Page 296 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

HTE VEDIC DAWNS
Saya~a was writing under a fum belief that the Vedic dawn was
the same ·as he and other Vedic scholars like Yaska perceived it in
the tropical zone; and the wonder is, not that he has given us s.o
many contradictory explanations, but that he has been able t,o
suggest so many apparently plausible explanations as the exigencies
of the different Mantras required. In the light of advancing know-
ledge about the nature of the dawn at the North Pole, and the
existence of man on earth before the last Glacial epoch we should,
therefore, have no hesitation in accepting more intelligible and
rationalistic view of the different passages descriptive of the dawns
in the Vedic literature. We are sure Scl.yava himself would have
welcomed a theory more comprehensive and reasonable than any
advanced by him, if the same could have been suggested to him in
his own day. Jyotish or astronomy has always been considered
to be the ' eye of the Veda, '* and as with the aid of the telescope
this eye now commands a wider range than previously, it will be
our own fault if we fail to utilise the knowledge so gained to eluci-
date those portions of our sacred books which are still unintelligible.

But to proceed with the subject, it may be urged that it is
only the Taittinya SamhitA that gives us the number of the dawns,
and that it would not be proper to mix up these statements with
the statements contained in the hymns of the ~ig-Veda and draw
a conclusion from both taken together. The Taittirtya Samhita
treats of sacrificial rites and the Mantras relating to the dawn-
bricks may not be regarded as being originally connected. The
fact that only some of these are found in the Atharva-Veda Sam-
hita, might lend some support to this view. But a critical study
of the Anuvaka, will remove all these doubts. The " thirty sisters "
are not mentioned one by one, leaving it to the hearer, or the reader,
to make up the total, and ascertain the final number for himself.
The sixth verse in the Anuvaka expressly mentions " the thirty
sisters " and is, by itself, sufficient to prove that in ancient days
the number of dawns was considered to be thirty. But if an
authority from the ~ig-Veda be still needed, we have it in VI, 59, 6,
where Daw~ is described as having traversed ' thirty steps ' ( trim-

• Cf. Shik,ha, 4 I- 42-~: ~ ii ~ m) ~s~ ~ ~­
~ ~~ ~ II ~~ aJV( ii ~ ~ ~Ffi\dl ~ ~
~~ :iffll~ ill't~ II