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

226 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. discussed in the last chapter, and shews that when Tishtrya's fight with Apaosha, or Indra's war with Vala, was over, the new year commenced with the long dawn, followed by the months of sunshine varying from seven to eleven in number, according to the latitude of the place.*

• The passage about Tishtrya's connection with the year is noticed by Mr. Meherjibhai Nosherwanji Kuka, M. A, in his essay “On the order of Parsi months,” published in the Cama Memorial Volume (p. 58), and of which he was kind enough to send me a separate copy. The passage is in the Tir Yasht, § 36:—‘Tishtrîm stârem raevan- tem kharenanghvantem yazamaide, yim yâre-charesho mashyehe Ahuracha khratu-gûto aurunacha gairishâcho sizdaracha ravas- charâto uziyoirentem hisposentem huydiryâicha danghve uzjasen- tem duzydiryâicha, kata Airyâo danghâvo huydiryâo bavâonti.’ Spiegel translates it thus, ‘We praise the star Tishtrya, the shining, the majestic, who brings here the circling years of men.” Darmesteter takes yâre- charesho mashyehe &c., with the words following, viz, uziyoirentem hisposentem, and translates, “We praise Tishtrya, &c., whose rising is watched by men, who live on the fruits of the year.” According to Dastur Erachji Meherjirana (see his Yasht bâ mâeni), the meaning of the whole paragraph, in which this passage occurs, is:—“We praise Tishtrya, &c, who maketh the year revolve in accordance with the notions of the mountaineers and the nomads. He riseth and is visible towards the regions where there is no correct calculation of the year.” But whatever the difficulties of interpretation may be, one thing seems to be quite clear from this passage, viz., that Tishtrya was the star by which the year was reckoned. In the Tîr Yasht § 5, springs of water are said to flow at the rising of Tishtrya, who in § 16 is described as ‘mingling his shape with light, or ‘moving in light,’ § 46. All those incidents can be satisfactorily explained if we suppose that, after Tishtrya's fight with Apaosha, lasting for 100 nights at the longest, the aerial waters, which communicated motion to the sun and other heavenly bodies (see Faravardîn Yasht 53-58) and which lay still or stagnant during the time, were set free to move again along the path made by Mazda, bringing on with them the light of the sun and thus commencing the new year after the long winter night in the Arctic region. The simultaneous character of the motion of waters, the commencement of the new year, and the winning of light after Tishtrya's fight with Apaosha, can be explained only in this way, and not by making the legend refer to the rainy season (see the discus- sion about ‘waters’ in the next chapter). The Pairika Duz-yairya, or the Bad Year, which Tishtrya is said to break-asunder, is, on this theory, the wearisome dark Arctic night.

THE COWS' WALK. 227 In the light of what has been stated above, we can now better understand the original nature and meaning of the Ati- râtra sacrifice. It is a nightly sacrifice, performed during the night, even at present, and the Mîmâṁsakas have not succeeded in converting it into a day-sacrifice. So far it is all right; but the question is why should the sacrifice be called Ati-râtra ? The pre- fix ati (corresponding with Latin trans) ordinarily denotes 'some- thing beyond,' 'something on the other side, or at the other end,' and not 'something pervading, extending, or spreading through the whole extent of anything.' Even Sâyaṇa in his commentary on VII, 103, 7, the only place where the word Ati-râtra occurs in the Ṛig-Veda, explains it to mean 'that which is past or beyond the night' (râtrim atîtya vartate iti atirâtraḥ), and Rudradatta in his commentary on the Âpastamba Shrauta Sûtra (XIV, 1, 1), gives the same explanation. The Ati-râtra, therefore, denotes a trans-nocturnal sacrifice, that is, performed at either end of the night. Now according to the Aitareya Brâhmaṇa (IV, 5), the Ati-râtra sacrifice is performed for the purpose of driving out the Asuras from the darkness of night; and the Tâṇḍya Brâhmaṇa (IV, 1, 4-5) tells us that Prajâpati, who first perceived the sacri- fice, created from it the twin of day and night (aho-râtre). It follows from this that the Ati-râtra was performed at the close of such night as gave rise to the ordinary days and nights, or, in other words, the regular succession of days and nights follow- ed its performance. This can only be the case if we suppose that the Ati-râtra was performed at the end of a long continu- ous night in regions where such night occurred. With us in the temperate or the tropical zone, ordinary days and nights regularly succeed each other throughout the year without any break, and it is meaningless, if not absurd, to speak of the cycle of day and night, as produced from a particular night in the year. Again, on the theory of a daily struggle between light and darkness the Asuras must be turned out of darkness every

