Page 279 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

CHAPTER V

THE VEDIC DAWNS

Dawn hymns the most beautiful in the ~ig-Vecta-The Deity fully
described, unobscured by personification-First hints about the long
duration of dawn-Recitation of a thousand verses, cr even the whole
E.ig-Veda while the dawn lasts-Three or five-fold division of the dawn
-Both imply a long dawn-The same inferred from the two words
U$lzas and Vyu$hti-Three ~ig-Vedic passages about long dawns, hitherto
misunderstood, discussed-Long interval of several days between the
first appearance of light and sunrise-Expressly mentioned in the ~ig­
Veda. VII, 76, 3-SayaQa's explanation artificial and unsatisfactory-
Existence of many d[,wns tefore sunrise-Reason why dawn is addressed
in the plural in the E.l .~-Veda-The plural address not honorific-Nor
denotes dawns of consecutl\·e days-Proves a team of continuous dawns
-The last view confirmed by the Taittiriya Sarhhita, IV, 3, r r-Dawns
as 30 sisters-Direct authority from the Taittiriya BrahmaQa for hold-
ing that they were continuous or unseparated-SayaQa's explanation
of 30 dawns examined-Thirty dawns described as thirty steps of a
single dawn-Rotatory motion of the dawn, like a wheel, directly men-
tioned in the ~ig-Veda-Their reaching the same appointed place day
by day-All indicated a team of thirty closely-gathered dawns-Results
summed up-Establish the Polar character of the Vedic dawns-Possi-
ble variation in the duration of the Vedic dawn-The legend of Indra
shattering the Dawn's car explained-Direct passages showing that the
dawns so described were the event:; of a former age-The Vedic dawns
Polar in character.
The .Rig-Veda, we have seen does not contain distinct refer-
ences to a day and a night of six months' duration though the
deficiency is more than made up by parallel passages from the
Iranian scriptures. But in the case of the dawn, the long continuous
dawn with its revolving splendours, which is the special characteri-
stic of the North Pole, there is fortunately no such difficulty. U~has,
or the Goddess of Dawn, is an important and favourite Vedic deity
and is celebrated in about twenty hymns of the .Rig-Veda and
mentioned more than three hundred times, sometimes in the
singular and sometimes in the plural. These hymns, according
to Muir, are amongst the most beautiful,-ifnot the most beautiful,
-in the entire collection; and the deity, to which they are addressed,
is considered by Macdone!l to be the most graceful creation of Vedic