Page 287 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

74 SAMAGRA TILAK- 2 • THE ARCTIC HOME
during the time. The words as they stand convey no other meaning
but this, and we have now to see how far it is intelligible
to us.
To the commentators the verse is a perfect puzzle. Thus Sayapa
does not understand how the word 'days' ( ahrini) can be applied
to a period of time anterior to sunrise; for, says he, " The word
day ( aha!:z ) is used only to denote such a period of time as is
invested with the light of the Dawn.* Then, again he is obviously
at a loss to understand how a number of days can be said to have
elapsed between the first beams of the dawn and sunrise. These
were serious difficulties for Sayapa and the only way to get over
them was to force an unnatural sense upon the words, and make
them yield some intelligible meaning. This was no difficult task for
Sayapa. The word ahdni, which means' days', was the only stumbling
block in his way, and instead of taking it in the sense in which it is
ordinarily used, without exception, everywhere in the ~ig-Veda,
he went back to its root-meaning, and interpreted it a equivalent
to 'light' or' splendour'. A han is derived from the root ah (or philo-
logically dah ), 'to burn', or 'shine', and Aluina meaning ·dawn'
deri ed from the same root. Etymologically alulni may, therefore,
mean splendours · but the question i whether it is o u ed any
where, and why we should here give up the ordinary meaning of the
word. Sayapa's answer is given above. It is becau e the word' day'
(tthal}) can, according to him, be applied only to a period after sun-
rise and before unset. But this rea oning is not sound, becau e in
the ~ig-Veda VJ, 9, J, aha(z i applied to the dark as well as to
the bright period of time, for the verse says, " there is a dark day
( ahan) and a bright day ( aha!:z ). " This shows that the Vedic
poets \ ere in the habit of u ing the word aha(z (day) to denote a
period of time devoid of the light of the un.t SayatJ.a knew thi
and in his commemary on I, 185, 4, he expressly ays that the
word aha(z may include night. lli real difficulty wa different,
viz., the impo sibility of upposing that a period of everal day
could have elap ed between the first appearance of light and

* \31l:5fifi~~~<r 'fol~<;~H[: ~<::o~<rll:TU~ I
t ~ig. VI, 9, 1-~~ ~~$ 'q !~ q-ij~ ~ii!ttl "if£~"Tf<i: I
Also cf. T. '. Ill, 3, ~. l.-~ ill~~ "-l"l:J~ :1 Sjmilarly in T. S.
VI, 3, 9, I, the phrase ~~ 1 ( 1, 3, g, 1) is thus explained:-
~"-l"Tflrr~ ~rnl"fr+l.frit<r 1