Page 362 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

MONTHS AND SEASONS 147
nights ". Here, in the first place, it is difficult to understand what
' shining on human tribes ' means and secondly if ' k~hapal;z means
continuous nights,' it could mean nothing except ' the long con-
tinuous night', and if so, why not take manu~ he(, yuga to represent
the period of the solar year, which remains after the long night is
excluded from it? As observed by me before, Prof. Max Muller
has correctly translated k~hapab by ' continuous nights,' but has
missed the true meaning of the expression manu~hd yuga in this
place. A similar mistake has been committed with respect to IV,
16, 19, where the expression isk~hapal;z madema sharadas cha pU,rvi!J.
Here, in spite of the accent, Max Muller takes k~hapafJ as accusative
and so does Sayapa. But Sayapa correctly interprets the expression
as " May we rejoice for many autumn ( seasons ) and nights. "
' Seasons and nights ' is a compound phrase, and the particle cha
becomes unmeaning if we split it up and take nights ( k~hapafJ )
with one verb and seasons ( sharadal.z) with another. Of course so
long as the Arctic theory was unknown the phrase ' sea ons and
nights ' or ' manu~/uJ, yuga and nights ' was unintelligible inasmuch
as nights were included in the seasons or the yugas. But Prof.
Max Muller has himself suggested the solution of the difficulty by
interpreting k~hapa!J as 'continuous nights' in II, 2, 2; and adopting
this rendering, we can, with greater propriety, take seasons and
nights together, as indicated by the particle ella and under tand the
expression to mean a complete solar year including the long night.
The addition of k~hapal.z to manu~ha yuga, therefore, further sup-
ports the conclusion that the phrase indicated a period of sunshine
as stated above. There are many other passages in translating
which unnecessary confusion or obscurity has been caused by
taking manu~hct yuga to mean human tribes; but a discussion of
these is not relevant to the subject in hand.
An independent corroboration of the conclusion we have
drawn from the legends of the Dashagvas and Dirghatamas is
furnished by the numb~r of seasons mentioned in certain Vedic
texts. A period of sunshine of ten months followed by a long
night of two months can well be described as five seasons of two
months each, followed by the sinking of the sun into the waters
below the horizon; and as a matter of fact we find the year so des-
cribed in I, 164, 12, a verse which occurs also in the Atharva Veda
(IX, 9, 12) with a slight variation and in the Prashnopani~had
I, 11. It may be literally translated as follows :- " The five-footed