Page 349 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

134 SAMAGRA TH.AK - 2 a THE ARCTIC HOME
expression" Indra found the sun, dwelling in darkness.", mentioned
above further supports this view: In I, 117, 5, the Ashvins are said
to have rescued Vandana, like some bright buried gold, "like one
asleep in the lap of Nir-riti ( death ), like the sun dwelling in
darkness ( tamasi k~hiyantam )." This shows that the expression
' dwelling in darkness, ' as applied to the sun, means that the sun
was hidden or concealed below the horizon so as not to be seen by
man. We must, therefore, hold that Indra killed or defeated Vala
at the end of the year, in a place of darkness, and that the Dasha-
gvas helped Indra by their songs at the time. This might lead
any one to suppose that the Soma libations offered by the Nava-
gvas and the Dashagvas for ten months, were offered during the
time when war with Vala was waging. But the Vedic idea is
entirely differe'lt. For instance the morning prayers are recited
before the rise of the sun and so the sacrifices to help Indra against
Vala had to be performed before the war. Darkness or a dark
period, of ten months is again astronomically impossible anywhere
on the globe, and as there cannot be ten months of darkness the
only other alternative admissible is that the Dashagvas and the
Navagvas carried on their ten months' sacrifice during the period
of sunshine. Now if this ptriod of sunshine had extended to twelve
months, there was no reason for the Dashagvas to curtail their
sacrifices and complete them in ten months. Consequently the
only inference we can draw from the story of the Navagvas and the
Dashagvas is that they carried on their sacrifices during ten months
of sunshine and after that period the sun went to dwell in darkness
or sank below the horizon, and Indra, invigorated by the Soma
libations of the Dashagvas, then entered into the cave of Vala,
rent it· open, released the cows of the morning and brought out the
sun at the end of the old and the beginning of the new year, when the
Dashagva again commenced their sacrifices after the long dawn or
dawns. In short, the Dashagvas and the Navagvas, and with them
all the ancient sacrificers of the race, live in a region where the sun
was above the horizon for ten months, and then went down produc-
ing a long yearly night of two months' duration. These ten months
therefore, formed the annual sacrificial session, or the calendar
year, of the oldest sacrificers of the Aryan race and we shall sec
in the next chapter that independently of the legend of the Dasha-
gvas this view is fully supported by direct references to ·such a
session in the Vedic sacrificial literature.