Page 303 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

88 SAMAGRA TILAIC - 2 • THE ARCTIC HOME

way as we have preserved the hymns, accent for accent and letter
for letter, for the last three or four thousand years.
It will be seen from foregoing discussion that if the dawn-
hymns in the ~ig-Veda be read and studied in the light of modem
scientific discoveries and with the aid of passages in the Atharva
Veda and the Taittirtya SarilhitA and the Brahma~a they clearly
establish the following results :-
( 1 ) The ~ig-Vedic dawn was so long that several days elapsed
between the first appearance of light on the horizon and the sunrise
which followed it, ( VII, 76, 3 ) ; or, as described in II, 28, 9, many
dawns appeared one after another before they ripened into sunrise.
( 2 ) The Dawn was addressed in the plural number not hono-
rifically, nor as representing the consecutive dawns of the year,
but because it was made up of thirty parts ( I, 123, 8; VI, 59, 6;
T. S., IV, 3, 11, 6 ).
( 3 ) Many dawns lived in the same place, acted harmoniously
and never quarrelled with each other, (IV, 51, 7-9; VII, 76, 5; A.
V. VII, 22, 2 ).
( 4 ) The thirty parts of the dawn were continuous and in·
separable, forming 'a closely gathered band,' or 'a group of
dawns, ' (I, 152, 4; T. Br. II, 5, 6, 5; A. V. VIII, 22, 2 ).
( 5 ) These thirty dawns, or thirty parts of one dawn revolved
round and round like a wheel, reaching the same goal every day,
each dawn or part following its own destined course, ( I, 213,
8, 9; III, 61, 3; T. S. IV, 3, 11, 6 ).
These characteristics it is needless to say are possessed only
by the dawn at or near the Pole. The last or the fifth especially
is to be found only in lands very near the North Pole and not
everywhere in the Arctic regions. We may, therefore, safely conclude
that the Vedic Goddess of Dawn is Polar in origin. But it may be
urged that while the Polar dawn lasts from 45 to 60 days, the Vedic
dawn is described only as made up of thirty day-long parts, and
that the discrepancy must be accounted for before we accept
the conclusion that the Vedic dawn is Polar in character. The
discrepancy is not, however, a serious one. We have seen that
the duration of the dawn depends upon the powers of refraction
and reflection of the atmosphere; and that these again vary
according to the temperature of the place, or other meteorological,
conditions. It is, therefore, not unlikely that the duration of the
dawn at the Pole, when the climate there was mild and genial,