Page 35 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

22 SAMAGRA TlLAK - 2 • THE ORION

Bh&skar&ch&rya ·was unable to understand how such an uttar&- •
ya1Ja could be called the day of the Devas by the writers of the
astronomical Salphit&s. If the· sun is visible to the Gods at Meru
from the vernal equinox to th& summer solstice,. its passage back
to the. autumnal eqUinox lies through the same latitudes and in
that passage i. e. during three months after the summer solstice,
the sun .must, says BhAskarAch&rya, be visible to the Gods. But
according to the SIUJlhita-writers the day of the Devas ended with
the Uttar&ya11a, that is as Bh&skaia understood the word, at
the summer solstice. How is this conflict to be reconciled ?
Bh&sk~ch&rya could give no satisfactory solution of the difficuiiy,
and asks his readers to reconcile the conflicting statements on the
supposition that the doctrine may be regarded as r~err\ng td
" judicial astrology and the fruits it foretells. "• Had Bhf.skarA-
ch&rya how,ever known that the word uttardyll1Jil was sometimes
used for devpy4_na to denote the passage of the sun from tbe vernal
to the autumnal eqUinox, I am sure, he would not have asted us
to be satisfied with the lame explanation that the doctrine of the
S1UJ1hita-writers need not be mathematically correct as it refers
exclusively to judicial astrology~ It is difficult to say whether the
ancient Aryas ever lived so near the north pole as to be aware
of the existence of a day extending over at least two or three if
not six months of the year. But the idea that the day of the Devas
commences when the sun passes to the north of the equator,
appears to be an old one. In the Taittiriya Bd.hma~at 9. 22. 1,
we are told that the year is but a day of the Devas and even Hero-
dotus ( 400 B. C. ) mentions a people who sleep during the six

• The original verses are as follows :
ftoi ij(lUjjtjqof ~ ~{ffii~: ~I
r:.:oil"'!l~~ ~JR ~"Rf ~ <Pff 6Ni.,.:h~iifll{ mi. II
(i'(itttt~<lt~ ~= m ~ "{~: 1
~if rt: JN1i e l.~ ftrw~" ~ ~ 11
Golldbylya vii. 11. u, Blpudevasbbtri's Ed. pp. 304, s.
t VJ6 ~ l(~liiflilt: I~: 1 It is however extremely hazardous
to ba11e any theory upon this. Traditions like these have been cited a~
indicating the fact the North Pole was inhabited in old days! Similar
other traditions are said to mdicate the existence of a pre-glacial
J>eriod. Is it not more probable to suppose that when utt•;;,~ and
ltd,ni1J;yana came to be first distinguished, they were 1 espectively