Page 283 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

70 SAMAGRA TILAK - 2 • THE ARCTIC HOME
and by the phrase tisra!z ddnuchitrd!z in I, 17 4, 7, " three dews
lighted " dawns appear to be referred to. There are other passages
in the ~ig-Veda* where the dawn is asked not to delay, or tarry
long, lest it might be scorched like a thief by the sun ( V, 79, 9 );
and in II, 15, 6, the steeds of the dawn are said to be (slow)
( ajavasal.z ), showing that the people were sometimes tired to see
the dawn lingering long on the horizon. But a still more remarkable
statement is found in I, 113, 13, where the poet distinctly asserts,t
" the Goddess U~has dawned continually or perpetually
( shashvat ) in former days ( purd ) and the adjective shash'vat-
tamd (the most lasting) is applied to the dawn in 1, 118, 11.
Again the very existence and use of two such words as u~has
and vi-u~h~i is, by itself, a proof of the long duration of the dawn,
for, if the dawn was brief, there was no practical necessity of
speaking of the full-blown state ( vi+u~h~i) of the dawn as has
been done several times in the ~ig-Veda. The expression,
u~hasal_z vi-u~h~au, occurs very often in the ~ig-Veda and it has
been translated by the phrase, on the flashing forth of the dawn.
But no one seems to have raised the question why two separate
words, one of which is derived from the other simply by prefixing
the preposition vi, should be used in this connection. Words are
made to denote ideas and if u~has abd vi-u~h~i were not required
to denote two distinct phenomena, no one, especially in those
early days, would have cared to use a phrase, which, for all
ordinary purposes, was superfluously cumbrous. But these facts,
howsoever suggestive, may not be regarded as conclusive and we
shall, therefore, now turn to the more explicit passages in the hymns
regarding the duration of the Vedic dawn.
The first verse I would quote in this connection is ~ig-Veda
I, 113, 10 :-:j:
Kiydti lt yat samaya bhavdti
yd vyu~hurydshcha nunam vyuchhdn
Anu piirvdl.z kr:ipate vdvashtina
pradidhydnd jo~han anydbhir eti
* ~ig. V, 79, g-;;~ ~ ~ ffi: ~~r i3N: 1 ~91 ~~ ~~ R~
~~rafmrl
t ~ig. I, II3, 13-~~Glff~~~ I
t ~ig. I, I I 3, IO-~r~ lffllli~T ~9Tfu ~r ol~~Tlll 'I"f o~f'l:. af~ '!_ofl:
m ~l"ll !>J~t~>~l"ll ~;:qrf~fu II