Page 150 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

~BHUS AND V~~HAKAPI 135
posed to interpret the verse after the manner of Madhava BhaH
except the last sentence.
But why shoulq sacrifices be stopped ? What has V ritJbakapi
to do with them ? These are very important questions, and I
-am sure that had they been properly answered, there would have
beeJl)lO difficulty in interpreting the hymn. In verse '!we are told
that VritM.kapi spoken of in this hymn, has the form of a yellow
antelope. In verse 5 lndrAQt is prepared to cut off his head, becau~e
he offended her, and in the preceding verse ( 4th) a dog is said
to be let loose upon him. These facts-an antelope with. the head
cut off, and a dog closely following him-are quite :;ufficient for
the purposes of identification. They shew that the , whole story
is bl\sed upon the " antelope's head " we bad previously discuss-
ed; and had :YAska and SAyapa known that there is a constella-
tion called dog in the heavens by the side of Mrigashiras, I feel
certain that they would not have hesitated to recognize in V ri-
•h!kapi, the sun as represented by the constellation of Orion.
But all traces of the dog as a constellation having been lost in
the Sanskrit literature, neither Y~ska nor Sayapa could find
any clue to the true meaning of the hymn. This is not however, the
only place where Yaska has been obliged to invent extraordinary
interpretations. Not knowing that the dog represented a star,
be has proposed ( Nirukta 5. 20 ), that V rika should be under-
stood to mean " the inoon ., , while usually it means a wolf or a
wild dog and it appears to me that a similar mistake has been
also committed here. Comparative Mythology and Greek Astro-
nomy have, however, thrown further light on the subject, and
we must now try to interpret the hymn accordingly. Vri~hakapi
must therefore, be taken to represent the sun in Orion.
But even supposing that Vri~hakapi thus represents sun in
Orion, why should the sacrifices be stopped on his account ?
The identification of V ri~hakapi with Orion at once furnishes
us with a solution of this question. We have already seen that
the dog is said to commence the new year in ~ig. i. 161. 13; and
since Canis and Orion are close to each other, Orion may also
be said to have commenced the year. The Devayana, therefore,
extended in those days from the beliacal to the acronycal rising
of Orion; that is, when Orion rose with the sun, it was the vernal
equinox, the beginning of the Devayana, and six months after,