Page 365 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

150 SAMAGRA TILAK- 2 • THE ARCTIC HOME
(full of waters) and became vichak~hatJam or far-seeing. We have
seen that the sun, as represented by Dirghatamas, grew old in the
tenth month and riding on aerial waters went into the ocean. The
same idea is expressed in the present verse which describes two
different views about the nature of the year, one of five and the
other of six seasons and contrasts their leading features with each
other. Thus pare ardhe is contrasted with upare ardhe in the second
line, pancha-padam (compare panchdre in the next verse, i. e. ~ig­
Veda I, 164, 13) with ~Juuf-are, and pur£~hi1Jam with vichakjh01Jfl"'.
In short, the verse under consideration describes the year either
( 1 ) as five-footed, and lying in waters in the farther part of heaven
or ( 2) as mounted on a six-spoked car and far-seeing in the neare~
part of the heaven. These two descriptions cannot evidently apply
to seasons in one and the same place, and the artifice of combining
two consecutive seasons cannot be accepted as a solution of the
question. Five seasons and ten months followed by the watery
residence of the sun or dark nights, is what is precisely described in
the first half of this passage (I, 164, 12 ), and, from what has been
said hitherto, it will be easily seen that it is the Arctic year of ten
months that is here described. The verse, and especially the con-
trast between purf~hi,;Jam and vickhak~hlll}am, does not appear to
have attracted the attention it deserves. But in the light of the Arctic
theory the description is now as intelligible as any. The Vedic bards
have here preserved for us the memory of a year of five seasons or
ten months, although their year had long been changed into one
of twelve months. The explanation given in the Br~hmapas are
all so many post-facto devices to account for the mention of five
seasons in the Rig-Veda, and I do not think we are bound to accept
them when the fact of five seasons can be better accounted for. I
have remarked before that in searching for evidence of ancient
traditions we must expect to find later traditions associated with
them, and Rig. I, 164, 12, discussed above, is a good illustration
of this remark. The first line of the verse, though it speaks of five
seasons, describes the year as twelve-formed; while the second line,
which deals with a year of six seasons or twelve months, speaks
of it as ' seven-wheeled, ' that is made up of seven months or seven
suns, or seven rays of the sun. This may appear rather inconsistent
at the first sight; but the history of words in any language will
show that old expressions are preserved in the language long after
they have ceased to denote the ideas primarily expressed by them.