 160, 1, (also compare I, 171, 1 ; I, 177, 4 ; VI, 40, 1). The most natural meaning of the present verse would, therefore, be that the ‘sun unyoked his carriage.’ But even supposing that vi much can be interpreted to mean ‘to loosen for travel,’ the expression would be appropriate only when there is an antecedent stoppage or slow motion of the sun. The question why the sun stopped or slackened his motion in

142 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. the midst of the sky would, therefore, still remain unsolved. The phrase divaḥ madhye naturally means ‘in the midst of the sky,’ and cannot be interpreted to mean ‘towards the mid-heaven.’ Of course if the sun was below the horizon, we may describe him as having loosened his horses for travel as in V, 62, 1; but even there the meaning seems to be that the horses rested at the place. In the present case the sun is already in the midst of heaven, and we cannot take him below the horizon without a pal- pable distortion of meaning. Nor can we properly explain the action of retaliation (pratimānam), if we accept Sâyaṇa's inter- pretation. We must, therefore, interpret the first half of the verse to mean that “the sun unyoked his carriage in the midst of heaven.” There is another passage in the Ṛig-Veda which speaks of the sun halting in the midst of heaven. In VII, 87, 5, the king Varuṇa is said to have made “the golden (sun) rock like a swing in the heaven” (chakre divi preṅkhaṁ hiraṇmayam), clearly meaning that the sun swayed backwards and forwards in the heaven being visible all the time, (cf. also VII, 88, 3). The idea expressed in the present verse is exactly the same, for even within the Arctic regions the sun will appear as swinging only during the long continuous day, when he does not go below the horizon once every twenty-four hours. There is, therefore, nothing strange or uncommon in the present verse which says that “ the sun unyoked his carriage for some time in the midst of the sky ; ' and we need not be impatient to escape from the natural meaning of the verse. A long halt of the sun in the midst of the heaven is here clearly described, and we must take it to refer to the long day in the Arctic region. The statement in the second line further supports the same view. European scholars appear to have been misled, in this instance, by the words Ārya and Dâsa, which they are accustomed to interpret as

LONG DAY AND LONG NIGHT 143 meaning the Aryan and the non-Aryan race. But though the words may be interpreted in this way in some passages, such is not the case everywhere. The word Dâsa is applied to Indra's enemies in a number of places. Thus Shambara is called a Dâsa (IV, 30, 14,) and the same adjective is applied to Pipru in VIII, 32, 2, and to Namuchi in V, 30, 7. Indra is said to inspire fear into the Dâsa in X, 120, 2, and in II, 11, 2, he is described as having rent the Dâsa, who considered himself immortal. In the verse under consideration Indra's victory over Pipru is celebrated, and we know that Pipru is elsewhere called a Dâsa. It is, therefore, quite natural to suppose that the words Arya and Dâsa in the above verse, refer to Indra and Pipru, and not to the Aryan and the non-Aryan race. The exploits described are all heavenly, and it jars with the context to take a single sentence in the whole hymn as referring to the victory of the Aryan over the non-Aryan race. There is again the word pratimâna (lit. counter- measure), which denotes that what has been done is by way of retaliation, a sort of counter-poise or counter-blast, with a view to avenge the mischief done by Dâsa. A battle between the Aryans and the non-Aryans cannot be so described unless a previous defeat of the Aryans is first alluded to. The plain mean- ing of the verse, therefore, is that the sun was made to halt in the midst of the sky, producing a long day, and Indra thus found a counter-poise for Dâsa, his enemy. For we know that dark- ness is brought on by the Dâsa, and it is he who brings on the long night; but if the Dâsa made the night long, Indra retalia- ted or counter-acted by making the day as long as the night of the Dâsa. The long night of the Arctic regions is, we have seen, matched by the long day in those regions, and the present verse expresses the same idea of matching the one by the other. There is no reference to the victory of