228 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. night, and strictly speaking the performance of the Ati-râtra is- necessary on every one of the 360 nights of the Sattra. But as a matter of fact the Ati-râtra is performed only at the beginning and the end of the Sattra; and even then the regular Sattra is said to commence on the Chaturviṁsha and close on the Mahâ- vrata day, and not on the concluding Atirâtra day. It seems, therefore, that the performance of the Ati-râtra was not originally intended to drive away the Asuras from only the first of 360 nights over which the Sattra now extends. For in that case, there is no reason why the Asuras were not required to be expelled from every one of the 360 nights. It follows, therefore, that the Ati-râtra or the trans-nocturnal sacrifice refers to some night not included in the regular nights of the Gavâm-ayanam. It is true that the Ati-râtra is performed at the beginning and the end of every Sattra, and in one sense it is, therefore, a trans-sattra or ati-sattra sacrifice. But that does not account for the name Ati-râtra, as the Sattra is not held during night. We must, therefore, hold that the two Ati-râtras were originally performed not at the beginning and the end of a Sattra, but at the begin- ning and the end of a night, which occured or intervened between the last and the first day of the Sattra. When this night ended with an Ati-râtra, the usual Sattra began; and as the sun was above the horizon during the period producing the regular succession of days and nights, no Ati-râtra was needed during the Sattra, for, as stated in the Taṇḍya Brâhmaṇa, the object of the Ati-râtra was gained. But the Sattra closed with the long night, and the Ati-râtra had, therefore, again to be performed at the end of the Sattra to drive the Asuras from this night. I have shown before that we have direct and reliable authority in the Taittirîya Saṁhitâ to hold that the Gavâm-ayanam was once completed in ten months or 300 days, and it was, therefore, appropriately closed with and in- troduced by an Ati-râtra. The word Ati-râtra is thus rationally

THE COWS' WALK. 229 explained, for the sacrifice was performed at the beginning and the close of the long night and, was therefore, adequately called a trans-nocturnal sacrifice. Between these two Ati-râtras came all the night-sacrifices mentioned above, offered exclusively to Indra. The old Gavâm-ayanam of ten or less than ten months, the Ati-râtra or the trans-nocturnal, the Râtri-kratus and Râtri- sattras, or nightly Soma sacrifices of two, three, &c., up to a hundred continuous nights' duration, and lastly the Ati-râtra, to be again followed by the Gavâm-ayanam, thus formed the com- plete yearly round of sacrifices performed by the primeval ances- tors of the Vedic people; and each of these sacrifices had ori- ginally the same place in the yearly round as is indicated by the root-meaning of its name.* But when the year of ten months was converted into one of twelve to suit the altered conditions of the new home, the Gavâm-ayanam expanded into a performance of 360 days, and the elastic nature of the greater portion of the performance, as pointed out above, permitted the change to be easily carried out. But though the annual Sattra expanded in this way, encroaching upon the night-sacrifices of the long night, which were no longer needed, the Ati-râtra was retained as an introductory sacrifice and was incorporated in the ceremonies of the Sattra itself. Thus the two Ati-râtra sacrifices, which were originally performed, as shown by the etymology, at the two termini of the long night, came to be converted into the introductory and concluding sacrifices of the annual Sattra; and if the word Ati-râtra had not been retained, we could not have got any clue to reveal to us

• The time here assigned to the Râtri-sattras appears to have been known to the Shrauta Sûtras, or in the Lâtyâyana Shrauta Sûtra VIII, 2, 16, we have, समाप्ते वा संवत्सरे रात्रिसत्रेषु राजानं क्रीणीयुः, meaning that "After the year (annual secrificial session) is over, the Soma should be purchased during the Râtri-sattras," evidently shewing that the Râtri-sattras came at the end of the yearly Sattras.

