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

THE NIGHT OF THE GODS. 63 with twelve intercalary days inserted at the end of each year, was familiar to the poets of the Ṛig-Veda and is often mentioned in the hymns.* The northern and the southern passage of the sun from equinox to equinox, the Devayâna and the Pitṛiyâna, together with the yearly sattras, have also been referred to in several places, clearly showing that the Ṛig-Vedic calendar differed, if at all, very little from the one in use at the time of, the Taittirîya Saṁhitâ or the Brâhmaṇas. A calendar of twelve months and six seasons is peculiar only to the temperate or the tropical zone, and if we were to judge only from the facts stated above, it follows that the people who used such a calendar, must have lived in places where the sun was above the horizon during all the days of the year. The science of Vedic mythology, so far as it is developed at present, also supports the same view. Vṛitra is said to be a demon of drought or darkness, and several myths are explained on the theory that they represent a daily struggle between the powers of light and the powers of dark- ness, or of eventual triumph of summer over winter, or of day over night, or of Indra over watertight clouds. Mr. Nârâyaṇa Âiyangâr of Bangalore has attempted to explain some of these myths on the astral theory, showing that the myths point out to the position of the vernal equinox in Orion, in the oldest period of Vedic civilisation. But all these theories or methods of interpretation assume that the Vedic people have always been the inhabitants of the temperate or the tropical zone, and all these myths and traditions were formed or developed in such a home.

• See Ṛig. I, 25, 8,—वेद मासो धृतव्रतो द्वादश प्रजावतः। वेदा य उप- जायते । Also Ṛig. IV, 33, 7,—द्वादश द्यून्यदगोह्यस्यातिथ्ये रणन्नृभवः ससंतः See Orion, page 167 f. In Ṛig. I, 164, 11, 360 days and 360 nights of the year are expressly mentioned.

64 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. Such are the results of the latest researches in Vedic philology, mythology or calendar, regarding the ancient home of the Vedic people, and the origin and the antiquity of their mythology. But to a man who is working in the same field, the question whether we have reached the utmost limit of our researches naturally oc- curs. It is a mistake to suppose that all the traditions and myths, and even the deities, mentioned in the Ṛig-Veda were the creation of one period. To adopt a geological phrase, the Ṛig-Veda, or we might even say the whole Vedic literature, is not arranged into dif- ferent strata according to their chronological order, so that we can go on from one stratum to another and examine each separately. The Ṛig-Veda is a book in which old things of different periods are so mixed up that we have to work long and patiently before we are able to separate and classify its contents in chronological order. I have stated before how owing to our imperfect knowledge of the ancient man and his surroundings this task is rendered difficult, or even impossible in some cases. But, as observed by Prof. Max Muller, it is the duty of each generation of Vedic scholars to reduce as much as possible the unintelligible portion of the Ṛig-Veda, so that with the advance of scientific knowledge each succeeding generation may, in this matter, naturally be in a better position than its predecessors. The Vedic calendar, so far as we know, or the Vedic mythology may not have, as yet, disclosed any indication of an Arctic home, but underneath the materials that have been examined, or even by their side, we may still find facts, which, though hitherto neglected, may, in the new light of scientific discoveries, lead to important conclusions. The mention of the luni-solar calendar in the Ṛig-Veda ought not, therefore, to detain us from further pursuing our investigation by examining the

THE NIGHT OF THE GODS. · 65 texts and legends which have not yet been satisfactorily explained, and ascertaining how far such texts and legends indicate the existence of a Polar or Circum-Polar home in early times. The distinguishing characteristics of these regions have been already discussed and stated in the previous chapter, and all that we have now to do is to apply these tests, and decide if they are satisfied or fulfilled by the texts and legends under con- sideration. The spinning round of the heavenly dome over the head is one of the special characteristics of the North Pole, and the phenomenon is so peculiar that one may expect to find traces of it in the early traditions of a people, if they, or their ances- tors ever lived near the North Pole. Applying this test to the Vedic literature, we do find passages which compare the motion of the heavens to that of a wheel, and state that the celestial vault is supported as if on an axis. Thus in Ṛig. X, 89, 4, Indra is said " to separately uphold by his power heaven and earth as the two wheels of a chariot are held by the axle."* Prof. Ludwig thinks that this refers to the axis of the earth, and the explanation is very probable. The same idea occurs in other places, and sometimes the sky is described as being supported even without a pole, testifying thereby to the great power or might of Indra (II, 15, 2; IV, 56, 3).† In X, 89, 2, Indra is identified with Sûrya and he is described as " turning the widest expanse like the wheels of a chariot."‡ The word for ' expanse ' is varâṁsi, which Sâyaṇa understands to mean ' lights,' or 'stars.' But whichever meaning we adopt, it is clear that the verse in question refers to the revolution of the sky,