144 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. the Aryan race over the non-Aryans, or anything of that kind as supposed by Western scholars. Sâyaṇa, who had no historic theories to mislead him, has rightly interpreted Ârya and Dâsa in this verse as referring to Indra and his enemy; but he, in his turn, has misinterpreted, as shewn above, the first half of the verse in regard to the sun's long halt in the midst of the sky. The misinterpretation of the second hemistich comes from Western scholars, like Muir, who interprets Ârya, as meaning the Aryans and Dâsa, the non-Aryans. This shows how in the absence of the true key to the meaning of a passage, we may be led away by current theories, even where the words are plain and simple in themselves. We thus see that the Ṛig-Veda speaks of two different couples of Day and Night, one alone of which represents the ordinary days and nights in the year, and the second, the Ahanî, is a distinct couple by itself, forming, according to the Taittirîya Âraṇyaka, the right and the left hand side of the Year, indicat- ing the long Arctic day and night. The Taittirîya Saṁhitâ again gives us in clear terms a tradition that in the former age the night was so long that men were afraid it would not dawn. We have also a number of expressions in the Ṛig-Veda denoting ‘long nights’ or ‘long and ghastly darkness,’ and also the ‘long journey’ of the sun. Prayers are also offered to Vedic deities to enable the worshipper to reach safely the end of the night, the ‘other boundary of which is not known.’ Finally we have an express text declaring that the sun halted in the midst of the sky and thereby retaliated the mischief brought on by Dâsa's causing the long night. Thus we have not only the long day and the long night mentioned in the Ṛig-Veda, but the idea that the two match each other is also found therein, while the Taittirîya Âraṇyaka tells us, that they form the opposite sides of the Year-God. Besides the passages

LONG DAY AND LONG NIGHT. 145 proving the long duration of the dawn, we have, therefore, sufficient independent evidence to hold that the long night in the Arctic regions and its counterpart the long day were both known to the poets of the Ṛig-Veda, and the Taittirîya Saṁhitâ distinctly informs us that it was a phenomenon of the former (purâ) age. I shall close this chapter with a short discussion of another Circum-Polar characteristic, I mean the southern course of the sun. It is previously stated, that the sun can never appear over- head at any station in the temperate or the frigid zone, and that an observer stationed within these zones in the northern hemi- sphere will see the sun to his right hand or towards the south, while at the North Pole the sun will seem to rise from the south. Now the word dakshiṇa in Vedic Sanskrit denotes both the 'right hand' and the 'south,' as it does in other Aryan languages ; for, as observed by Prof. Sayce, these people had to face the rising sun with their right hands to the south, in addressing their gods, and hence "Sanskrit dakshiṇa, Welsh dehau and Old Irish des all mean at once 'right hand' and 'south'."* With this explanation before us, we can now understand how in a number of passages in the Ṛig-Veda Western scholars translate dakshiṇa by 'right side,' where Indian scholars take the word to mean 'the southern direction.' There is a third meaning of dakshiṇâ, viz., 'largess' or 'guerdon,' and in some places the claims of rich largesses seem to have been pushed too far. Thus when the suns are said to be only for dakshiṇâvats in I, 125, 6, it looks very probable that originally the expression had some reference to the southern direction rather than to the gifts given at sacrifices. In III, 58, 1, Sûrya is called the son of Dakshiṇâ, and even if Dakshiṇâ be here taken to mean the Dawn, yet the question why the Dawn was called

• See Sayce's Introduction to the Science of Language, Vol. II, p. 130.

146 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. Dakshiṇá remains, and the only explanation at present suggested is that Dakshiṇá means ‘skilful’ or ‘expert.’ A better way to explain these phrases is to make them refer to the southerly direction ; and after what has been said above such an explana- tion will seem to be highly probable. It is, of course, necessary to be critical in the interpretation of the Vedic hymns, but I think that we shall be carrying our critical spirit too far, if we say that in no passage in the Ṛig-Veda dakshiṇá or its derivatives are used to denote the southerly direction (I, 95, 6 ; II, 42, 3). Herodotus informs us (IV, 42) that certain Phœnician mariners were com- manded by Pharoah Neco, king of Egypt, to sail round Lybia (Africa) and return by the Pillars of Hercules (Straits of Gibralter). The mariners accomplished the voyage and returned in the third year. But Horodotus disbelieves them, because, on their return they told such (to him incredible) stories, that in rounding Lybia they saw the sun to their right. Herodotus could not believe that the sun would ever appear in the north ; but he little thought that what was incredible to him would itself be regarded as indisputable evidence of the authenticity of the account in later days. Let us take a lesson from this story, and not interpret dakshiṇá, either by ‘right-hand side’ or by ‘largess,’ in every passage in the Ṛig-Veda. There may not be distinct passages to show that the sun, or the dawn, came from the south. But the very fact that Uṣhas is called Dakshiṇá (I, 123, 1 ; X, 107, 1), and the sun, the son of Dakshiṇá (III, 58, 1), is itself very suggestive, and possibly we have here phrases which the Vedic bards employed because in their days these were old and recognised expressions in the language. Words, like fossils, very often preserve the oldest ideas or facts in a language; and though Vedic poets may have forgotten the original meaning of these phrases, that is no reason why we should refuse to draw from the history of these words such conclusions

