Page 429 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

210 SAMAGRA T1LAK- 2 • THE ARCTIC HOME
know that the celestial waters ( divyd~ dpa~ ), or the watery vapours
( puri~ham ), are mentioned in the ~ig-Veda and that the Vedic
bards considered the space or the region above, below and around
them to be full of these celestial vapours which are said to be
co-eval with the world in X, 30, 10.
It is, however, alleged by Wallis in his Cosmology of the ~ig­
Veda ( p. 115) that the Vedic bards were not acquainted with the
regions below the earth, and that every thing, which is described
in the Vedas as occurring in the atmosphere, including the
movements of the sun during night and day, must, be placed in
the regions of the sky, which were over the head of these bards.
This view appears to be adopted by Macdonell in his Vedic Mytho-
logy; and if it be correct, we shall have to place all the waters in the
upper heaven. But I do not think that Wallis has correctly interpret-
ed the passages quoted by Prof. Zimmer in support of his theory
that a rajas ( region ) exists below the earth; and we cannot,
therefore accept Wallis' conclusions, which are evidently based
upon prepossessions derived most probably from the Homeric
controversy. Prof. Zimmer refers to three passages (VI, 9, 1;
VII, 80, 1; V, 81, 4) to prove that a rajas beneath the earth was
known to the Vedic people. The first of these passages is the well-
known verse regarding the bright and the dark day. It says, " the
bright day and the dark day, both roll the two rajas by the well-
known paths." Here the two rajas are evidently the upper and the
lower celestial hemisphere; but Wallis asks us to compare this
verse with I, 185, 1, where day and night are said" to revolve like
two wheels", that is, to circle round from east to west, the one
rising as the other goes down, and observes that " We are in no
way obliged to consider that the progress of either is continued
below the earth." I am unable to understand how we can draw
such an inference from these passages. In VI, 9, 1, quoted by
Zimmer, two rajas or atmospheres are mentioned, and the bright
and the dark day are said to roll along both these rajas or regions.
But if we hold with Wallis that the progress of either begins in the
east and stops in the west, without going below the earth, the
whole movement becomes confined to one rajas or region and does
not extend over the two. Zimmer's interpretation is, therefore, not
only more probable, but the only one that explains the use of rajas£
( in the dual ), or the two regions, in the verse. The next passage
(VII, 80, 1 ) is also misunderstood by Wallis. It describes the dawn