Page 414 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

VEDIC MYTHS-THE CAPTIVE WATERS 199

space in the beginning of all things and takes Vivasvat as repre-
senting the light of heavens.
The third theory, like the first, is solar in origin, and attempts
to explain certain Vedic myths on the supposition that they
represent the triumph of spring over snow and winter. Yaska and
other Indian Nairuktas lived in regions where the contrast between
spring and winter was not so marked as in the countries still further
north; and it was probably for this reason that the Vernal theory
was not put forward by them to explain the Vedic myths. Prof.
Max Muller has tried to explain most of the exploits of the
Ashvins by this theory.* If the Ashvins restored Chyavana to
youth, if they protected Atri from the heat and darkness, if they
rescued Vandana from a pit where he was buried alive, or if they
replaced the leg of Vishpahi., which she had lost in battle, or
restored ,Rijrashva his eye sight, it was simply the Sun-god restored
to his former glory after the decay of his powers in winter. In
short the birth of the vernal Sun, his fight against the army of
winter, and his final victory at the beginning of the spring is, on this
theory, the true key to the explanation of many undermyths where
the Sun-god is represented as dying, decaying or undergoing
some other affliction. As contrasted with the Dawn theory the
physical phenomena, here referred to, are annual. But both are solar
theories, and as such may be contrasted with the Storm theory
which is meteorological in origin.
Besides these three theories, the Dawn, the Storm and the
Vernal, Mr. Narayana Aiyangar ofBangalore has recently attempted
to explain a number of Vedic myths on the hypothesis that they refer
to Orion and Aldebaran. This may be called the Astral theory as
distinguished f1 om others. But all these theories cannot be discussed_
in this place; nor is it necessary to do so, so far as our purpose is
concerned. I w1sh only to show that in spite of the various theories
started to explain the Vedic myths, a number of incidents in several
important legends have yet remained unexplained; and mythologists
have either ignored them altogether, or pushed them out of the
way as insignificant or immaterial. If everything could be explained
by the Dawn or the Storm theory, we may indeed hesitate to accept
a new theory for which there would then be very little scope; but

• See Contributions to the Sci ;nee of ~lyt;1ology, Vol. II, pp-
579-:605.