LONG DAY AND LONG NIGHT. 147 as may legitimately follow from it. The fact that the north is designated by the word ut-tara, meaning 'upper,' and the south by adha-ra, meaning 'lower,' also points to the same conclusion; for the north cannot be over-head or 'upper' except to an obser- ver at or near the North Pole. In later literature, we find a tradition that the path of the sun lies through regions which are lower (adhaḥ) than the abode of the Seven Ṛishis, or the con- stellation of Ursa Major.* That ecliptic lies to the south of the con- stellation is plain enough, but it cannot be said to be below the constellation, unless the zenith of the observer is in the con- stellation, or between it and the North Pole, a position, possible only in the case of an observer in the Arctic region. I have already quoted a passage from the Ṛig-Veda, which speaks of the Seven Bears (Ṛikshâḥ), as being placed on high in the heavens (uchchâḥ). But I have not been able to find out any Vedic authority for the tradition that the sun's path lies below the constellation of the Seven Bears. It has also been stated previously that mere southerly direction of the sun, even if com- pletely established, is not a sure indication of the observer being within the circum-polar region, as the sun will appear to move always to the south of the observer even in the temperate zone. It is, therefore, not necessary to pursue this point further. It has been shown that the Ṛig-Veda mentions the long night and the long day, and we shall see in the next chapter that the months and the seasons mentioned in this Old Book fully accord with the theory we have formed from the evidence hitherto discussed. * See Kâlidâsa's Kumârasambhava, VI, 7,—अधःप्रस्थापिताश्वेन समा- वर्जितकेतुना । सहस्ररश्मिना साक्षात्सप्रणाममुदीक्षिताः । Also I, 16,—सप्त- र्षिहस्तावचितावशेषानधो विवस्वान् परिवर्तमानः । See also Mallinâtha's commentary on these verses.

CHAPTER VII. MONTHS AND SEASONS. Evidence of rejected calendar generally preserved in sacrificial rites by conservative priests—Varying number of the months of sunshine in the Arctic region—Its effect on sacrificial ses- sions considered—Seven-fold character of the sun in the Ve- das—The legend of Aditi—She presents her seven sons to the gods and casts away the eighth—Various explanations of the legend in the Brâhmaṇas and the Taittirîya Âraṇyaka —Twelve suns understood to be the twelve month-gods in later literature—By analogy seven suns must have once indicated seven months of sunshine—Different suns were believed to be necessary to produce different seasons—Aditi’s legend belongs to the former age, or pûrvyam yugam—Evidence from sacrificial literature—The families of sacrificers in primeval times—Called ‘our ancient fathers’ in the Ṛig-Veda—Atharvan and Angiras traced to Indo-European period—Navagvas and Dashagvas, the principal species of the Angirases—Helped Indra in his fight with Vala—They finished their sacrificial session in ten months—The sun dwelling in darkness—Ten months’ sacrifices indicate only ten months of sunshine, followed by the long night —Etymology of Navagva and Dashagva—According to Sâ- yaṇa the words denote persons sacrificing for nine or ten months—Prof. Lignana’s explanation improbable—The ad- jective Virûpas applied to the Angirases—Indicates other varieties of these sacrificers—Saptagu, or seven Hotris or Vipras—Legend of Dîrghatamas—As narrated in the Mahâ- bhârata—A protege of Ashvins in the Ṛig-Veda—Growing old in the tenth yuga—Meaning of yuga discussed—Mânu- shâ yugâ means ‘human ages,’ and not always ‘human tribes’ in the Ṛig-Veda—Two passages in proof thereof—Interpre- tations of Western scholars examined and rejected—Mânushâ yugâ denoted months after the long dawn and before the long night—Dîrghatamas represents the sun setting in the tenth month—Mânushâ yugâ and continuous nights—The five seasons in ancient times—A Ṛig-Veda passage bearing on it discus- sed—The year of five seasons described as residing in waters’

