Page 358 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

MONTHS AND SEASONS 143
But if manu~ha yuga means ' human ages' and not ' human
generations', we have still to determine the exact duration of these
ages. In the Atharva-Veda, VIII, 2, 21, which says, "We allot to
thee, a hundred, ten thousand years, two, three or four yugas,"
the word yuga obviously stands for a period of time, not shorter
than ten thousand years. But there are grounds to hold that in the
early days of the ~ig-Veda yuga must have denoted a shorter period
of time, or, at least, that was one of its meanings in early days.
The ~ig-Veda often speaks of ' the first' ( prathamd) dawn, or
'the first of the coming ( ayatinamprathama) dawns, ( ~ig. I, 113,
8; 123, 2; VII, 76, 6; X, 35,4 ); while' the last' ( avamd) dawn is
mentioned in VII, 71, 3, and the dawn is said to have the knowledge
of the first day, in I, 123, 9. Now, independently of what I have
said before about the Vedic dawns, the ordinal numeral ' first'
as applied to the dawn is intelligible only if we suppose it to refer
to the first dawn of the year, or the dawn on the first day of the
year, somewhat like the phrase ' first nighr' ( prathama ratri!z)
used in the Brahmal)as ( see Orion p. 67 ). The ' first' ( Prathamd )
and the 'last' ( avama) dawn must, therefore, be taken to signify
the beginning and the end of the year in those days; and
in the light of what has been said about the nature of the Vedic
dawns in the fifth chapter, we may safely conclude that the 'first '
of the dawns was no other than the first of a set or group of dawns
that appeared at the close of the long night and commenced the
year. Now this ' first dawn' is described as " wearing out human
ages " ( praminat£ manu~hyd yugdni ) in I, 124, 2, and I, 92, 11;
while in I, 115, 2, we are told that " the pious or godly men extend
the yugas," on the appearance of the dawn ( yatra naro devayanto
yugani vitanvate ). European scholars interpret yuga in the above
passages to mean ' generations of men .' But apart from the fact
that the phrase manu~ha yuga must be understood to mean ' human
ages ' in at least two passages discussed above, the context in I,
124, 2 and I, 92, 11 is obviously in favour of interpreting the word
yuga, occurring therein, as equivalent to a period of time. The dawn
is here described as commencing a new course of heavenly ordi-
nances, or holy sacrifices ( daivyani vratdni ), and setting in motion
the manuJhya yugani, obviously implying that with the first dawn
came the sacrifices, as well as the cycle of time known as ' human
ages ' or that ' the human ages ' were reckoned from the first dawn.
This association of manuyhd yuga, or ' human ages ' with the