Page 136 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

~IBHUS AND V~JSHAKAPI 121

have occurred three days previous to the Vifhuwin (the autumnal
equinox ). The observation thus appears to have attracted consi-
derable attention in those days. It seems to have been a total
eclipse of the sun, and· the stars became visible during the time,
for so I interpret the expression, bhuvanani adtdhayuh in verse 5.
In verse 6 we are told that "Atri knew (the eclipsed sun) by tur£ya
brahma ", and SayatJ,a interprets the last two words to mean
" the fourth verse or mantra. " But the verse wherein these words
occur is itself the sixth, and S~yalla has to explain that by
' fourth ' is to understood the ' fourth, if we count from the
sixth, i. e., the tenth verse ! ' The explanation may be good
from the ritualistic point of view, but it appears to me to be
quite unsatisfactory otherwise. I would rather interpret turiyU1JO
brahmaiJa to mean " by ineans of turtya. " Tur£ya is mentioned
in modern astronomical works as a name for an instrument called
qudrant ( Siddhanta Shiroma~i x. 15 ), and though we may not
suppose the same instrument to have existed in the old Vedic days,
yet there seems to be no objection to hold that it may have meant
some instrument of obeservation. The word brahma is no doubt
used to denote a mantra, but it may also mean knowledge or the
means of acquiring such knowledge. In ~ig. ii. 2. 7 Saya~a has
himself interpreted brahma to mean some " act or action; " and
I see no reason why we should not understand the phrase tur£yf»!ll
brahma~Jii in the above hymn to mean " by the action of turtya, "
or, in other words, " by means of turtya, " and thus give to the
whole hymn a simple and natural appearance, rather than endea-
vour to interpret it after the manner of the Red Indians, who
believed that Columbus averted the calamity of the eclipse by
prayers. The peasants of the Vedic times, some scholars might
argue, cannot be considered to be more civilised than the Red
Indians; but in so. arguing they forget the fact that there must

I, therefore, simp'y use the hymn for the purpose of showing that
an c.:lipse of the ~un was obsen·ed in thoso days in such a way as to
leave ;1 record behind. It would be difficult to deduce any other reliable
co\Jdusion from it e\·en upon the assumption, not known and hence not
use\! by Prof. Ludwig, that the vernal equinox was then in Orion and
that the edipse O(Curred three days before the autumnal equinox as
described in the Bn\hmat;~as. I cannot, howe\·er, accept tho suggestiou
that the hymn ma}· be understoc d as referring to the obscuration of the
sun by douds .