MONTHS AND SEASONS. 149 —Indicates darkness of the long night—Not made up by combining any two consecutive seasons out of six—The ex- planation in the Brâhmaṇas improbable—Summary. Starting with the tradition about the half-yearly night of the gods found everywhere in Sanskrit literature, and also in the Avesta, we have found direct references in the Ṛig-Veda to a long continuous dawn of thirty days, the long day and the long night, when the sun remained above the horizon or went below it for a number of 24 hours ; and we have also seen that the Ṛig-Vedic texts describe these things as events of a bye-gone age. The next question, therefore, is—Do we meet in the Vedas with similar traces of the Arctic condition of seasons, months or years? It is stated previously that the calendar current at the time of the Vedic Saṁhitâs was different from the Arctic calendar. But if the ancestors of the Vedic people ever lived near the North Pole, “we may,” as observed by Sir Norman Lockyer with reference to the older Egyptian calendar, “always reckon upon the conservatism of the priests of the temples retaining the tradition of the old rejected year in every case.” Sir Norman Lockyer first points out how the ancient Egyptian year of 360 days was afterwards replaced by a year of 365 days; and then gives two instances of the traditional practice by which the memory of the old year was preserved. “Thus even at Philæ in later times,” says he, “in the temple of Osiris, there were 360 bowls for sacrifice, which were filled daily with milk by a specified rotation of priests. At Acanthus there was a perforated cask into which one of the 360 priests poured water from the Nile daily.”* And what took place in Egypt, we may expect to have taken place in Vedic times. The characteristics of an Arctic year are so unlike those of a year in the temperate zone, that if the ancestors of the Vedic

• See Lockyer’s Dawn of Astronomy, p. 248.

150 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. people ever lived within the Arctic regions, and immigrated southwards owing to glaciation, an adaptation of the calendar to the altered geographical and astronomical conditions of the new home was a necessity, and must have been effected at the time. But in making this change, we may, as remarked by Sir Norman Lockyer, certainly expect the conservative priests to retain as much of the old calendar as possible, or at least preserve the traditions of the older year in one form or another especially in their sacrificial rites. Indo-European etymological equations have established the fact that sacrifices, or rather the system of making offerings to the gods for various purposes, existed from the primeval period ;* and if so, the system must have undergone great modifications as the Aryan races moved from the Arctic to the temperate zone. I have shown elsewhere that calendar and sacrifice, especially the annual sattras, are closely connected, and that in the case of the annual sattras, or the sacrificial sessions which lasted for one year, the priests had in view, as observed by Dr. Haug,† the yearly course of the sun. It was the duty of these priests to keep up the sacrificial fire, as the Parsi priests now do, and to see that the yearly rounds of sacrifices were performed at proper times (ṛitus). The sacrificial calendar in the Arctic home must, however, have been different from what it came to be afterwards ; and happily many traces of this calendar are still discoverable in the sacrificial literature of Vedic times, proving that the ancient worshippers or sacri- ficers of our race must have lived in circum-polar regions. But before discussing this evidence, it is necessary to briefly describe the points wherein we might expect the ancient

• See Schrader's Prehistoric Antiquities of the Aryan Peoples, Part IV, Chap. XIII, translated by Jevons, p. 421. Cf. Sans. yaj ; Zend yaz ; Greek azomai, agios. See Orion, Chap. II. † See Dr. Haug's Aitareya Brâh. Vol. I, Introduction, p. 46.

MONTHS AND SEASONS. 151 or the oldest sacrificial system to differ from the one current in Vedic times. In the Saṁhitâs and Brâhmaṇas, the annual sattras, or yearly sacrificial sessions, are said to extend over twelve months. But this was impossible within the Arctic region, where the sun goes below the horizon for a number of days or months during the year, thereby producing the long night. The oldest duration of the annual sattras, if such sattras were ever performed within the Polar regions, would, therefore, be shorter than twelve months. In other words, an annual sattra of less than twelve months would be the chief distinguishing mark of the older sacrificial system, as contrasted with the later annual sattra of twelve months. It must also be borne in mind that the number of the months of sunshine and darkness cannot be the same everywhere in the Circum-Polar regions. At the Pole the sun is alternately above and below the horizon for six months each. But as all people cannot be expected to be stationed precisely at the Pole, practically the months of sunshine will vary from seven to eleven for the inhabitants of the Arctic region, those nearest to the North Pole having seven month's sunshine, while those living farther south from the Pole having the sun above their horizon for eight, nine or ten months according to latitude. These periods of sun- shine would be made up of the long Arctic day at the place and a succession of ordinary days and nights closely following each other ; and sacrificial sessions would be held, or principal business transacted, and important religious and social ceremonies performed only during this period. It would, so to say, be a period of action, as contrasted with the long night, by which it was followed. The long dawn following the long night, would mark the beginning of this period of activity ; and the Arctic sacrificial year would, practically, be made up, only of these months of sunshine. Therefore, the varying