• Ṛig. X, 89, 4,—यो अक्षेणेव चक्रिया शचीभिर्विश्वक्तस्तंभ पृथिवीमुत द्यां । † Ṛig. II, 15, 2,—अवंशे द्यामस्तंाभवत् । IV, 56, 3,—स इमे द्यावा- पृथिवी जजान उर्वी गंभीरे रजसी सुमेके अवंशे धीरः शच्या समैरत् । ‡ Ṛig. X, 89,2,—स सूर्यः पर्युरु वरांस्येन्द्रो ववृत्याद्रथ्येव चक्रा ।

66 . THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. and compares it to the motion of a chariot wheel. Now the heavens in the temperate and the tropical regions may be des- cribed as moving like a wheel from east to west and then back again to the east, though the latter half of this circuit is not visible to the observer. But we cannot certainly speak of the tropical sky as being supported on a pole, for the simple reason that the North Pole, which must be the point of support in such a case, will not be sufficiently near the zenith in the tropi- cal or the temperate zone. If we, therefore, combine the two statements, that the heavens are supported as on a pole, and that they move like a wheel, we may safely infer that the motion referred to is such a motion of the celestial hemisphere as can be witnessed only by an observer at the North Pole. In the Ṛig-Veda I, 24, 10, the constellation of Ursa Major (Ṛikshaḥ) is described as being placed 'high' (uchchāḥ), and, as this can refer only to the altitude of the constellation, it follows that it must then have been over the head of the observer, which is possible only in the Circum-Polar regions. Unfortunately there are few other passages in the Ṛig-Veda which describe the motion of the celestial hemisphere or of the stars therein, and we must, therefore, take up another characteristic of the Polar regions, namely, 'a day and a night of six months each,' and see if the Vedic literature contains any references to this singular feature of the Polar regions. The idea that the day and the night of the Gods are each of six months' duration is so widespread in

• Ṛig. I, 24, 10,—अमी यऋक्षा निहितास उच्चा नक्तं ददृश्रे कुहचिद्दिवेयुः । It may also be remarked, in this connection, that the passage speaks of the appearance (not rising) of the Seven Bears at night, and their disappearance (not setting) during the day, showing that the constella- tion was circum-polar at the place of the observer.

THE NIGHT OF THE GODS. 67 the Indian literature, that we examine it here at some length, and, for that purpose, commence with the Post-Vedic litera- ture and trace it back to the most ancient books. It is found not only in the Purâṇas, but also in astronomical works, and as the latter state it in a more definite form we shall begin with the later Siddhântas. Mount Meru is the terrestrial North Pole of our astronomers, and the Sûrya-Siddhânta, XII, 67, says :-- "At Meru Gods behold the sun after but a single rising during the half of his revolution beginning with Aries." Now accord- ing to Purâṇas Meru is the home or seat of all the Gods, and the statement about their half-year-long night and day is thus easily and naturally explained; and all astronomers and divines have accepted the accuracy of the explanation. The day of the Gods corresponds with the passage of the sun from the vernal to the autumnal equinox, when the sun is visible at the North Pole, or the Meru; and the night with the southern passage of sun, from the autumnal back to the vernal equinox. But Bhâskarâchârya, not properly understanding the passage which states that the "Uttarâyaṇa is a day of Gods," has raised the question how Uttarâyaṇa, which in his day meant the passage of the sun from the winter to the summer solstice, could be the day of the Gods stationed at the North Pole; for an observer at the Pole can only see the sun in his passage from the vernal to the autumnal equinox. But, as shown by me elsewhere, Bhâskarâchârya has here fallen into an error by attributing to the word Uttarâyaṇa, a sense which it did not bear in old times, or at least in the passages embodying this tradition. The old meaning of Uttarâyaṇa, literally, the northern passage of the sun, was the period of time required by the sun to travel from the vernal to

• See Orion, p. 29.