230 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. the story of its changing fortune. But the night-sacrifices, the Râtri-kratus or Râtri-sattras, which were performed during the long night between the two Ati-râtras, were no longer needed and their nature came to be soon misunderstood, until at last the the Mîmâṁsakas finally made room for them in the class of daily Soma sacrifices, partly under Ahînas and partly under Sattras, by means of the equation that râtri (night) is equal to aho-râtre (day and night) in the sacrificial literature. How this change was carried out is a question beyond the scope of this book ; but I may here state that, in my opinion, it was the authors of Brâhmaṇas, or the Brahmavâdins who preceded them, that had to perform the difficult task of adapting the ancient sacrificial calendar to the changed conditions of their new home, somewhat after the manner of Numa's reform of the ancient Roman calendar. The sacrifice was the main ritual of the Vedic religion, and naturally enough the priests must have tried to preserve as much of the old sacrificial system as they possibly could in adapting it to the new conditions. The task was by no means an easy one, and those that find fault with the Brâhmaṇas as full of fanciful speculations must bear in mind the fact that an ancient and sacred system of sacrifices had to be adapted to new conditions, by assigning plausible reasons for the same, at a time when the true origin of the system was almost forgotten. The Brâhmaṇas could not have indulged in free speculations about the origin of the rites and ceremonies mentioned by them, had the latter originated in their own time, or in days so near to them that the real traditions about the origin of these ceremonies could be preserved intact. But so long as these traditions were fresh, no explanation was probably needed; and when they became dim, their place had to be supplied by plausible reasons based on such traditions as were known at the time. This throws quite a new light on the nature and composition of the Brâhmaṇas; but as the discussion is not

THE COWS' WALK. 231 pertinent to the subject in hand, we cannot enter into it more fully in this place. We have now reviewed the leading features of the system of Soma sacrifices as described in the Vedic literature, so far as our purpose is concerned, and seen that by the aid of the Arctic theory, some hard facts therein, which have been hither- to incomprehensible, can be easily and naturally explained. A history of the whole sacrificial system from the point of view indicated above is a work quite outside the pale of this book; but so far as we have examined the subject and especially the question about the isolated group of a hundred nightly Soma sacrifices, I think, we have sufficient evidence therein to warrant us in holding that these sacrifices are a relic of the ancient times when the ancestors of the Vedic Ṛiṣhis performed them with the object of helping Indra to fight with the powers of darkness. It has been already shown in the first part of this chapter that the Gavâm-ayanam or the 'Cows'. walk,' like the Roman year, once lasted only for ten months; and a series of suitable night- sacrifices is a natural supplement to such sessions. Both are relics of ancient times, and taken along with the evidence regard- ing the existence of a long dawn of thirty days and of the long day and night discussed in previous chapters, they conclusively establish the existence of an ancient home of the ancestors of the Vedic people in the circum-polar region. The sacrificial sessions of the Navagvas and the Dashagvas, the legend of Dîrghatamas growing old in the tenth month, the tradition about the ancient year of five seasons, or the yoking of seven or ten horses to the chariot of the sun, all go to strengthen the same view; and the Avestic passages regarding the duration of Tishtrya's fight with Apaosha, the Purâṇic tradition about Indra's being the master of a hundred sacrifices or the destroyer of a hundred cities, the existence of a series of one hundred nightly Soma sacri- fices, which; though obsolete long since, could not have found

232 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. place in the sacrificial works as Rātri-sattras, unless they were ancient sacrifices performed, as their name indicates, during night,—these and many other minor facts noticed before, further corroborate, if corroboration be needed, our theory regarding the original home of the Aryans near the north Pole. It must, however, be stated here that I do not wish to imply in any way that the numerous sacrificial details found in the later Vedic literature were in vogue or were known in these ancient times. On the contrary I am prepared to believe that in all probability these ancient sacrifices were very simple in character. The ancient priests probably went on sacrificing from day to day, and afterwards from night to night, without any idea that the system was capable of giving rise to various rigid annual Sattras. The sacrifice was the only ritual of their religion; and howsoever simple such sacrifices might have been in ancient times, it was almost a matter of duty, at least with the priests, to perform them every day. It was also a means, as remarked by me else- where, to keep up the calendar in ancient times, as the yearly round of sacrifices closely followed the course of the sun. It is from this latter point of view that the ancient sacrificial system is important for historical or antiquarian purposes, and I have examined it above in the same light. This examination, it will be seen, has resulted in the discovery of a number of facts which lead us directly to, and can be satisfactorily explained only by the theory of the original Arctic home; and when our conclusions are thus supported by the hymns of the Ṛig-Veda on the one hand, and the sacrificial literature on the other, I think, we need have no doubt about their correctness.

