Page 280 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

THE VEDIC DAWNS 67
poetry, there being no more charming figure in the descriptive
religious lyrics of any other literature.* In short, Ushas, or the
Goddess of Dawn, is described in the ~ig-Veda hymns with more
than usual fullness, and what is still more important for our pur-
pose is that the physical character of the deity is not, in the least
obscured by the description or the personification in the hymns.
Here, therefore, we have a fine opportunity of proving the validity
of our theory, by showing, if possible, that the oldest description
of the dawn is really Polar in character. A priori it does not look
probable that the Vedic poet could have gone into such rap-
tures over the short-lived dawn of the tropical or the temperate
zone, or that so much anxiety about the coming dawn should have
been evinced, simply because the Vedic bards had no electric light
or candles to use during the short night of less than 24 hours.
But the dawn-hymns have not, as yet, been examined from this stand-
point. It seems to have been tacitly assumed by all interpreters of
the Vedas, Eastern and Western, that the U~has of the ~ig-Veda
can be no other than the dawn with which we are familiar in the
tropical or the temperate zone. That Yaska and Sayapa thought
so is natural enough, but even the Western scholars have taken
the same view, probably under the influence of the theory that
the plateau of Central Asia was the original home of the Aryan
race. Therefore several expressions in the dawn hymns, which would
have otherwise suggested the inquiry regarding the physical or the
astronomical character of the Vedic daWII, have been either ignored,
or somehow explained away, by scholars, who could certainly
have thrown more light on the subject, had they not been under
the influence of the assumption mentioned above. It is with
passages like these that we are here chiefly concerned, and we shall
presently see that if these are interpreted in a natural way, they
fully establish the Polar nature of the Vedic dawn.
The first hint, regarding the long duration of the Vedic dawn,
is obtained from the Aitareya Brahma11a, IV, 7. Before commencing
the Gavam-ayana sacrifice, there is a long recitation of not less
than a thousand verses, to be recited by the Hotri priest. This
Ashvina-shdstra, as it is called, is addressed to Agni, U ~has and
Ashvins, which deities rule at the end of the night and the comm-

• See Muir's Original Sanskrit Texts, Yo!. Y, p. J8I; and Mac-
donell's Vedic Mythology, p. 46.