68 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. the autumnal equinox, or the portion of the ecliptic in the northern hemisphere ; and if we understand the word in this sense, the statement that the Uttarâyaṇa is a day of the Devas is at once plain and intelligible. Bhâskarâchârya's reference to older astronomical Saṁhitâs clearly shows that the tradition was handed down from the oldest times. It is suggested that in these passages Gods may mean the apotheosized ancestors of the human race. But I do not think that we need any such explanation. If the ancestors of the human race ever lived at the North Pole, so must have their Gods ; and I shall shew in a subsequent chapter that the Vedic deities are, as a matter of fact, clothed with attributes, which are distinctly Polar in origin. It makes, therefore, no difference for our purpose, if a striking feature of the primitive home is traditionally preserved and remembered as a characteristic of the Gods, or of the apotheosized ancestors of the race. We are concerned with the tradition itself, and our object is gained if its existence is clearly established. The next authority for the statement is Manu I, 67. While describing the divisions of time it says, "A year (human) is a day and a night of the Gods ; thus are the two divided, the northern passage of the sun is the day and the southern the night."* The day and the night of the Gods are then taken as a unit for measuring longer periods of time as the Kalpas and so on, and Yâska's Nirukta, XIV, 4, probably contains the same reference. Muir, in the first Volume of his Original Sanskrit Texts, gives some of these passages so far as they bear on the yuga-system found in the Purâṇas. But we are not concerned with the later development of the idea that the day and the night of the Gods each lasted for

• Manu, I, 67,—दैवे रात्र्यहनी वर्ष प्रविभागस्तयोः पुनः । अहस्तत्रोदगयनं रात्रिः स्याद्दक्षिणायनम् ॥

THE NIGHT OF THE GODS. 69 six months. What is important, from our point of view, is the persistent prevalence of this tradition in the Vedic and the Post- Vedic literature, which can only be explained on the hypothesis that originally it must have been the result of actual observation. We shall, therefore, next quote the Mahâbhârata, which gives such a clear description of Mount Meru, the lord of the moun- tains, as to leave no doubt about its being the North Pole, or possessing the Polar characteristics. In chapters 163 and 164 of the Vanaparvan, Arjuna's visit to the Mount is described in detail, and we are therein told, "At Meru the sun and the moon go round from left to right (Pradakshinam) every day, and so do all the stars." Later on the writer informs us:—"The moun- tain, by its lustre, so overcomes the darkness of night, that the night can hardly be distinguished from the day." A few verses further, and we find, "The day and the night are together equal to a year to the residents of the place."* These quotations are quite sufficient to convince any one that at the time when the great epic was composed Indian writers had a tolerably accurate knowledge of the meteorological and astronomical characteristics of the North Pole, and this knowledge cannot be supposed to have been acquired by mere mathematical calcul- ations. The reference to the lustre of the mountain is specially interesting, inasmuch as, in all probability, it is a description of the

• The verses (Calcutta Ed.) are as follows,— एवं त्वहरहर्मेरुं सूर्याचंद्रमसौ ध्रुवं । प्रदक्षिणमुपावृत्य कुरुतः कुरुनंदन ॥ ज्योतींषि चाप्यशेषेण सर्वाण्यनघ सर्वतः। परियान्ति महाराज गिरिराजं प्रदक्षिणं॥ Vana-parvan, Chap. 163, vv. 37, 38. स्वतेजसा तस्य नगोत्तमस्य महौषधीनां च तथा प्रभावात् । विभक्तभावो न बभूव कश्चिदहोर्निशानां पुरुषप्रवीर ॥ बभूव रात्रिर्दिवसश्च तेषां संवत्सरेणैव समानरूपः ॥ Ibid, Chap. 164, vv. 11, 13.

