Page 334 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

LONG DAY AND LONG NIGHT 119

these phrases is to make them refer to the southerly direction;
and after what has been said above such an explanation will seem
to be highly probable. It is, of course, necessary to be critical in
the interpretation of the Vedic hymns, but I think that we shall
be carrying our critical spirit too far, if we say that in no passage
in the Rig-Veda dak~·hil}a or its derivatives are used to denote the
southerly direction ( I, 95, 6; II, 42, 2 ). Herodotus informs us,
( IV, 42 ) that certain Phrnnician mariners were commanded by
Pharoah Neco, king of Egypt, to sail round Lybia ( Africa ) and
return by the Pillars of Hercules ( Straits of Gibralter ). The
mariners accomplished the voyage and returned in the third year.
But Herodotus disbelieves them, because, on their return they told
such ( to him incredibl~ ) stories, that in rounding Lybia they saw
the sun to their right. Herodotus could not believe that the sun
would ever appear in the north; but he little thought that what
was incredible to him would itself be regarded as indisputable
evidence of the authenticity of the account in later days. Let us
take a lesson from this story, and not interpret dak~hi'f}a, either
by ' right-hand side ' or by ' largess, ' in every passage in the Rig-
Veda. There may· not be distinct passages to show that the sun,
or the dawn, came from the south. But the very fact that U~has is
called Dak~hil}d (I, 123, 1; X, 107, 1 ), and the sun, the son of
Dak~hil}d ( III, 58, 1 ), is itself very suggestive, and possibly we
have here phrases which the Vedic bards employed because in
their days these were old and recognised expressions in the language.
Words, like fossils, very often preserve the oldest ideas or facts in a
language; and though Vedic poets may have forgotten the original
meaning of these phrases, that is no reason why we should refuse
to draw from the history of these words such conclusions as may
legitimately follow from it. The fact that the north is designated by
the word ut-tara, meaning ' upper ' and the south by adha-ra,
meaning 'lower', also points to the same conclusion; for the north
cannot be over-head or 'upper' except to an observer at or near
the North Pole. In later literature, we find a tradition that the
path of the sun lies through regions which are lower ( adha!;z ) than
the abode of the Seven Ri~his, or the constellation of Ursa Major.*

" See Katida.sa's Kumarasarhbhava, VI, 7---a:r~:sr~r~~ W1f9T~­
~I ~~6~6~i&:Rrr: I Also I, rg-~~ir9Rrel~fif..n
f~ qft~: 1 See also Mallinatha's commentary on these Yerses.