Page 378 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

THE COWS' WALK 163

of the long night,-a time when Indra fought with Vala, to regain
the cows imprisoned by the latter and Hercules killed the giant
Cacus, a threeheaded fire-vomiting monster, who had carried
off Hercules' cows and hid them in a cave, dragging them back-
wards in order that the_ foot-marks might not be traced. When
the Aryan people migrated southwards from this ancient home
they had to change this calendar to suit their new home by add-
ing two more months to the old year. But the traces of the old
calendar could not be completely wiped off, and we have still
sufficient evidence, traditional or sacrificial, to warrant us in
holding that a year of ten months followed by a night of two
months was known in the Indo-Germanic period-a conclusion,
which is further confirmed by Teutonic myths and legends, as
explained by Prof. Rhys, whose views will be found summarised
in a subsequent chapter.
The Taittirtya Sarrihita and the Aitareya Bni.hma~a speak
of the Gavam-ayanam as being really held by the cows. Was
it really a session of these animals ? Or was it something else ?
The Aitareya Bni.hma~a, we have seen, throws out a suggestion
that ' the cows are the Adityas ', that is the month-gods, and the
cows' session is really the session of the monmly sun-gods. '
Comparative mythology now fully bears out the truth of this
remarkable suggestion put forward by -..he Brahma~a. Cows,
such as we meet them in the mythological legends, represent days
and nights of the year, not only in the Vedic but also in the
Greek mythology; and we can, therefore, now give a better
account of the origin of this sacrificial session than that it was
a session of bovine animals for the purpose of obtaining horns.
Speaking of cows in the Aryan mythology, Prof. Max Muller
in his Contributions to the Science of Mythology (Vol. II, p. 761)
writes as follows :
" There were thus three kinds of cows, the real cows, the
cows in the dark cloud ( rain- milk ), and the cows stepping
forth from the dark stable of the night ( the rays of the morning ).
These three are not always easy to distinguish in the Veda; nay,
while we naturally try to distinguish between them, the poets
themselves seem to delight in mixing them up. In the passage

• See Aitareya Brah. IV, 17, quoted supra; i£91~ ~f;;r I i!TciT 9T
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