70 . THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. splendours of the Aurora Borealis visible at the North Pole. So far as the Post-Vedic literature is concerned, we have, therefore, not only the tradition of the half-year-long night and day of the Gods persistently mentioned, but the Mount Meru, or the North Pole, is described with such accuracy as to lead us to believe that it is an ancient tradition, whose origin must be traced to a time when these phenomena were daily observed by the people ; and this is confirmed by the fact that the tradition is not confin- ed only to the Post-Vedic literature. Passing on, therefore, to the Vedic literature, we find Mount Meru described as the seat of seven Âdityas in the Tait- tirîya Âraṇyaka I, 7, 1, while the eighth Âditya, called Kashyapa, is said never to leave the great Meru or Mahâmeru. Kashyapa is further described as communicating light to the seven Âdityas, and himself perpetually illumining the great mountain. It is, however, in the Taittirîya Brâhmaṇa, (III, 9, 22, 1), that we meet with a passage which clearly says, "That which is a year is but a single day of the Gods." The statement is so clear that there can be no doubt whatever about its meaning. A year of the mortals is said to be but a day of the Gods ; but, at one time, I considered it extremely hazardous* to base any theory even upon such a clear statement, inasmuch as it then appeared to me to be but solitary in the Vedic literature. I could not then find anything to match it in the Saṁhitâs, and especially in the Ṛig Veda , and I was inclined to hold that Uttarâyaṇa and Dakṣiṇâyana were, in all probability, described in this way as 'day' and 'night' with a qualifying word to mark their special nature. Later researches have however forced on me the conclusion that the tradition, represented by

• Taitt. Br. III, 9, 22, 1,—एकं वा एतद्देवानामहः यत्संवत्सरः । See Orion, p. 29, note

THE NIGHT OF THE GODS. 71 this passage, indicates the existence of a Polar home in old days, and I have set forth in the sequel the evidence on which I have come to the above conclusion. There are several theories on which the above statement in the Taittirîya Brâhmaṇa can be explained. We may regard it as the outcome of pure imagina- tion, or of a metaphor expressing in figurative language a fact quite different from the one denoted by the words used, or it may be the result of actual observation by the writer himself or by persons from whom he traditionally derived his information. It may also be considered as based on astronomical calculations made in later days, what was originally an astronomical inference being subsequently converted into a real observed fact. The last of these suppositions would have appeared probable, if the tradi- tion had been confined only to the Post-Vedic literature, or mere- ly to the astronomical works. But we cannot suppose that dur- ing the times of the Brâhmaṇas the astronomical knowledge was so far advanced as to make it possible to fabricate a fact by mathematical calculation, even supposing that the Vedic poets were capable of making such a fabrication. Even in the days of Herodotus the statement that 'there existed a people who slept for six months' was regarded 'incredible' (IV, 24); and we must, therefore, give up the idea, that several centuries before He- rodotus, a statement regarding the day or the night of the Gods could have been fabricated in the way stated above. But all doubts on the point are set at rest by the occurrence of an almost identical statement in the sacred books of the Parsis. In the Vendidad, Fargard II, para 40, (or, according to Spiegel, para 133), we find the sentence, Tae cha ayara mainyaente yat yare, meaning "They regard, as a day, what is a year." This is but a paraphrase of the statement, in the Taittirîya Brâhmaṇa,

72 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. and the context in the Parsi scriptures removes all possible doubts regarding the Polar character of the statement. The latter part of the second Fargard, wherein this passage occurs, contains a discourse between Ahura Mazda and Yima.* Ahura Mazda warns Yima, the first king of men, of the approach of a dire winter, which is to destroy every living creature by covering the land with a thick sheet of ice, and advises Yima to build a Vara, or an enclosure, to preserve the seeds of every kind of animals and plants. The meeting is said to have taken place in the Airyana Vaejo, or the Paradise of the Iranians. The Vara, or the enclosure, advised by Ahura Mazda, is accordingly prepar- ed, and Yima asked Ahura Mazda, "O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! What lights are there to give light in the Vara which Yima made?" Ahura Mazda answered, "There are uncreated lights and created lights. There the stars, the moon and the sun are only once (a year) seen to rise and set, and a year seems only as a day." I have taken Darmesteter's rendering, but Spiegel's is substantially the same. This passage is important from various standpoints. First of all it tells us, that the Airyana Vaejo, or the original home of the Iranians, was a place which was rendered uninhabitable by glaciation; and secondly that in this original home the sun rose and set only once in the year, and that the year was like a day to the inhabitants of the place. The bearing of the passage in regard to glaciation will be discussed later on. For the present, it is enough to point out how completely it corroborates and ellucidates the statement in the Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa stated and discussed above. The yearly rising and set- ting of the sun is possible only at the North Pole, and the mention of this characteristic leaves no room for doubting that the Vara

• See Sacred Books of the East Series, Vol. IV, pp. 15-31.

