Page 324 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

LONG DAY AND LONG NIGHT 109
the phrases vi~hurflpe, virupe or nand va/]Um~hi used in connec-
tion with the couple of Day and Night must be taken to mean
something different from ' bright and dark ', if these expressions
are not to be considered as superfluous or tautological. Saya~a
interprets these phrases as referring to different colours ( rupa ).
like black, white etc., and some of the Western scholars seem
to have adopted this interpretation. But I cannot see the propriety
of assigning different colours to Day and Night. Are we to
suppose that we may have sometimes green, violet, yellow or blue
days and nights ? Again though the word rupa lends itself to
this construction, yet va/]Um~hi cannot ordinarily be so under-
stood. The question does not, however, seem to have attracted
the serious attention of the commentators; so that even Griffith
translates vi~hurupe by 'unlike in hue ' in I, 123, 7. The Nakto~hdsd
are described as virupe also in I, 113, 3, but there too saya~a
gives the same explanation. It does not appear to have eccurred
to aay one that the point requires any further thought. Happily,
in the case of ~ig. I, 113, 3, we have, however, the advantage
of consulting a commentator older than Saya~a. The verse
occurs in the Uttardrchika of Sama-Veda, ( 19, 4, 2, 3 ), and
Madhava in his vivara1Ja, a commentary on the Sli.ma-Veda
explains virupe thus :- " In the Dak~hi-7Jdya7Ja during the year
there is the increase of night, and in the Uttardy07Ja of day. "*
Madhava's Vivara7Ja is a scarce book, and I take the above
quotation from an extract from his commentary given in a
footnote to the Calcutta edition of the Sama-Veda Samhita, with
Saya~a's commentary, published by Satyavrata Samashrami,
a learned Vedic scholar of Calcutta. It is not known who this
Madhava is, but Pandit Satyavrata states that he is' referred to
by Durga; the commentator of Yaska. We may, therefore, take
Madhava to be an old commentator, and it is satisfactory to
find that he indicates to us the way out of the difficulty of inter-
preting the phrases v£~hurupe and virupe occurring so many times
in ~ig-Veda, in connection with the couple of Day and Night.
The word 'form' ( rupa) or body ( vapus) can be used to
"'See Sama-Veda, Cal. Ed. Utta. 19, 4, z, 3· The verse in the Veda
is,- ~ Of'.;:OfT <C9~\o:id'!;d+i .. 'lTr'lT 'if@f ~or~ 1 c:r ~~~ c:r a~~: Wr~
~T @l'i'!l;IT ~~q- II Madhava's Vivarat:~a sa:Ys, ~ii'i--B~, ?.;~<f,'t
~AA ~fu::' ;am:(;qtrr cO[r~;, iRi=i ursr: i3t'IT<fii~:Ifl{~: I