Page 270 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

THE NIGHT OF. THE GODS 57
'l'he day and the night of'the Gods are then taken as a unit for
measuring longer periods of time as the Kalpas and so on, and
Yaska's Ni~ukta, XIV, 4, probably contains the same reference.
Muir, in the first Volume of his Original Sanskrit Texts, gives some
of these passages so far as they bear on the yuga-system found
in the Purapas. But we are not concerned with the later develop-
ment of the idea that the day and the night of the Gods each lasted
for six months. What is important, from our point of view, is the
persistent prevalence of this tradition in the Vedic and the Post-
Vedic literature, which can only be explained on the hypothesis
that originally it must have been the result of actual observation.
We shall therefore, next.quote the Mahabhil.rata, which gives such
a clear description of Mount Meru, the lord of the mountains, as
to leave no doubt its being the North Pole, or possessing the Polar
characteristics. In ' chapters 163 and 164 of the Vanaparvan,
Arjuna's visit to the Mount is described in detail and we are therein
told, " at Mer:u the sun and the moon go round from left to right
( Pradak~hif}flm ) every day and so do all the stars. " Later on the
writer informs us :-" The mountain, by its lustre, so overcomes,
the darkness of night, that the night can hardly be distingui.shed,
from the day." A few verses further, and we find, "The day and,
the night are together equal to a year to the residents of the place. t
These quotations are quite sufficient to convince any one that at
the time when the great epic wa composed, Indian writers had a
tolerably accurate knowledge of m~teorological and astrono-
mical characteristics of the orth Pole, and this knowledge cannot
be supposed to have . been acquired by mere mathematieal calcu-
lations. 'rhe reference to the lustre of the mountain is specially

•Manu,~r, 67,-li!' \F-~<rf ~~~:~:I i31(«t-=fl~l'l<i uf.t-
~T~II
t The verses ( Cal cut ta Ed.) are as follows :
v.;:f ~~ l3',~~ ~,.~ I 3RT~~ ~: ~~ II
~~ ~UJ ffi•f1l'll'OfEI' ffitr: I tfR:~~ ~i>f flifu:Tiit ~ II
Vana-parvap, Chap. r63, vv. 37, 38.
~~~·~~..rf~~T~I .·
~T<IT o:r ifl!.9 ~~ ~~r•ft\ n
;.....; . '"' '
ifl!.9 <I fSi~ if~('<{ ~·n ~·m.'f{"lif ~: ll
Ibid, Chap. 164, vv: II, 13.