THE NIGHT OF THE GODS. 73 and the Airyana Vaejo were both located in the Arctic or Circum-Polar regions, and that the passage in the Taittirīya Brâhmaṇa also refers to the Polar year. The fact that the statement is found both in the Iranian and the Indian literature further negatives the probability of its being a fabrication from mathematical calculation. Nor can we suppose that both the branches of the Aryan race became acquainted with this fact simply by an effort of unassisted imagination, or that it was a mere metaphor. The only remaining alternative is to hold, as Sir Charles Lyell* has remarked, that the tradition was "founded on the observation of Nature." It is true, that the statement, or anything similar to it, is not found in the Ṛig-Veda; but it will be shewn later on that there are many other passages in the Ṛig-Veda which go to corroborate this statement in a remarkable way by referring to other Polar characteristics. I may, however, mention here the fact that the oldest Vedic year appears to have been divided only into two portions, the Devayâna and the Pitṛiyâna, which originally corresponded with the Uttarâyaṇa and the Dakshiṇâ- yana, or the day and the night of the Gods. The word Devayâna occurs several times in the Ṛig-Veda Saṁhitâ, and denotes 'the path of the Gods. Thus in the Ṛig-Veda, I, 72, 7, Agni is said to be cognizant of the Devayâna road, and in Ṛig. I, 183, 6, and 184, 6, the poet says, "We have, O Ashvins ! reached the end of dark- ness; now come to us by the Devayâna road."† In VII, 76, 2, we again read, "The Devayâna path has become visible to me... The banner of the Dawn has appeared in the east." Passages like

• See Elements of Geology, 11th Ed., Vol. I, p. 8. † Ṛig. I. 183, 6,—अतारिष्म तम॑सस्पारमस्य प्रति वां स्तोमो अश्विनाव- धायि । एह यात॑ पथिभिर्देवयानैः ॥ Ṛig. VII, 76, 2,—प्र मे पंथा देवयाना अदृश्रन्.....अभूदु केतुरुषसः पुरस्तात् ।

74 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. these clearly indicate that the road of the Devayâna commenced at the rise of the Dawn, or after the end of darkness ; and that it was the road by which Agni, Ashvins, Uṣhas, Sûrya and other matutinal deities travelled during their heavenly course. The path of the Pitṛis, or the Pitṛiyâna, is, on the other hand, described in X, 18, 1, as the "reverse of Devayâna, or the path of Death." In the Ṛig-Veda, X, 88, 15, the poet says that he has "heard" only of "two roads, one of the Devas and the other of the Pitṛis." If the Devayâna, therefore, commenced with the Dawn, we must suppose that the Pitṛiyâna commenced with the advent of dark- ness. Sâyaṇa is, therefore, correct in interpreting V, 77, 2, as stating that "the evening is not for the Gods (devayâḥ)." Now if the Devayâna and the Pitṛiyâna were only synonymous with ordinary day and night, there was obviously no propriety in stating that these were the only two paths or roads known to the ancient Ṛishis, and they could not have been described as consisting of three seasons each, beginning with the spring, (Shat. Brâ. II, 1, 3, 1-3).* It seems, therefore, very probable that the Devayâna and the Pitṛiyâna originally represented a two-fold division of the year, one of continuous light and the other of continuous darkness as at the North Pole ; and that though it was not suited to the later home of the Vedic people it was retained, because it was an established and recognised fact in the language, like the seven suns, or the seven horses of a single sun. The evidence in support of this view will be stated in subsequent chapters. It is sufficient to observe in this place, that if we interpret the twofold division of the Devayâna and the Pitṛi- yâna in this way, it fully corroborates the statement in the Taittirîya Brâhmaṇa that a year was but a day of the Gods. We may also note in this connection that the expression 'path

• For a full discussion of the subject see Orion, pp. 24-30.

