Page 293 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

80 SAMAGRA TILAK - 2 • THE ARCTIC HOME

the use of the plural number in thi case. The fact is that the Vedic
dawn represents one long physical phenomenon which can be
spoken of in plural by supposing it to be plit up into smaller day-
long portion . 1t is thus that we find U~has addre ed sometimes
in the plural aud sometimes in the singular number. There is no
other explanation on which we can account for and e plain the
various descriptions of the dawn found in the different hymns.
But to clinch the matter the Taittir!ya Sarilhita, IV, 3, 11,
expressly states that the dawns are thirty sisters, or, in other words,
they are thirty in number and that they go round and round in five
groups, reaching the same appointed place and having the same
banner for all. The whole of this Anuvdka may be said to be prac-
tically a dawn-hymn of 15 verses, which are used as Mantras for
the iaying down of certain emblematical bricks called the " dawn-
bricks " on the sacrificial altar. There are sixteen such bricks to
be placed on the altar, and the Anuvakain question gives 15 Mantras,
or verses, to be used on the occasion, the 16th being recorded
elsewhere. These 15 verses, together with their Brahmal}a ( T. S. V.
3, 4, 7 ), are so important for our purpose that I have appended
to this chapter the original passages, with their translation, com-
paring the version in the Taittirtya Samhita with that of the Atharva-
Veda, in the case of those verse which are found in the latter.
The first verse of the section or the Anuvdka, is used for laying down
the first dawn-brick and it speaks only of a single dawn first appear-
ing on the horizon. In the second verse we have, however, a couple
of dawns meTJ.tioned as ' dwelling in the same abode.' A third
dawn is spoken in the third verse, followed by the fourth and the
fifth dawn. The five dawns are then said to have five sisters each
exclusive of themselves, thus raising the total number of dawns
to thirty. These ' thirty sisters ' ( triinshat syasdrah ) are then des-
cribed as ' going round ' ( pari yanti ) in groups of ~ix each, keeping
up to the same goal ( ni~hkritam ). Two verses later on, the wor-
shipper asks that he and his follower should be blessed with the
same concord as is observed amongst these dawns. We are then
told that one of these five principal dawns is the child of Rita the
second upholds the greatness of Waters, the third mov~s j~ the
region of Sftrya, the fourth in that of Fire or Gharma, and the
fifth is ruled by Sltvitri, evidently showing that the dawns are not
the dawns of consecutive days. The last verse of the Anuvaka
sums up the description by stating that the dawn, though it shines