Page 264 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

CHAPTER IV

THE NIGHT OF THE GODS

Vedic sacrifices, regulated by the luni-solar calender-A year of
six seasons and twelve months, with an intercalarv month in the
Taittirlya Samhita-The same in the ~ig-Veda-Presen,t results of the
Vedic mythology-All presuppose a home in the temperate or the tropi-
cal zone-But further research still necessary-The special character of
the ~ig-Veda explained-Poiar tests found in the ~ig-Veda-Indra sup-
porting the heavens with a pole, and moving them like a wheel-A day
and a night of six months, in the form of the half-yearly day and night
of the Gods-Found in the Surya Siddhanta and older astronomical
Samhitas-Bhaskaracharya's error explained-God's day and night men-
tioned by Manu and referred to by Yaska-The description of Meru or
the North Pole in the Mahabharata-In the Taittirtya Aral).yaka-The
passage in the Taittirlya Brahmal).a about the year-long day of the Gods-
Improbability of explaining it except as founded on the observation of
nature-Parallel passage in the Vendidad-Its Polar character clearly
established by the context-The Vara of Yima in the Airyana Vaejo-
The sun rising and setting there only once a year-The Devayana and
the Pitriyana in the ~ig-Veda-Probably represent the oldest division of
the year, like the day and the night of the Gods-The path of Mazda in
the Farsi scriptures-Death during Pitriyana regarded inauspicious-
Badarayat:~a's view-Probable explanation suggested-Death during
winter or Pitriyana in the Farsi scriptures-Probably indicates a peribd of
total darkness-Similar Greek traditions-Norse Twilight of the Gods-
The idea of half-yearly day and night of the Gods thus proved to be not
only Indo-Iranian, but Indo-Germanic-A sure indication of an original
Polar home.

At the threshold of the Vedic literature, we meet with an
elaborately organised sacrificial system so well regulated by the
luni-solar calendar as to show that the Vedic bards had, by that
time, attained considerable proficiency in practical astronomy.
There were daily, fortnightly, monthly, quarterly, half-yearly
and yearly sacrifices, which, as I have elsewhere shown, also
served as chronometers in those days.* The Taitttrtya Samhita
and the Brahma~as distinctly mention a lunar month of thirty

• See The Orion or the Antiquity of the Vedas, Chap. II.