Page 427 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

208 SAMAGRA TlLAK - 2 • THE ARCTIC HOME

incidents in the legend, no one would hesitate to abandon the
Storm theory in favour of the latter.
It is, in my opinion; a mistake to suppose that the struggle
between Indra and Vritra originally represented the conflict between
the thunder-god and the rain-cloud. It is really a struggle between
the powers of light and darkness, and we find traces of it in the
AitareyaBrahmap.a( IV, 5 ), wherelndra alone of all gods is describ-
ed as having undertaken the task of driving out Asuras from the
darkness of the night. That Indra is the god of light is also evident
from many other passages in the Rig-Veda, where, without any
reference to the Vritra fight, Indra is said to have found the light
(III, 34, 4; VIII, 15, 5; X, 43, 4) in the darkness (I, 100, 8; IV,
16, 4 ), or to have produced the dawn as well as the sun ( II, 12, 7;
21, 4; III, 31, 15,), or opened the darkness with the dawn and
the sun ( I, 62, 5 ). It was he, who made the sun to shine ( VIII, 3, 6 ),
and mount in the sky (I, 7, 3 ), or prepared a path for the sun
( X, 111, 3 ), or found the sun in ' the darkness in which he resided '
(III, 39, 5 ). It is evident from these passages that Indra is the winner
of light and the sun and this character of his was well understood
by scholars, for Indra as apavaryan, or the recoverer ( fr. apa-vri)
of light, is compared by Max Muller with Apollon in the Greek
mythology. But scholars have found it difficult to explain why
this character of Indra should be mentioned in conjunction with
other exploits, such as the conquest of Vritra and the liberation
of the waters. In fact that is the real difficulty in the explanation
of the legend either by the Storm or by the Dawn theory. Indra
liberated the waters and brought about the dawn by killing Vritra,
is undoubtedly the burden of the whole story; but no explanation
has yet been found by which the simultaneous, recovery of light
and waters could satisfactorily be accounted for. We have seen
that by the Storm theory we can account for the release of waters,
but not the recovery of the dawn; while if the legend is taken to
represent a struggle between light and darkness, as implied by the
Dawn theory, we can account for the recovery of the dawn and
the sun, but not for the release of waters. Under these circumstances
it is necessary to examine the nature and character of waters as
described in the Vedas, before we accept or reject either or both
of the above-mentioned theories.
It has been noticed above that the passages, where waters are
said to be released by Indra after killing Vritra do not refer expressly