THE NIGHT OF THE GODS. 75 of the Gods' occurs even in the Parsi scriptures. Thus in the Farvardin Yasht, paras 56, 57, the Fravashis, which correspond with the Pitṛis in the Vedic literature, are said to have shown to the sun and the moon "the path made by Mazda, the way made by the Gods," along which the Fravashis themselves are described as growing. The sun and the moon are, again, said to have "stood for a long time in the same place, without moving forwards through the oppression of the Daevas (Vedic Asuras, or the demons of darkness)," before the Fravashis showed 'the path of Mazda,' to these two luminaries.* This shows that 'the path of Mazda' commenced, like the Devayâna road, when the sun was set free from the clutches of the demons of darkness. In other words, it represented the period of the year when the sun was above the horizon at the place where the ancestors of the Indo-Iranian lived in ancient days. We have seen that the Devayâna, or the path of the Gods, is the way along which Sûrya, Agni and other matutinal deities are said to travel in the Ṛig-Veda; and the Parsi scriptures supple- ment this information by telling us that the sun stood still before the Fravashis showed to him 'the path of Mazda', evidently meaning that the Devayâna, or 'the path of Mazda', was the portion of the year when the sun was above the horizon after being confined for some time by the powers of darkness. But the correspondence between the Indian and the Parsi scriptures does not stop here. There is a strong pre- judice, connected with the Pitṛiyâna, found in the later Indian literature, and even this has its parallel in the Parsi scriptures. The Hindus consider it inauspicious for a man to die during the Pitṛiyâna, and the great Mahâbhârata warrior, Bhîshma, is said to have waited on his death-bed until the sun passed through the winter solstice, as the

• See Sacred Books of the East Series, Vol, XXIII, pp. 193-194.

76 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. Dakshiṇâyana, which is synonymous with the Pitṛiyâna, was then understood to mean the time required by the sun to travel from the summer to the winter solstice.* A number of passages scattered over the whole Upanishad literature support the same view, by describing the course of the soul of a man according as he dies during the Devayâna or the Pitṛiyâna, and exhibiting a marked preference for the fate of the soul of a man dying during the path of the Gods, or the Devayâna. All these passages will be found collected in Shankarâchârya's Bhâṣhya on Brahma-Sûtras, IV, 2, 18-21, wherein Bâdarâyaṇa,† anxious to reconcile all these passages with the practical difficulty sure to be experienced if death during the night of the Gods were held to be absolutely unmeritorious from a religious point of view, has recorded his opinion that we must not interpret these texts as predicating an uncomfortable future life for every man dying during the Dakshiṇâyana or the night of the Gods. As an alter- native Bâdarâyaṇa, therefore, adds that these passages may be taken to refer to the Yogins who desire to attain to a particular kind of heaven after death. Whatever we may think of this view, we can, in this attempt of Bâdarâyaṇa, clearly see a distinct consciousness of the existence of a tradition, which, if it did not put an absolute ban on death during the night of the Gods, did, at any rate, clearly disapprove of such occur- rences from a religious point of view. If the Pitṛiyâna ori- ginally represented, as stated above, a period of continuous darkness the tradition can be easily and rationally explain- ed; for as the Pitṛiyâna then meant an uninterrupted night, the funeral ceremonies of any ‘one dying during the period

• For the text and discussion thereon, see Orion, p. 39. † The Sûtras are,— रश्म्यनुसारी । १८ । निशि नेति चेन्न, संबंधस्य यावद्देहभावित्वाद्दर्शयति च । १९ । अतश्चायनेऽपि दक्षिणे । २० । योगिनः प्रति च •स्मर्यते स्मार्ते चैते । २१ । See also Orion, pp. 23-25.

THE NIGHT OF THE GODS. 77 were deferred till the break of the dawn at the end of the Pitṛiyâna, or the commencement of the Devayâna. Even now death during night is considered inauspicious, and the funeral generally takes place after daybreak. The Parsi scriptures are still more explicit. In the Vendi- dad, Fargards V, 10, and VIII, 4, a question is raised how the worshipper of Mazda should act, when a death takes place in a house when the summer has passed and the winter has come; and Ahura Mazda answers, "In such cases a Kata (ditch) should be made in every house and there the lifeless body should be allowed to lie for two nights, or for three nights, or for a month long, until the birds begin to fly, the plants to grow, the floods to flow, and the wind to dry up the water from off the earth." Considering the fact, that the dead body of a worshipper of Mazda is required to be exposed to the sun before it is consigned to birds, the only reason for keeping the dead body in the house for one month seems to be that it was a month of darkness. The description of birds beginning to fly, and the floods to flow, &c., reminds one of the description of the dawn in the Ṛig-Veda, and it is quite probable that the expressions here denote the same phenomenon as in the Ṛig-Veda. In fact they indicate a winter of total darkness during which the corpse is directed to be kept in the house, to be exposed to the sun on the first breaking of the dawn after the long night. * It will, however, be more convenient to discuss these passages, after examining the whole of the Vedic evidence in favour of the Arctic home. I have referred to them here to show the complete correspondence between the Hindu and the Parsi scriptures regarding the day and the night of the Gods, and their unmistakable Polar charac- teristics indicating the existence of an early home within the Arctic circle.