152 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. number of the months of sunshine would be the chief peculiarity of the Arctic sacrificial calendar, and we must bear it in mind in examining the traces of the oldest calendar in the Ṛig-Veda, or other Saṁhitâs. A dawn of thirty days, as we measure days, implies a position so near the North Pole, that the period of sunshine at the place could not have been longer than about seven months, comprising, of course, a long day of four or five months, and a succession of regular days and nights during the remaining period; and we find that the Ṛig-Veda does preserve for us the memory of such months of sunshine. We refer first to the legend of Aditi, or the seven Âdityas (suns), which is obviously based on some natural phenomenon. This legend expressly tells us that the oldest number of Âdityas or suns was seven, and the same idea is independently found in many other places in the Ṛig-Veda. Thus in IX, 114, 3, seven Âdityas and seven priests are men- tioned together, though the names of the different suns are not given therein. In II, 27, 1, Mitra, Aryaman, Bhaga, Varuṇa, Dakṣha and Aṁsha are mentioned by name as so many dif- ferent Âdityas, but the seventh 'is not named. This omission does not, however, mean much, as the septenary character of the sun is quite patent from the fact that he is called saptâ- shva (seven-horsed) in V, 45, 9, and his 'seven-wheeled' chariot is said to be drawn by 'seven bay steeds' (I, 50, 8), or by a single horse 'with seven names' in I, 164, 2. The Atharva Veda also speaks of "the seven bright rays of the sun" (VII, 107, 1); and the epithet Âditya, as applied to the sun in the Ṛig-Veda, is rendered more clearly by Aditeḥ putraḥ (Aditi's son) in A. V. XIII, 2, 9. Sâyaṇa, following Yâska, derives this seven-fold character of the sun from his seven rays; but why solar rays were taken to be seven still re- mains unexplained, unless we hold that the Vedic bards had anticipated the discovery of seven prismatic rays or colours,

MONTHS AND SEASONS. 153 which were unknown even to Yâska or Sâyaṇa. Again though the existence of seven suns may be explained. on this hypothesis, yet it fails to account for the death of the eighth sun ; for the legend of Aditi (Ṛig. X, 72, 8-9) tells us, "Of the eight sons of Aditi, who were born from her body, she approached the gods with seven, and cast out Mârtâṇḍa. With seven sons Aditi approached (the gods) in the former age (pûrvyam yugam); she brought thi- ther Mârtâṇḍa again for birth and death."* The story is discus- sed in various places in the Vedic literature, and many other attempts, unfortunately all unsatisfactory, have been made to explain it in a rational and intelligent way. Thus in the Taittirî- ya Saṁhitâ, VI, 5, 6, 1 f., the story of Aditi cooking a Brahmau- dana oblation for the gods, the Sâdhyas, is narrated. The remnant of the oblation was given to her by the gods, and four Âdityas were born to her from it. She then cooked a second oblation, and ate it herself first; but the Âditya born from it was an imperfect egg. She cooked a third time and the Âditya Vivasvat, the progenitor of man, was born. But the Saṁhitâ does not give the number and names of the eight Âdityas, and this omission is supplied by the Taittirîya Brâhmaṇa (I, 1, 9, 1 f.). The Brâhmaṇa tells us that Aditi cooked the oblation four times, and each time the gods gave her the remnant of the oblation. Four pairs of sons were thus born to her; the first pair was Dhâtṛi and Aryaman, the second Mitra and Varuṇa, the third Aṁsha and Bhaga and the fourth Indra and Vivasvat. But the Brâhmaṇa does not explain why the eighth son was called Mârtâṇḍa, and cast away. The Taittirîya Âraṇyaka, I, 13, 2-3, (cited by Sâyaṇa in his gloss on Ṛig. II, 27, 1, and X, 72, 8.), first quotes the two verses

• Ṛig. X, 72, 8 & 9:— अष्टौ पुत्रासो अदितेर्ये जातास्तन्वस्परि । देवाँ उप प्रैत्सप्तभिः परा मार्ताण्डमास्यत् ॥ सप्तभिः पुत्रैरदितिरुप प्रैत्पूर्व्यं युगं । प्रजायै मृत्यवे त्वत्पुनर्मात्तांण्डमाभरत् ॥ For त्वत्पुनः in the second verse the Taittirîya Âraṇyaka, 1, 13, 3, reads तत्परा, see infra.

