Page 100 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

THE ANTELOPE'S HEAD 87

region, vomiting and making milk, and above all beginning the new
year. • All thewe facts clearly show that the Vedic dogs are the same
as the Hellenic or th~ Iranian, and we can easily and satisfactorily
account for all these legends by supposing that the vernal equi-
nox was near the Dog-star in tho~ days, thus making the dog rise
with .Jhe sun in the beginning of the year at the gates of the
Devayana. We can now also understand how the dogs could have
been described as four eyed. For, if they are correctly identified witq
Canis near the Milky Way, then the four stars in the body Of
Canis might naturally be said to be his eyes ;t for once the. number
of eyes is increased from two to four, we need not ex~t to . find
them all on the head, but, like, the thousand eyes of Ipdra in the
later mythology, they may be regarded as spread over the whole
body. M. Darmesteter rightly observes:t that ' the Parsis (being
at a loss to find four-eyed dogs interpreted the name as meaning
a dog with two spots above the eyes; but it is clear that the two-
spotted dog's service&§ are only accepted for want of a four-eyed
one, or of a white one with yellow ear&. ' Evidently the Parsi

• Prof. Bloomfield's theory leaves many of these facts unexplained.
If the dogs represent the sun and the moon, how can the sun tell that
the '(tibhus dog awakened them at the end of the year ? I cannot also
understand how the sun and the moon can be described as variegated
in colour, or as engaged in making milk. Again how can the sun or the
moon be said to be four-eyed, and why should they prepctually remain
at the boundary of heaven and hell? In '(tig. x. 86, 4, a dog is said to
be Jet loose at the ear of the.Mriga, and this as well as the do.; in ~ig.
i. I 6z. 13, must be supposed to be different from Yam a's dogs, if we
accept Bloomfield's view.
t ln~ig. x. IZ7. r, the stars are said to be the eyes of night. The
Greeks entertained a similar idea. Tht-ir Argos was surnamed
Panoptes, 'the all seeing', having a hundred eyes on the body. See
Max Mii!Jer's 'Science of Language' Vol. II, p. 416.
t Sacred Books of the East Series, Vol. IV; Zend Avesta Part r;
Intr. v. 4·
§ These services are required at the funeral ceremony. It may be
here noted that the hymn in the '(tigveda which describes Yama's dogs
( '(tig. x. J 4) is still recited at the time of burning the dead body of a
Hindu. Every BrAhmaJ}ll has also to give, every day, two small offerings
of cooked rise to the two dogs of Yama, ShyAma and Shabala, at the
time of tht: V.zishv,ltlnM sacrifice. The offerings are placed on the ground