Page 317 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

102 SAMAGRA TILAK- 2 • THE ARCTIC HOME
which existed several thousand .years ago, and with evidence, which,
though traditionally hand~d down:, has not yet been interpreted
in the way we nll:ve done, it'is safet'to treat, it\ practice, the afore-
said astronomical phenomena as disconnected facts, and separately
CQllect evidence bearing on each, keeping the astronomical connec-
tion in reserve till we come to consider the cumulative effect of the
whole evidence in support of the several facts mentioned above~
I do not mean to imply that there "is any uncertainty in the relation
of sequence between the above astronomical facts~ On the contrary,
nothing can be more certain than such a: sequence. But in collect-
ing and examining the evidence bearing on facts like those ~nder
consideration, it is always advisable in practice to collect as much
evidence and from as many different poii:tts of view as possible.
In this and the following two chapters, we, therefore, propose to
examine separately the evidence that can be found in the Vedic
literature about the long day, the long night, the number of months
of sunshine and of darkness, and the character of the year, and see
if it di.scloses characteristics found only at, or around, · the North
Pole.
And first regarding the long night,-a night of several days'
duration, such as makes the northern latitudes too cold or un-
comfortable for human habitation at present, but which, in Inter-
Glacial times, appeared to have caused no further inconvernience
than what might result from darkness, long and continuous dark-
ness for a number of days, though, by itself, it was not a desirable
state of things, and the end of which must have been eagerly looked
for by men who had to undergo such experience. There are many
passages in the ~ig-Veda that speak of long and ghastly darkness,
in one form or another, which sheltered the enemies of Indra, and
to destroy which Indra had to fight with the demons or the Ddsas,
whose strongholds are all said to be concealed in this darkness,
Thus in I, 32, 10, Vritra, the traditional .enemy of Indra
is said to be engulfed in long darkness (_ dirgham tama!z dshayat/
Jndrashatru!z ); and in V, 32, 5, Indra is described as having placed
Shu~hi;ia who was anxious to fight, in ' the darkness of the pit '
(':tama8i harmye ), while the next verse speaks of asurye tamasi
('lit. 'sunless darkness), which Max Muller renders by 'ghastly
darkness."' In spite of these passages the fight between Vritra

• SeeS; B. Series, VoL XXXII, p. 218.