• See infra Chapter IX.

78 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. The same traditions are also found in the literature of many other branches of the Aryan race, besides the Hindus and the Parsis. For instance, Dr. Warren quotes Greek traditions similar to those we have discussed above. Regarding the primi- tive revolution of the sky, Anaximenes, we are told, likened the motions of the heaven in early days to "the rotating of a man's hat on his head".* Another Greek writer is quoted to show that "at first the Pole-star always appeared in the zenith." It is also stated, on the authority of Anton Krichenbauer, that in the Iliad and Odyssey two kinds of days are continually referred to, one of a year's duration, especially when describing the life and exploits of the Gods, and the other of twenty-four hours. The night of the Gods has its parallel also in the Norse my- thology, which mentions "the Twilight of the Gods," denoting by that phrase the time when the reign of Odin and the Æsir, or Gods, would come to an end, not forever, but to be again revived; for we are told that "from the dead sun springs a daughter more beautiful than her sire, and mankind starts afresh from the Life-raiser and his bride Life."† If these traditions and statements are correct, they show that the idea of half- yearly night and day of the Gods is not only Indo-Iranian, but Indo-Germanic, and that it must, therefore, have originated in the original home of the Aryans. Comparative mythology, it will be shown in a subsequent chapter, fully supports the view of an original Arctic home of the Aryan races, and there is no- thing surprising if the traditions about a day and a night of six months are found not only in the Vedic and the Iranian, but also in the Greek and the Norse literature. It seems to have been an

• See Paradise Found, 10th Ed., pp. 192 and 200. † See Cox's Mythology of the Aryan Nations, p. 41, quoting Brown's Religion and Mythology of the Aryans of the North of Europe, Arts. 15-17.

THE NIGHT OF THE GODS. 79 idea traditionally inherited by all the branches of the Aryan race, and, as it is distinctly Polar in character, it is alone enough to establish the existence of an Arctic home. But fortunately for us our edifice need not be erected on this solitary pillar, as there is ample evidence in the Vedic liter- ature which supports the Arctic theory by satisfying almost all the Polar and Circum-Polar tests laid down in the last chapter. The long revolving dawn is another peculiar characteristic of the North Pole, and we shall see in the next chapter that the Ṛig-Vedic account of the dawn is intelligible only if we take it as referring to the Polar dawn.

CHAPTER V. THE VEDIC DAWNS. Dawn-hymns the most beautiful in the Rig-Veda—The Deity fully described, unobscured by personification—First hints about the long duration of dawn—Recitation of a thousand verses, , or even the whole Rig-Veda, while the dawn lasts—Three or five-fold division of the dawn—Both imply a long dawn—The same inferred from the two words Ushas and Vyushti—Three Rig-Vedic passages about long dawns, hitherto misunderstood, discussed—Long interval of several days between the first appearance of light and sunrise—Expressly mentioned in the Rig-Veda, VII, 76, 3—Sâyana's explanation artificial and unsatisfactory—Existence of many dawns before sunrise— Reason why dawn is addressed in the plural in the Rig-Veda —The plural address not honorific—Nor denotes dawns of consecutive days—Proves a team of continuous dawns—The last view confirmed by the Taittirîya Samhitâ, IV, 3, 11 — Dawns as 30 sisters—Direct authority from the Taittrîya Brâh- mana for holding that they were continuous or unseparated— Sâyana's explanation of 30 dawns examined—Thirty dawns described as thirty steps of a single dawn—Rotatory motion of the dawn, like a wheel, directly mentioned in the Rig-Veda —Their reaching the same appointed place day by day—All indicate a team of thirty closely-gathered dawns—Results summed up—Establish the Polar character of the Vedic dawns—Possible variation in the duration of the Vedic dawn —The legend of Indra shattering the Dawn's car explained— Direct passages showing that the dawns so described were the events of a former age—The Vedic Dawns Polar in character. The Ṛig-Veda, we have seen, does not contain distinct references to a day and a night of six months' duration, though the deficiency is more than made up by parallel passages from the Iranian scriptures. But in the case of the dawn, the long continuous dawn with its revolving splendours, which is the special characteristic of the North

