Page 274 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

THE NIGHT OF THE GODS 61
" The Devayana path has become visible to me. The banner of
the Dawn has appeared in the east. " Passages like these clearly
indicate that the road of the Devayana . commenced at the rise
of the Dawn, or after the end of darkness; and that it was the
road by which Agni, Ashvins, U ~has, Sftrya and other matutinal
deities travelled during their heavenly course. The path of the
Piq·is, or the Pit~iyana, is on the other hand, described in X, 18, 1,
as the " reverse of Devayana, or the path of Death. " In the Rig~
Veda, X, 88, 15, the poet says that he has ~·heard " only of" two
roads, one of the Devas and the other of the Pitris .. " If the Deva-
yana, therefore, commenced with the Dawn, we must suppose
that the Pitriyana commenced with the advent of darkness: Saya~a
is; therefore, correct in interpreting V, 77, 2, as .stating that " the
evening is not for the Gods ( devayuna. )." Now if the Devayfma
and the Pitriyana were only synonymous with ordinary day and
night, there was obviously no propriety in stating that these were
the only two paths or roads known to the ancient Rishis, and they
could not have been described as consisting of three· seasons each;
beginning with the spring, ( Shat. Bra. II, 1, 3, 1-3).~ It seems,
therefore, very probable that the Devayana and the Pitriyana
originally represented a two-fold division of the year, one of con-
tinuous light and the other of continuous darkness as at the Nonh
Pole; and that though· it was not suited to the later home of the
Vedic people it was retained, because it was an established and
recognised fact in the language, like the seven suns, or the seven
horses of a single sun. The evidence in support of this view will be
stated in subsequent chapters. It is sufficient to obser:ve in, this
place, that if we interpret the twofold division of the Oevayana
and the Pitriyana in this way, it fully corroborates the Btatement
in the Taittirtya Brahma~a that a year was but a day of the Gods,.
We may also note in this connection that the expression ' pa.th
.of the Gods ' occurs even in. the Parsi scriptures. Thps in the
·Farvardin Y asht, paras 56, 57, the Frayashis, which correspond
with the Pitris in the Vedic literature, are said to have shown tQ
the sun and the moon " the path made by Mazda, the way made
by the Gods, " along which the Fravashis themselves are des-
cribed as growing. The sun and the moon are, again, said to, have
.. , stood for a long time in the same place, without moving forwards
• For a full dis~ussion of t.he subject see Orion, ~p 2·5.~3.1. (Ed. L95~)