CHAPTER IX. VEDIC MYTHS—THE CAPTIVE WATERS. Direct evidence for the Arctic theory summed up—Different na- ture of the mythological evidence—Schools of mythological interpretation—The naturalistic or the Nairukta school—Its theories—The Dawn theory and the myths explained by it —The Storm theory, Indra and Vritra—The Vernal theory, the Ashvins' exploits—Vritra's legend usually explained by the Storm theory—Simultaneous effects of Indra's conquest over Vritra—The release of waters, the release of cows, the recovery of the dawn and the production of the sun—Vedic authorities in support of their simultaneous character —Passages relating to the place and time of the conflict —The simultaneous nature left unexplained by the Dawn or the Storm theory—Battle not fought in the atmosphere above, as implied by the Storm theory—Nor in the rainy season —Misinterpretation of words like parvata, giri, adri, &c. —The Storm theory inadequate in every respect—New ex- planation necessary—The real nature of waters explained— They are aerial or celestial waters, and not the waters of rain —Vedic bards knew of a region 'below the three earths' —The contrary view of Wallis refuted—The real meaning of rajas, Nir-riti, ardhau and samudram explained—Cosmic circu- lation of aerial waters—Nether world, the home of aerial waters—Avestic passages describing the circulation of waters cited and explained—Sarasvatî and Ardvi Sûra Anâhita are celestial rivers—The source of all plants and rain—The real nature of Vritra's fight—Simultaneous release of waters and light is intelligible, if both have the same source—Both stopped by Vritra's encompassing the waters in the lower world—The closing of the apertures in the mountains (parvatas) on the horizon—The movement of the waters and the sun co-related—Express passages from the Avesta to that effect—The sun stopping for a long time in waters —Avestic passages in support thereof—Its effect on the disposal of corpses—Darkness synchronous with the cessation of the flow of waters in winter—Its long duration—Cosmic circulation of waters in other mythologies—Express

234 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. texts showing that the fight with Vritra was annual and fought in winter —Inexplicable except on the Arctic theory —The exact date of Indra's fight with Vritra preserved in the Ṛig- Veda —The real meaning of chatvârimshyâm sharadi explained —Shambara found on the 40th day of Sharad—Denotes the commencement of the long night —Vedic passages shewing Sharad to be the last season of sunshine —Paleographical evidence for reckoning time by seasons—Similar reckoning in the Avesta --100 autumnal forts of Vritra and the killing of the watery demon with ice explained —The seven rivers- released by Indra —Cannot be terrestrial, nor the rivers of the Panjaub —The interpretation of Western scholars ex- amined and rejected —The connection between the seven- rivers and the seven suns pointed out--The origin of the phrase Hapta-hindu in the Aveṣta --Probably a transference- of an old mythological name to a place in the new home-- Vritra's legend Arctic in origin--Captive waters represent the yearly struggle between light and the darkness in the ancient Arctic home. WE have now examined most of the Vedic passages, which directly show that the Polar or the Circum-Polar characteristics, determined in the third chapter, were known, by tradition, to the Vedic bards. We started with the tradition about the night of the gods, or a day and a night of six months each, and found that it could be traced back to the Indo-Iranian, if not to the Indo-Germanic, period. A close examination of the dawn-hymns in the Ṛig-Veda next disclosed the fact that Uṣhas, or the deity presiding over the dawn, is often addressed in the plural num- ber in the Vedic hymns, and that this could be accounted for only on the supposition that the Vedic dawns were a closely connected band of many dawns, —a supposition, which was found to be fully borne out by express passages in the Vedic literature, stating, in unambiguous terms, that the Vedic dawns were 30 in number, and that in ancient times a period of several days elapsed between the first appearance of light on the horizon and the rising of the sun. We have also found that the dawn is expressly described in the

V DIC MYTHS—THE CAPTIVE WATERS. 235 Ṛig-Veda as moving round like a wheel, a characteristic, which is true only in the case of the Polar dawn. These facts suffici- ently prove the acquaintance of the Vedic bards with the physical phenomena, witnessible only in the Arctic regions. But to make the matter more certain, I have, in the last three chapters, quoted and discussed Vedic passages, which go to prove that the long Arctic nights and the corresponding long days of varying duration, as well as a year of ten months or five seasons, were equally known to the poets of the Ṛig-Veda. An examination of the ancient sacrificial system and especially of the annual Sattras and night-sacrifices, further showed that in old times yearly sacrificial sessions did not last for twelve months as at present, but were completed in nine or ten months; and the hundred night-scarifices were, at that time, really performed as their name indicates, during the darkness of the long night. The legends of Dîrghatamas and Aditi's sons, and the tradition about the sacrificial sessions of the Navagvas and the Dashag- vas also pointed to the same conclusion. Our case does not, therefore, depend on an isolated fact here and an isolated fact there. We have seen that the half-year-long day and night, the long dawn with its revolving splendours, the long continuous night matched by the corresponding long day and associated with a succession of ordinary days and nights of varying lengths, and the total annual period of sunshine of less than twelve months are the principal peculiar characteristics of the Polar or the Circum-Polar calendar; and when express pas- sages are found in the Vedas, the oldest record of early Aryan thoughts and sentiments, showing that each and every one of these characteristics was known to the Vedic bards, who themselves lived in a region where the year was made up of three hundred and sixty or three hundred and sixty five days, one is irresistibly led to the conclusion that the poets of the Ṛig-Veda must have known these facts by tradition and that

