Page 400 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

THE 'COWS' WALK 185
on the other side, or at the other end' and not ' something pervading,
extending, or spreading through the whole extent of anything. •
Even Saya~a in his commentary on VII, 103, 7, the only place where
the word Ati-ratra occurs in the ~g-Veda, explains it to mean
' that which is past or beyond the night ( ratrfm atitya vartate
iti ati-rdtra!J ), and Rudradatta in his commentary on the Apas-
thamba Shrauta Sutra (XIV, 1, 1 ), gives the same explanation.
The Ati-rdtra therefore, denotes a trans nocturnal sacrifice that is,
performed at either end of the night. Now according to the Aitareya
Brahma~a (IV, 5 ), the Ati-rdtra sacrifice is performed for the
purpose of driving out the Asuras from the darkness of night;
and the Ta~~ya Brahma~a (IV, 1, 4- 5 ) tells us that Prajapati,
who first perceived the sacrifice, created from it the twin of day
and night ( aho-rdtre ). It follows from this that the Ati-ratra was
performed at the close of such night as gave rise to the ordinary
days and nights, or, in other words, the regular succession of days
and nights followed its performance. This can only be the case if
we suppose that the Ati-ratra was performed at the end of a long
continuous night in regions where such night occurred. With us
in the temperate or the tropical zone, ordinary days and nights
regularly succeed each other throughout the year without any
break, and it is meaningless, if not absurd, to speak of the cycle of
day and night as produced from a particular night in the year.

seems to be quite clear from this passage, v1z., that Tlshtrya was the star
by which the year was reckoned. In the T!r Yasht § s. springs of water
are said to flow at the rising of Tishtrya, who in§ r6 is described as
'mingling his shape w1th light,' or 'moving in light,'§ 46. All these
mcidents can te satis!actorily explained if we suppose that, after
Tishtry's fight with Apaosha, lasting for roo nights at the longest, the
aerial waters, which communicated motion to the sun and other heavenly
bodies (see Faravardin Yasht 53- 58) and which lay stiii or stagnant
during the time, were set free to move again along the path made by
Mazda bringing on "·ith them the light of the sun and thus commencing
the new year after the long winter night in the Arctic region. The
simultaneous chararter of the motion of waters, the commencement of
the new year, and the winning of light after T1shtrya's fight with
Apaosha, can be explained only in this way, and not by making the
legend refer to the rainy season (see the discussion about 'waters' in the
next chapter). The Pairika Duz-Yai1'}'a, or the Bad Year, which Tish try a
is said to break asunder, is, on this theory, the wearisome dark ArctiC
night.