Page 323 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

108 SAMAGRA TILAK - 2 • THE ARCTIC HOME
Aho-;dtre also means Day and Night; but it d-oes not occur in
the ~ig-Veda, though Aitareya Brahmat;la (II, 4) treats it as
synonymous with U~hdsd-naktd. Sometimes this pair of Day
and Night is spoken of as two sisters or twins; but whatever the
form in which they are addressed, the reference is usually unam-
biguous. Now one of the verses which describes this couple of
Day and Night is III, 55, 11. * The deity of the verse is Aho-
rdtre, and it is admitted on all hands that it contains a descrip--
tion of Day and Night. It runs thus :-
Nand chakrate yamya vapU,m~hi
tayor anyad rochate krishl}am anyat
Shyavi cha yad aru~hi cha swasarau
mahad devdnam asuratvam ekam
The first three quarters or feet of this verse contaip the
principal statements, while the fourth is the refrain of the spng
or the hymn. Literally translated it means :- " The twin pair
(females ) make many forms; of the two one shines, the other
(is) dark; two sisters (are) they, the dark ( ~hyav£ ), and the
bright ( aru~hi ). The great divinity of the Gods is one (unique)."
The verse looks simple enough at the first sight,· and simple
it is, so far as the words are concerned. But it has been misunder-
stood in two important points. We shall take the first half of
the verse first. It says, " the twin pair make many forms; of the
two one shines and the other is dark." The twin pair are Day
and Night, and one of them is bright and the other dark. So far,
therefore, there is no difficulty. But the phrase' make 'ni!my forms •
does not seem to have been properly examined or interpreted.
The words used in the original verse are nand chakrate vapUm~hi,
and they literally mean 'make many bodies or forms'. We have
thus a two-fold description of the couple; it is called the shining
and the dark and also described as possessed of many forms. In
I, 123, 7, the couple of Day and Night is said to be vi~hurupe;
while in other places the adjective virupe is used in the same
-sense. It is evident, therefore, that the 'bodies' or 'forms' in-
tended to be denoted by these words must be different from the
two-fold character of the couple ·as shining and dark and if so.,

•J.lig III, 55, II,--: ifTifT "m~ ~~ ~ m~~ tl"'l"l~e{· l ~·
rq ~~ "f ~{) ;j{~"'liilflij{i'<lifl:fl'( II ·