THE VEDIC DAWNS. 81 Pole, there is fortunately no such difficulty. Uṣhas, or the God- dess of Dawn, is an important and favourite Vedic deity, and is celebrated in about twenty hymns of the Ṛig-Veda, and mention- ed more than three hundred times, sometimes in the singular and sometimes in the plural. These hymns, according to Muir, are amongst the most beautiful,—if not the most beautiful,—in the entire collection; and the deity, to which they are addressed, is considered by Macdonell to be the most graceful creation of Vedic poetry, there being no more charming figure in the descrip- tive religious lyrics of any other literature*. In short, Uṣhas, or the Goddess of Dawn, is described in the Ṛig-Veda hymns with more than usual fulness, and what is still more important for our purpose is that the physical character of the deity is not, in the least, obscured by the description or the personification in the hymns. Here, therefore, we have a fine opportunity of prov- ing the validity of our theory, by showing, if possible, that the oldest description of the dawn is really Polar in character. A priori it does not look probable that the Vedic poets could have gone into such raptures over the short-lived dawn of the tropical or the temperate zone, or that so much anxiety about the coming dawn should have been evinced, simply because the Vedic bards had no electric light or candles to use during the short night of less than 24 hours. But the dawn-hymns have not, as yet, been examined from this stand-point. It seems to have been tacitly assumed by all interpreters of the Vedas, Eastern and Western, that the Uṣhas of the Ṛig-Veda can be no other than the dawn with which we are familiar in the tropical or the tem- perate zone. That Yâska and Sâyaṇa thought so is natural enough, but even the Western scholars have taken the same view, probably

• See Muir's Original Sanskrit Texts, Vol. V. p. 181; and Mac- donell's Vedic Mythology, p. 46. 11

82 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. under the influence of the theory that the plateau of Central Asia was the original home of the Aryan race. Therefore several expressions in the dawn-hymns, which would have otherwise suggested the inquiry regarding the physical or the astronomical character of the Vedic dawn, have been either ignored, or some- how explained away, by scholars, who could certainly have thrown more light on the subject, had they not been under the influence of the assumption mentioned above. It is with passages like these that we are here chiefly concerned, and we shall pre- sently see that if these are interpreted in a natural way, they fully establish the Polar nature of the Vedic dawn. The first hint, regarding the long duration of the Vedic dawn, is obtained from the Aitareya Brâhmaṇa, IV, 7. Before commencing the Gavâm-ayana sacrifice, there is a long recita- tion of not less than a thousand verses, to be recited by the Hotṛi priest. This Ashvina-shastra, as it is called, is addressed to Agni, Uṣhas and Ashvins, which deities rule at the end of the night and the commencement of the day. It is the longest recitation to be recited by the Hotṛi, and the time for reciting it is after midnight, when "the darkness of the night is about to be re- lieved by the light of the dawn," (Nir. XII, 1; Ashv. Shr. Sûtra, VI, 5, 8).* The same period of time is referred to also in the Ṛig-Veda, VII, 67, 2 and 3. The shastra is so long, that the Hotṛi, who has to recite it, is directed to refresh himself by drinking beforehand melted butter after sacrificing thrice a little of it, (Ait. Bṛ. IV, 7; Ashv. Shr. Sûtra, VI, 5, 3). "He ought to eat ghee," observes the Aitareya Brâhmaṇa, "before he commences repeat- ing. Just as in this world a cart or a carriage goes well if smeared (with oil),† thus his repeating proceeds well if he be

• Nir. XII, 1,—तयोः काल ऊर्ध्वमर्धरात्रात्प्रकाशीभावस्यानुविष्टंभम् । † See Haug's Translation of Ait. Br., p. 270.