Page 311 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

96 SAMAGRA TILAK - 2 • THE ARCTIC HOME

7. Through the sky, the illumined Goddess of Night accepts
the ordinances of the sun. The cattle, of various forms, ( begin to )
look up as they rise on the lap of the mother.
8. The Ek~htaka, glowing with holy fervour ( tapas ),
gave birth to a child, the great Indra. Through him the Gods
and T. S. V. 3, 4, 7, quoted below.) The Dawns are called sisters also
in the ~ig-Veda, (Cf. I, 124, 8 and g).
Appointed ft•ue: ni; lqilam, ( Xir. XII, 7 ) used in reference to the
course of the Dawns also in ~ig. I, rz3, g. lt is appropriate only if the
Dawns returned to the same point in their daily rounds, (See sup a p.
!06 ).
Go 10111Vi ,umdst-somg.< : j111i j'tmli, 'go round ' is also the phrase used in
~ig.I, 123, SlviadliJ•eddzmuia;.~lfJS interpreted by SayaQ.a to mean "al:;out
the sun, which is always surrounded by songs." But we need not go so
far, for ilfadhye chch.:nd,ISalJ. may be more simply taken to mean 'amidst-
songs' that are usually sung at the dawn ( l;tig. VII, So, I ).
7. T/zrouglt the s.i·y: I take 11ab/Jas as an accusative of space. SayaQ.a
appears to take it as an adjective equivalent to n,d!asthasy,, and quali-
fiying s1i1J'a<ya. In either case the meanin~ is the same viz. that the
night was gradually chan~ing into day-light.
The c.utle: mornin.; rays or splendour> usually spo~;:en of as COli'S.
In ~ig I, 92, 12, the Dawn is described as spreading cattle ( paslni11)
before her; and in I, IZ-J., 5, we are told that she fills the lap of both
parents heaven and earth. I construe, with Saya':la, n~n(l-nipapaslzava('d
p.~,!Jy,mti, taking viphsll'y'an!i i ntrans1 ti vely, and u,':n,?-nij;" as an adj ec ti ve.
The same phrase is found used in reference to a woman's children in
the Athan·a Veda, XIV, 2, 25. For the intransitive use o: vi p,s/zy,mtt
see ~~g. X, 125, 4·
8. TlzeEk,?o/i~al.·,?: The birth of Indra is eYidently the birth o~ the
sun after expiry of thirty dawns. ~ayat).a, quotin_; .'\pasihamba Gri-
hya Stitra (VIII, 2r, ro ), interprets Eld.,:lta'di to mean rhe 8th day of
the dark half of the month of :'v!agha ( ]Jnuar_.--Fe'Jrua.y ): and in the
Taittirlya Sahhita, VII, -J., 8, quoted and e~:p~ained by me in Chapter
III to Oricm, it seems to have same meanin.=i, (See Orion p. -J.-J. tf.) Eka-
shtaka was the first day, or the consort, of the Year, when the sun turn-
ed towards the north from the winter solstice; and the commencement
of all annual sattnzs is therefore, directed to be made on the Ekashtaka
day. This meaning was, however, settled when the vernal e:Juinox had
receded from the asterism of Mriga (.Orion) to that of the Krittikas
(Pleiades ).But in earlier days Eka1:1 taldl seea1s to have meant the last of
the dawns which preceded the nse o! the sun after the long darkness, and