Page 144 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

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are said to desire ( {tig. i. 110. 2 ) before they ®mmence their
...
career and reach the house of the sun, should be interpreted in
its ordinary sense to mean the bend or the inclination of the
ecliptic with the equator. Our investigation based upon inde-
pendent facts leads us to the same conclusion. In short, the whole
story of the ~ibhus, as we find it recorded in the ~igveda, dire-
ctly establishes the fact that at the time when this legend was
formed the year commenced with the vernal equinox in Canis
Major or the Dog-star. It is highly improbable, if not impossible,
to give any other reasonable interpretation to the verse in ques-
tion, whether we understand the {tibhus to mean the three seasons
of the year or the rays of the sun as Yaska and S4yal}8 have
done. With the vernal equinox near the Dog-star, the winter sol-
stice would fall on the full-moon in Philguna and Mrigashiras
would head the list of the Nak~hatras. Our interpretation of the
verse in question is therefore, fully warranted by the traditions
about the ancient year-beginnings given in the Taittirtya Satp.hitA
and the Bdhmal}as.
Let us now examine the too much and too long misunder-
stood or rather not-understood hymn of Vri~hikapi in the tenth
Man~la of the {ljgveda. As there is only one hymn in the ~is­
veda which gives the story, it is-not so easy, as in the case of the
~ibhus, to determine the nature of the deity, and hence various
conjectures have been made by scholars as to itS origin, chara-
cter and ineaning. The deities appear both in the masculine. and
in the faminine form, Vrithlkapi and Vrithakapayt. Amara•
considers that V :ri~hakapi means either Vithpu or Shiva, and
V ri~hAkapayi either Lakthmi or Gaurt. In the Brihad-devata V ri-
shakapi is said to represent the setting sun, and V rithakap~
the gloaming.t Yaska ( 12. 27) would derive the word so as
to mean the sun who shakes ( the world ) with his rays, and his
commentator observes that the god showers mist or dew and
shakes the animate world. Modern speculations about the deri-
vation and the meaning of the name may be found in Bbanu

• Amara iii. 3· I3? and 156. fU fcl''~+trili~: I and ~l(l ~'tiil~J"'f: I
t llrihat·DevatA ii. 9 and IO :-
I{'W!ilff~t ~flU: ~~cf ~ ~: I
~~~Ril~ ~~j ;r.;q~ ~~ I
~filil{flfi ~·~ ifl~: ~R\'c~ II
0.9