236 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. their ancestors must have lived in regions where such pheno- mena were possible. It is not to be expected that the evidence on each and every one of these points will be equally conclusive, especially as we are dealing with facts which existed thousands of years ago. But if we bear in mind that the facts are astrono- mically connected in such a way that if one of them is firmly established all the others follow from it as a matter of course, the cumulative effect of the evidence discussed in the previous chapters cannot fail to be convincing. It is true that many of the passages, quoted in support of the Arctic theory, are inter- preted, in the way I have done, for the first time; but I have already pointed out that this is due to the fact that the real key to the interpretation of these passages was discovered only du- ring the last 30 or 40 years. Yâska and Sâyaṇa knew nothing definite about the circum-polar or the Arctic regions, and when a Vedic passage was found not to yield a sense intelligible to them, they either contented themselves with barely explaining the verbal texture of the passage, or distorted it to suit their own ideas. Western scholars have corrected some of these mistakes, but as the possibility of an Arctic home in pre-glacial times was not admitted 30 or 40 years back, the most explicit references, whether in the Avesta or the Ṛig-Veda, to a primeval home in the extreme north, have been either altogether ignored, or somehow or other explained away, even by Western scholars. Many of the passages cited by me fall under this class; but I trust that if my interpretations are examined without any bias and in the light of the latest scientific researches, they will be found to be far more natural and simple than those in vogue at present. In some cases no new interpretations were, how- ever, necessary. The passages have been correctly interpret- ed; but in the absence of the true key to their meaning, their real import was either altogether missed, or but imperfectly understood. In such cases I have had to exhibit the passages

VEDIC MYTHS—THE CAPTIVE WATERS. 237 in their true light or colours, giving in each case, my reasons- for doing the same. This has sometimes rendered it necessary to introduce certain topics not directly relevant to the question in hand; but on the whole, I think, it will be found that I have, as far as possible, tried to confine myself to the discussion of the direct evidence bearing on the points in issue, and have exami- ned it according to the strict method of historic or scientific investigation. I did not start with any preconceived notion in favour of the Arctic theory, nay, I regarded it as highly impro- bable at first; but the accumulating evidence in its support eventually forced me to accept it, and, in all probability, the evidence cited in the previous chapters, will, I think, produce the same impression on the reader's mind. But the evidence, which I am now going to cite in support of the Arctic theory, is of a different character. If the ances- tors of the Vedic bards ever lived near the North Pole, the cosmical or the meteorological conditions of the place could not have failed to influence the mythology of these people; and if our theory is true, a careful examination of the Vedic myths ought to disclose facts, which cannot be accounted for by any other theory. The probative value of such evidence will manifestly be inferior to that of the direct evidence pre- viously cited, for myths and legends are variously explained by different scholars. Thus Yâska mentions three or four dif- ferent schools of interpretation, each of which tries to ex- plain the nature and character of the Vedic deities in a different way. One of these schools would have us believe that many of the deities were real historical personages, who were subsequently apotheosized for their supernatural virtues or ex- ploits. Other theologians divide the deities into Karma-deva- tâs or those that have been raised to the divine rank by their own deeds, and Âjânadevatâs or those that were divine by birth; while the Nairuktas (or the etymologists) maintain that the