154 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. from the Ṛig-Veda (X, 72, 8 and 9), which give the legend of Aditi but with a slightly different reading for the second line of the second verse. Thus, instead of tvat punaḥ Mârtâṇḍam â abharat (she brought again Mârtâṇḍa thither for birth and death), the Âraṇyaka reads tat parâ Mârtâṇḍam â abharat (she set aside Mârtâṇḍa for birth and death). The Âraṇyaka then proceeds to give the names of the eight sons, as Mitra, Varuṇa, Dhâtṛi, Aryaman, Aṁsha, Bhaga, Indra and Vivasvat. But no further explanation is added, nor are we told which of these eight sons represented Mârtâṇḍa. There is, however; another passage in the Âraṇyaka (I, 7, 1–6) which throws some light on the nature of these Âdityas.* The names of the suns here given are different. They are:—Âroga, Bhrâja, Patara, Pataṅga, Svarṇara, Jyotiṣhî- mat, Vibhâsa and Kashyapa ; the last of which is said to remain constantly at the great mount Meru, permanently illumining that region. The other seven suns are said to derive their light from Kashyapa and to be alone visible to man. We are then told that these seven suns are considered by some Âchâryas to be the seven manifestations of the Prâṇas, or the vital powers in man ; while others are said to hold the opinion that they are the types of seven officiating priests *. See Taittirîya Âraṇyaka, 1, 7,—आरोगोभ्राजः पटरः पतंगः । स्वर्णरो ज्योतिषीमान् विभासः ।...। कश्यपोष्टमः । स महामेरुं न जहाति ।...। ते अस्मै सर्वे कश्यपाज्ज्योतिर्लभन्ते । ...। सप्त शीर्षण्याः प्राणाः सूर्या इत्याचार्याः ...। सप्तर्त्विजः सूर्या इत्याचार्याः । तेषामेषाभवति । “सप्त दिशो नानासूर्याः सप्त होतार ऋत्विजः । देवा आदित्या ये सप्त तेभिः सोमाभि रक्ष न” इति ( Ṛig. IX, 114, 3 ) । तदप्याह्नायः । दिग्भ्राज ऋतून् करोति । एतच्चैवावृता सहस्रसूर्यताया इति वैशंपायनः ।......। नानालिंगत्वादृतूनां नानासूर्यत्वं । अष्टौ तु व्यवसिता इति । Upon this Sâyaṇa says:—‘ दिग्भ्राजः ’ तान् तान् दिशं प्राप्यावस्थिताः सूर्याः ‘ ऋतून्’ वसंतादिसूचितानृतुधर्मान् , ‘ करोति ’ तस्यां तस्यां दिशि कुर्वंति । न हि ऋतु- निष्पादकसूर्यव्यतिरेकेण तत्तहतुधर्माः संभवंति । तस्मात्संत्येव दिक्षु विभिन्नाः सूर्याः । And again नानालिंगत्वादिति । यद्येक एव सूर्यः स्यात् तदानीं वसंताद्यृतूनां नाना- लिंगत्वं न स्यात् । न हि कारणभेदमन्तरेण कार्यभेदः संभवति । तस्माहतुधर्मवैलक्षण्यसिद्धये बहुसूर्यत्वमभ्युपेयम् ।...। 'अष्टौ तु व्यवसिता' इति । बाढम्, संत्येक तत्तल्लिंगकल्पा अनन्ताः सूर्याः । किन्तु तत्रारित कश्चिद्विशेषः । 'व्यवसिताः' निश्चिताः ।

