Page 320 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

LONG DAY AND LONG NIGHT 105
reach the other side in safety !* In the Atharva-Veda, XIX, 47,
which is a reproduction, with some variations, of the above Pari-
shi~hta, the second verse runs thus : " Each moving thing finds
rest in her ( Night ), whose yonder boundary is not seen, nor that
which keeps her separate. 0 spacious, darksome night ! May we,
uninjured, reach the end of thee, reach, 0 thou blessed one, thine
end !" And in the third verse of the 50th hymn of the same book
the worshippers ask that they may pass uninjured in their body,
" through each succeeding night, ( ratrim ratr,m )."Now a question
is naturally raised why should every one be so anxious about
safely reaching the other end of the night ? And why should the
poet exclaim that " its yonder boundary is not seen, nor what
keeps it separate ? " Was it because it was an ordinary winter
night, or, was it because it was the long Arctic night ? Fortunately,
the Taittirtya Samhita preserves for us the oldest traditional reply
to these questions and we need not, therefore, depend upon the
speculations of modern commentators. In the Taittirtya Sarilhita
I, 5, 5, 4, t we h:tve a similar Mantra or prayer addressed to
Night in these words :-" 0 Chitravasu ! let me safely reach thy
end ." A little further (I, 5, 7, 5 ), the Samhita itself explains this
Mantra, or prayer thus :- " Chitravasu is ( means ) the night;
in old times ( pura ), the Brahma~s ( priests ) were afraid that
it (night) would not dawn ." Here we have an express Vedic
statemem, that in old times, the priests or the people, felt appre-
hensions regarding the time when the night would end. What
does it signify ? If the night was not unusually long, where was
the necessity for entertaining any misgivings about the coming
dawn ? Saya~a, in commenting on the above passage, has again
-put forward his usual explanation, that nights in the winter were
long and they made the priest apprehensive in regard to the
coming dawn. But here we can quote Sayana against himself,
• The 4th verse m the Ratri-Sukta is :- ~sl[ fu<rt ~ llit
~ llit ~rr~~ 1 The Atharva-Veda, XIX, 47, 2,- if~~: qr{
~ if ~~fu;~ ~ f~ ~~ 1 ~'m '3~ ~ftr u~ ~
llit ~~II Ibid, XIX, so, 3,- \1~ UF-lliR6~i=tf~'t~ tfr'fT 9~~ I
t Taitt. Sam. I, 5, 5, 4,- ~;ffit ~tr ~ 111\~rr~ II Taitt. Sa1l.
r, s. 1, s.- fi:lsrrqffi ~ ~ ~n~m: 1 \~ ~~~ 9T 12;~
~~ ~ a¥~!!: II SayaQ.a thus explains the passage {irmf"f \~'l'el~
lil!Rf if ~~Rt ~ i!TIW'TI .. 'reT <~~tr: q~~ff srrlf~r ~~II