238 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. Vedic deities represent certain cosmical and physical pheno- mena such as the appearance of the dawn or the breaking up of the storm-clouds by the lightning. The Adhyâtmikas, on the other hand, try to explain certain Vedic passages in their own philoso- phical way; and there are others, who endeavour to explain Vedic myths in other different ways. But this is not the place where the relative merits of these different schools can be dis- cussed or examined. I only wish to point out that those, who explain the Vedic myths on the supposition that they represent, directly or allegorically, ethical, historical or philosophical facts, are not likely to accept any inference based upon the theory which interprets the Vedic myths as referring to certain cosmi- cal and physical phenomena. It was for this reason that I reserved the discussion of the mythological evidence for consi- deration in a separate chapter, after all the evidence directly bearing on the subject has been examined. The evidence, which proves the existence of a long continuous dawn, or a long continuons day or night, is not affected by the different theories regarding the interpretation of the Vedic myths, and may, therefore, be termed, what the lawyers call, direct; but in the case of the mythological evidence only those, who accept the Nairukta method of interpretation, will admit the validity of any inference based upon the consideration of these myths. It is true that the Nairukta school of interpretation dates from ancient times, and that modern scholars have accepted the method almost without reserve, though they might differ from the ancient Nairuktas, like Yâska, in the details of the explanation suggested by them. But still when a new theory is to be established, I thought it safer to separate the mythological from the direct evidence bearing upon the points at issue, even when the two lines of investigation seemed to converge towards the same point. Now it has been recorded by Yâska that the Nairuktas explain most of the Vedic legends on the theory that they

VEDIC MYTHS—THE CAPTIVE WATERS. 239 represent either the daily triumph of light over darkness, or the conquest of the storm-god over the dark clouds that imprison the fertilising waters and the light of the sun. Thus when the Ashvins are said to have rescued a quail (Vartikâ) from the jaws of a wolf, Yâska interprets the legend to mean the release and bringing out of the dawn or light from the darkness of the night (Nir. V, 21). His explanation of the character of Vṛitra is another instance in point. Speaking of the nature of the demon, he thus refers (Nir. II, 16) to the opinions of the different schools, "Who was Vṛitra? 'A cloud,' say the Nairuktas; 'an Asura, son of Tvaṣhṭṛi,' say the Aitihâsikas. The fall of rain arises from the mingling of the waters and of light. This is figuratively depicted as a conflict. The hymns and the Brâhmaṇas describe Vṛitra as a serpent. By the expansion of his body, he blocked up the streams. When he was destroyed the waters flowed forth."* The Storm and the Dawn theories thus formed the basis of the Nairukta school of interpretation, and though Western scholars have improved upon it, yet the credit of suggesting this method of interpretation will always rest with the ancient Nairuktas, who, as observed by Prof. Max Muller, had carefully thought out the true character of the Vedic gods several centuries before the Christian era. Thus the legend of Prajâpati loving his own daughter is explained in the Aitareya Brâhmaṇa as referring to the sun running after the dawn or the heaven above (Ait. Br. III, 33); while Kumârila extends this theory to the case of Indra and Ahalyâ, which according to him represent the sun and the night. But though the Nairuktas fully accepted the theory, which explained the Vedic myths as representing cosmical and

• See Nir. II, 16:—तत्को वृत्रः। मेघ इति नैरुक्ताः। त्वाष्ट्रोऽसुर इत्यै- तिहासिकाः। अपां च ज्योतिषश्च मिश्रीभावकर्मणो वर्षकर्म जायते । तत्रोपमा- र्थेन युद्धवर्णा भवंति । अहिवत्तु खलु मंत्रवर्गाः ब्राह्मणवादाश्च । विवृद्ध्या शरीरस्य स्रोतांसि निवारयांचकार । तस्मिन्हते प्रसस्यन्दिरे आपः । Cf. Muir's O. S. T. Vol. II, p. 175.

240 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. physical phenomena, yet as their knowledge of the physical world was very limited in those days, they were not able to explain every Vedic myth or legend by this method. For example, out of the various legends about the Ashvins Yâska could explain only one by the Dawn theory, namely, that of the quail being rescued from the jaws of the wolf. This defect has now been partially removed by Western scholars, who, living in the more northern regions are familiar with the decay in the power of the sun during the cold season, or the eventual triumph of spring over winter, or the restoration of the decayed powers of the sun in summer. This phenomenon has, therefore, been used by them to explain the origin of certain Vedic myths, which have been left unexplained either by the Dawn or the Storm theory. Upto now, we have, thus, three theories for explaining the Vedic myths according to the Nairukta school of interpreta- tion; and it is necessary to describe them briefly before we proceed to show how they fail to account for all the incidents in the myths and legends to which they are applied. According to the Dawn theory, "the whole theogony and philosophy of the ancient world is centered in the Dawn, the mother of the bright gods, of the sun in his various aspects, of the morn, the day, the spring; herself the brilliant image and visage of immortality." Prof. Max Muller, in his Lec- tures on the Science of Language, further remarks* that "the dawn, which to us is a merely beautiful sight, was to the early gazers and thinkers the problem of all the problems. It was the unknown land from whence rose every day those bright em- blems of divine powers, which left in the mind of man the first impression and intimation of another world, of power above, of order and wisdom. What we simply call the sun-rise, brought before their eyes every day the riddle of all riddles, the riddle of existence. The days of their life sprang from that dark * See Lectures on the Science of Language, Vol. II, p. 545, ff.