MONTHS AND SEASONS. 155 (ṛitvijaḥ). A third explanation is then put forward, viz., that the distinction of seven suns is probably based on the different effects of sun's rays in different months or seasons, and in support of it a Mantra, or Vedic verse, Dig-bhrâja ṛitûn karoti, (resorting to, or shining in, different regions (they) make the seasons), is quoted. I have not been able to find the Mantra in the existing Saṁhitâs, nor does Sâyaṇa give us any clue to it, but simply observes "the different features of different seasons cannot be accounted for, except by supposing them to have been caused by different suns; therefore, different suns must exist in different regions".* But this explanation is open to the objection (actually raised by Vaishampâyana), that we shall have, on this theory, to assume the existence of thousands of suns as the characteristics of the seasons are so numerous. The Âraṇyaka admits, to a certain extent, the force of this objection, but says—aṣhṭau tu vyavasitâḥ, meaning that the number eight is settled by the text of the scripture, and there is no further arguing about it. The Shatapatha Brâhmaṇa, III, 1, 3, 3, explains the le- gend of Aditi somewhat on the same lines. It says that seven alone of Aditi's sons are styled Devâḥ Âdityâḥ (the gods Âdityas) by men, and that the eighth Mârtâṇḍa was born undeveloped, whereupon the Âditya gods created man and other animals out of him. In two other passages of the Shatapatha Brâhmaṇa, VI, 1, 2, 8, and XI, 6, 3, 8, the num- ber of Âdityas is, however, given as twelve. In the first (VI, 1, 2, 8) they are said to have sprung from twelve drops generated by Prajâpati and then placed in different regions (dikshu); while in the second (XI, 6, 3, 8)† these

• See Sâyaṇa's explanation quoted on the last page. † Shatapatha Brâhmaṇa, VI, 1, 2, 8,—स मनसैव वाचं मिथुनं समभवत् स द्वादश द्रप्सान् गर्ब्भवत् । ते द्वादशादित्या असृज्यंत तान्दिक्षूपदधात् । Again XI, 6, 3, 8—कतम आदित्या इति । द्वादश मासाः संवत्सरस्यैत आदित्याः ।

156 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. twelve Âdityas are identified with the twelve months of the year. The number of Âdityas is also given as twelve in the Upaniṣhads : while in the post-Vedic literature they are every- where said to be twelve, answering to the twelve months f the year. Muir, in his Original Sanskrit Texts, Volumes IV and V, gives most of these passages, but offers no explanation as to the legend of Aditi, except such as is to be found in the passages quoted. There are many different speculations or theories of Western Scholars regarding the nature and character of Aditi, but as far as the number of Âdityas is concerned, I know of no satisfactory explanation as yet suggested by them. On the con- trary the tendency is, as observed by Prof. Max Muller, to regard the number, seven or eight, as unconnected with any solar move- ments. A suggestion is made that the eight Âdityas may be taken to represent the eight cardinal points of the compass, but the death or casting away of the eighth Âditya seals the fate of this explanation, which thus seems to have been put forward only to be rejected like Mârtâṇḍa, the eighth Âditya. We have here referred to, or quoted, the texts and passages bearing on Aditi's legend, or the number of Âdityas, at some length, in order to show how we are apt to run into wild spe- culations about the meaning of a simple legend when the key to it is lost. That the twelve Âdityas are understood to represent the twelve month-gods in later Vedic literature is evident from the passage in the Shatapatha Brâhmaṇa (XI, 6, 3, 8=Bṛih. Ârṇ. Up. III, 9, 5), which says "There are twelve months of the year ; these are the Âdityas." With this explanation before us, and the belief that different seasonal changes could be explained only by assuming the existence of different suns, it required no . very great stretch of imagination to infer that if twelve Âdityas now represent the twelve months of the year, the seven Âdityas must have once (pûrvyam yugam) represented the seven

