Page 326 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

'LONG. DAY AND LONG .NIGHT Ill
Muller has noticed this difference between U ~hasa-nakta and
A.hant or two A.han£ but he does not seem to have pushed it to its
logical conclusion, If all the 360 days and nights of the year were
of the same class as with us, there was no nece sity of dividing
· them into two representative couples as U~Msa-nakta and Ahan£.
The general description " dark, bright and of various lengths "
would have been quite sufficient to denote all the days and nights
of the year. Therefore, if the distinction between U~Jzasd-nakta
and Ahan£, made in IV, 55, 3, is not to be ignored, we must find
out an explanation of this distinction; and looking to the chara-
ach;r of days and nights at different places on the surface of the
earth from the Pole to the Equator the only po sible explanation
that can be suggested is that the year spoken of in these pass-
ages was a Circum-Polar year, made up of one lo~g day and one
long night, forming one pair, and a number of ordinary days
and njghts of various lengths, which taking a single day and night
as the type can be described as the second couple, " bright, dark
and of varying lengths. " There is no other place on the surface
of the earth where the description holds good. At the Equator,
we have only equal days and nights throughout tbe year and
they can be represented by a single couple " dark and bright, but
always of the same length. " In fact, instead of viri£pe the pair
would be sarupe. Between the Equator and the Arctic Circle, a
day and night together never exceed twenty-four hours, though
there may be a day of 23 hours and a night of one hour and vice
versa, as we approach the Arctic Circle. In this case, the days
of the year will have to be represented by a typical couple, " dark
and bright, but of various lengths, virupe. " But as soon as we
cross the Arctic Circle and go into " The Land of the Long ight,"
the above description requires to be amended by adding to the
first couple another couple of the long day and the long night,
the lengths of which would vary according to latitude. Trus
second couple of the long day and the long night, which match
each other, will have also to be designated as virupe, with this
difference, however, that while the length of days and nights
in the temperate zone would vary at the same place, the length
of the long night and the long day would not vary at one and
the same place but only at differem latitudes. Taking a couple of
Day and Night, as representing the days and nights of the year,