VEDIC MYTHS—THE CAPTIVE WATERS. 241 abyss, which every morning seemed instinct with light and life.” And again “a new life flashed up every morning before their eyes, and the fresh breezes of the dawn reached them like greetings wafted across the golden threshold of the sky from the distant lands beyond the mountains, beyond the clouds, be- yond the dawn, beyond ‘the immortal sea which brought us hither.’ The dawn seemed to them to open golden gates for the sun to pass in triumph, and while those gates were open their eyes and their minds strove in their childish way to pierce be- yond the finite world. That silent aspect awakened in the human mind the conception of the Infinite, the Immortal, the Divine, and the names of dawn became naturally the names of higher powers.” This is manifestly more poetic than real. But the learned Professor explains many Vedic myths on the theory that they are all Dawn-stories in different garbs. Thus if Saraṇyu, who had twins from Vivasvat, ran off from him in the form of a mare, and he followed her in the form of a horse, it is nothing but a story of the Dawn disappearing at the approach of the Sun and producing the pair of day and night. The legend of Suryâ’s marriage with Soma, and of Vṛishâkapâyî, whose oxen (the morning vapours) were swallow- ed by Indra, or of Aditi giving birth to the Âdityas are again said to be the stories of the Dawn under different aspects. Saramâ, crossing the waters to find out the cows stolen by Paṇis, is similarly the Dawn bringing with her the rays of the morn- ing, and when Urvashî says that she is gone away and Purûravas calls himself Vasiṣhṭha or the brightest, it is the same Dawn flying away from the embrace of the rising Sun. In short, the Dawn is supposed to have been everything to the ancient people, and a number of legends are explained in this way, until at last the monotonous character of these stories led the learned professor to ask to himself the ques- tion, “Is everything the Dawn? Is everything the Sun?”— a question, which he answers by informing us that so far as 16

242 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. his researches were concerned they had led him again and again to the Dawn and the Sun as the chief burden of the myths of the Aryan race. The dawn here referred to is the daily dawn as we see it in the tropical or the temperate zone, or, in other words, it is the daily conquest of light over dark- ness that is here represented as filling the minds of the ancient bards with such awe and fear as to give rise to a variety of myths. It may be easily perceived how this theory will be affected by the discovery that Uṣhas, or the goddess of the dawn in the Ṛig-Veda, does not represent the evanescent dawn of the tropics, but is really the long continuous dawn of the Polar or the Circum-Polar regions. If the Arctic theory is once established, many of these mythological explanations will have to be entirely re-written. But the task cannot be under- taken in a work which is devoted solely to the examination of the evidence in support of that theory. The Storm theory was originally put forward by the Indian Nairuktas as a supplement to the Dawn theory, in order to ac- count for myths to which the latter was obviously inapplicable. The chief legend explained on this theory is that of Indra and Vṛitra, and the explanation has been accepted almost without reserve by all Western scholars. The word Indra is said to be derived from the same root which yielded indu, that is, the rain drop; and Vṛitra is one, who covers or encompasses (vṛi, to cover) the waters of the rain-cloud. The two names being thus explained, everything else was made to harmonise with the Storm theory by distorting the phrases, if the same could not be naturally interpreted in conformity therewith. Thus when Indra strikes parvata (i. e., a mountain) and delivers the rivers therefrom, the Nairuktas understood parvata to be a storm-cloud and the rivers to be the streams of rain. Indra's wielding the thunderbolt has been similarly interpreted to mean that he was the god of the thunderstorm, and thunder- storm implied rain as a matter of course. If the Maruts