MONTHS AND SEASONS. 157 months of the year. But this explanation, reasonable though it was, did not commend itself, or we might even say, occur to Vedic scholars, who believed that the home of the Aryans lay somewhere in Central Asia. It is, therefore, satisfactory to find that the idea of different suns producing different months is recognised so expressly in the Taittirīya Âraṇyaka, which quotes a Vedic text, not now available, in support thereof, and finally pronounces in favour of the theory, which regards the seven suns as presiding over seven different heavenly regions and thereby producing different seasons, in spite of the objection that it would lead to the assumption of thousands of suns—an objection, which the Âraṇyaka disposes of summarily by observing that eight is a settled number, and that we have no right to change it. That this explanation is the most probable of all is further evident from Ṛig. IX, 114, 3, which says "There are seven sky-regions (sapta dishaḥ), with their different suns (nānā sūryāḥ), there are seven Hotṛis as priests, those who are the seven gods, the Âdityas,—with them, O Soma! protect us." Here nānā-sūryāḥ is an adjective which qualifies dishaḥ (sapta), and the co-relation between seven regions and seven suns is thus expressly recognised. Therefore, the simplest explanation of Aditi's legend is that she presented to the gods, that is, brought forth into heavens, her seven sons, the Âdityas, to form the seven months of sunshine in the place. She had an eighth son, but he was born in an undeveloped state, or, was, what we may call, still- born; evidently meaning that the eighth month was not a month of sunshine, or that the period of darkness at the place commen- ced with the eighth month. All this occured not in this age, but in the previous age, and the words pūrvyam yugam in X, 72, 9, are very important from this point of view. The word yuga is evi- dently used to denote a period of time in the first and second verses of the hymn, which refer to the former age of the gods;

158 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. (devānāṁ pūrve yuge) and also of the later age (uttare yuge). Western scholars are accustomed to interpret yuga to mean 'a generation of men' almost in every place where the phrase is met with; and we shall have to consider the correctness of this interpretation later on. For the purpose of this legend it is enough to state that the phrase pūrvyam yugam occurs twice in the hymn, and that where it first occurs (in verse 2), it clearly denotes 'an early age' or 'some division of time.' Naturally enough we must, therefore, interpret it in the same way where it occurs again in the same hymn, viz., in the verse describing the legend of Aditi's seven sons. The sun having seven rays, or seven horses, also implies the same idea differently expressed. The seven months of sunshine, with their different temperatures, are represented by seven suns producing these different results by being differently located, or as having different kinds of rays, or as having different chariots, or horses, or different wheels to the same chariot. It is one and the same idea in different forms, or as the Ṛig-Veda puts it, "one horse with seven names," (I, 164, 2). A long dawn of thirty days indicates a period of sunshine for seven months; and we now see that the legend of Aditi is intelligible only if we interpret it as a relic of a time when there were seven flourishing month-gods, and the eighth was either still- born, or cast away. Mārtāṇḍa is etymologically derived from mārta meaning 'dead or undeveloped', (being connected with mṛita, the past participle of mṛi, to die) and aṇḍa, an egg or a bird; and it denotes a dead sun, or a sun that has sunk below the horizon, for in Ṛig. X, 55, 5, we find the word mamāra (died) used to denote the setting of the daily sun. The sun is also repre- sented as a bird in many places in the Ṛig-Veda (V, 47,3; X, 55, 6; X, 177, 1; X, 189, 3). A cast away bird (Mārtāṇḍa) is, there- fore, the sun that has set or sunk below the horizon, and the whole legend is obviously a reminiscence of the place

MONTHS AND SEASONS. 159 where the sun shone above the horizon. for seven months, and went below it in the beginning of the eighth. If this nature of the sun-god is once impressed on the memory, it cannot be easily forgotten by any people simply by their being obliged to change their residence ; and thus the sevenfold character of the sun-god must have been handed down as an old tradition, though the Vedic people lived later on in places presided over by the twelve Âdityas. That is how ancient traditions are preserved everywhere, as, for instance, those relating to the older year in the Egyptian literature, previously referred to. We have seen above that the peculiar characteristic of the Arctic region is the varying number of the months of sun- shine in that place. It is not, therefore, enough to say that traces of a period of seven months' sunshine are alone found in the Ṛig-Veda. If our theory is correct, we ought to find re- ferences to periods of eight, nine or ten months' sunshine along with that of seven months either in the shape of traditions, or in some other form ; and fortunately there are such references in the Ṛig-Veda, only if we know where to look for them. We have seen that the sun's chariot is said to be drawn by seven horses, and that this seven-fold character of the sun has refer- ence to the seven suns, conceived as seven different month-gods. There are many other legends based on this seven-fold division, but as they do not refer to the subject under discussion, we must reserve their consideration for another occasion. The only fact necessary to be mentioned in this place is that the number of the sun's horses is said to be not only seven (I, 50, 8), but also ten in IX, 63, 9; and if the first be taken to represent seven months, the other must be understood to stand for ten months as well. We need not, however, de- pend upon such extension of the legend of seven Âdityas to prove that the existence of nine or ten months of sunshine