Page 406 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

VEDIC MYTHS- THE CAPTIVE WATERS . 191

with ice explained-The seven rivers released by lndra-Cannot be
terrestrial, nor the rivers of the Panjaub-The interpretation of
\Vestern scholars examined and rejected-The connection between the
seven rivers and the sevo:m sons pointed out-The origin of the phrase
Hapt•1-hindu in the Avesta-Probably a tranference of an old
mythological name to a place in the new home-Vritra's legend Arctic
in origin-Captive waters represent the yearly struggle between light
and the darkness in the ancient Arctic home.
WE have now examined most of the Vedic passages, which
directly show that the Polar or the Circum-Polar characterstics,
determined in the third chapter, were known by tradition to the
Vedic bards. We started with the tradition about the night of the
gods, or a day and a night of six months each, and found that it
could be traced back to the Indo-Iranian, if not to the Indo-
Germanic, period. A close examination of the dawn-hymns in
the :B-ig-Veda next disclosed the fact that U ~has, or the deity
,presiding over the dawn, is often addressed in the plural numbe
in the Vedic hymns, and that this could be accounted for only
on the supposition that the Vedic dawns were a closely connected
band of many dawns-a supposition, which was found to be fully
borne out by express passages in the Vedic literature, stating, in
unambiguous terms, that the Vedic dawns were 30 in number and
that in ancient times a period of several days elapsed between
the first appearance of light on the horizon and the rising of the
sun. We have also found that the dawn is expressly described
in the :B-ig-Veda as moving round like a wheel, a characteristic,
which is true only in the case of the Polar dawn. These facts
sufficiently prove the acquaintance of the Vedic bards with the
physical phenomena, witnessible only in the Arctic regions. But
to make the matter more certain, I have, in the last three chapters,
quoted and discussed Vedic passages, which go to prove that
the long Arctic nights and the corresponding long days of varying
duration, as well as a year of ten months or five seasons, were
equally known to the poets of the :B-ig-Veda. An examination of
the ancient sacrificial system and especially of the annual Sattras
and night-sacrifices, further showed that in old times yearly sacrificial
sessions did not last for twelve months, as at present, but were
completed in nine or ten months; and the hundred night-sacrifices
were, at that time, really performed as their name indicates, during
the darkness of the long night. fhe legends of Diraghtamas and