VEDIC MYTHS—THE CAPTIVE WATERS. 243 helped Indra in the battle, it was easily explained by the Storm theory, because a thunderstorm or rain was always accompanied by stormy weather. But a more difficult point in the legend, which required explanation, was the hemming in or the captiva- ting of the waters by Vṛitra or Ahi. In the case of waters in the clouds it was easy to imagine that they were kept captive in the cloud by the demon of drought. But the Ṛig-Veda often speaks of sindhus or streams being released by the slaughter of Vṛitra; and if the streams or rivers really represented, as conceived by the advocates of this theory, the rivers of the Panjaub, it was rather difficult to understand how they could be described as be- ing hemmed in or kept captive by Vṛitra. But the ingenuity of Vedic scholars was quite eqral to the occasion, and it was sug- gested that, as the rivers in India often entirely dried up in sum- mer, the god of the rainy season, who called them back to life, could be rightly described as releasing them from the grasp of Vṛitra. The Indian Nairuktas do not appear to have extended the theory any further. But in the hands of German mytholo- gians the Storm theory became almost a rival to the Dawn theory; and stories, like that of Saraṇyu, have been explained by them as referring to the movements of dark storm-clouds hovering in the sky. "Clouds, storms, rains, lightning and thunder," observes Prof. Kuhn, "were the spectacles that above all others impressed the imagination of the early Aryans and busied it most in finding terrestrial objects to compare with their ever-varying aspects. The beholders were at home on the earth, and the things on the earth were comparitively familiar to them; even the coming and going of the celestial luminaries might often be regarded by them with more com- posure, because of their regularity; but they could never sur- cease to feel the liveliest interest in those wonderful meteoric changes, so lawless and mysterious in their visitations, which wrought such immediate and palpable effects for good or ill

244 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. upon the lives and fortunes of the beholders.'"* For this rea- son Prof. Kuhn thinks that these meteorological phenomena are the principal ground-work of all Indo-European mythologies and superstitions; and in accordance with this creed Prof. Roth explains Saraṇyu as the dark storm-cloud soaring in the space in the beginning of all things and takes Vivasvat as representing the light of heavens. The third theory, like the first, is solar in origin, and at- tempts to explain certain Vedic myths on the supposition that they represent the triumph of spring over snow and winter. Yâska and other Indian Nairuktas lived in regions where the contrast between spring and winter was not so marked as in the countries still further north; and it was probably for this reason that the Vernal theory was not put forward by them to explain the Vedic myths. Prof. Max Muller has tried to explain most of the exploits of the Ashvins by this theory.† If the Ashvins re- stored Chyavâna to youth, if they protected Atri from the heat and darkness, if they rescued Vandana from a pit where he was buried alive, or if they replaced the leg of Vishpalâ, which she had lost in battle, or restored to Ṛijrâshva his eye sight, it was simply the Sun-god restored to his former glory after the decay of his powers in winter. In short the birth of the vernal Sun, his fight against the army of winter, and his final victory at the beginning of the spring is, on this theory, the true key to the explanation of many myths where the Sun-god is represented as dying, decaying or undergoing some other affliction. As contrasted with the Dawn theory the physical phenomena, here referred to, are annual. But both are solar theories, and as such may be contrasted with the Storm theory which is meteorological in origin.

• See Max Muller's Lectures on the Science of Language Vol. II, p. 566. † See Contributions to the Science of Mythology, Vol. II, pp. 579-605

VEDIC MYTHS—THE CAPTIVE WATERS. 245 Besides these three theories, the Dawn, the Storm and the Vernal, Mr. Nârâyaṇa Aiyangâr of Bangalore has recently at- tempted to explain a number of Vedic myths on the hypothesis that they refer to Orion and Aldebaran. This may be called the Astral theory as distinguished from others. But all these theo- ries cannot be discussed in this place; nor is it necessary to do so, so far as our purpose is concerned. I wish only to show that in spite of the various theories started to explain the Vedic myths, a number of incidents in several important legends have yet remained unexplained; and mythologists have either ignored them altogether, or pushed them out of the way as insignificant or immaterial. If everything could be explained by the Dawn or the Storm theory, we may indeed hesitate to accept a new theory for which there would then be very little scope; but when a number of facts, which have yet remained unexplained, are satisfactorily and appropriately accounted for only by the Arctic theory, we shall be perfectly justified in citing these legends as corroborative evidence in support of our new theory. It is from this point of view that I mean to examine some of the important Vedic myths in this and the following chapter, and shall now begin with the legend of Indra and Vṛitra, or of captive waters, which is generally believed to have been satisfactorily explained by the Storm theory. The struggle between Indra and Vṛitra is represented in the Vedas as being four-fold in character. First, it is a struggle bet- ween Indra and Vṛitra, the latter of whom appears also under the names of Namuchi, Shuṣhṇa, Shambara, Vala, Pipru, Kuyava and others. This is Vṛitra-tûrya, or the fight or struggle with Vṛitra. Secondly, it is a fight for the waters, which, either in the form of sindhus (rivers) or as âpaḥ (simple floods), are often des- cribed as released or liberated by the slaughter of Vṛitra. This is ap-tûrya or the struggle for waters; and Indra is called apsu-jit or