Page 143 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

128 SAMAGRA TILAK - 2 • THE ORION
understands shvanam to mean 'wind ', but there is no authority
for it and the meaning is perfectly unnatural. In fact SayaQa may
be said to have failed to interpret the verse correctly. Ludwig
and Grassmann both ·translate it by ' hound, ' but neither of
them explains what it signifies. There is again some difference of
opinion as to whether the word samvatsare should be taken with
bodhayitaram or with vyakhyata. But whichsoever construction
we adopt the meaning remains the same, since it is the same thing
if the ~ibhus are said to be awakened at the end of the year and
then commenced their course or they awakened and then looked
up at the beginning of the new year, or in other words, commenc-
ed their new year's course. Practically, therefore, all agree in hold-
ing that the awakening of the ~ibhus, here referred to is their
awakening at the end of"the year, after they have enjoyed sound
sleep and rest in the bouse of Agohya for twelve (intercalary )
days and the only question that remains is, who is the hound or
the dog that awakens them ? We have seen that the ~ibhus were
the genii of the seasons and that as companions of the sun they
worked wonders during the whole course of the year. But as it
was a lunar year, 12 days were intercalated at the end of each
year to make it correspond with the solar year. These 12 days
belonged neither to the old nor to the new year and the ~ibhus
were therefore naturally believed to suspend work during this
neutral period and spend it in rest and enjoyment in the house
of Agohya. When the whole legend has thus a chronological sig-
nification it is natural to hold that the hound, here ;tlluded to,
must be some constellation in the heavens and if so, after what
has been said in the previous chapters about it what could it be
except Canis Major or the Dog-star ? The end of the year here
referred to is evidently the end of the three seasons, represented
by the three ~ibhus and we must, therefore, take it to mean the
end of the equinoctial year or the beginning of Vasanta, the
first of the seasons. Durgacharya in his commentary on Nirukta
II. 16 explains the phrase samvatsare ( in ~ig. i. 110, 4) in the
same way. As I have already discussed the subject before,* I
d~ not here repeat the grounds on which I hold that the year, in
pnmitivc times commenced with vernal equinox. Prof. Ludwig
has made a happy suggestion that abhogaya, which the ~ibhus

• See mp ''> Chapter II.