Page 431 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

212 SAMAGRA TILAK- 2 • THE ARCTIC HOME
the surface of the earth. But, in that case, it was not necessary
to speak of all the three earths, and ince we are told that the
region is below all the three earths, it can refer only to the nether
world. This is further proved by the passage which describes what
is above the three earths. The expression, corresponding to tisra!J
prithiv£1; adha[z or " the region below the three earths," will be
tisra!J prilhiv£1} upari or "the region above the three earths, " and as
a matter of fact this expression is also found in the Rig-Veda. Thus
in I, 34, 8, we are told that" the A hvins, moving abo-.re the three
earths{ tisra& P!ithiv£1; upari), protect the ault or the top of heaven
( divo m1kam) through days and nights"· and Ashvins are said
to have come on their car from a distant region ( panivat) in the
preceding verse of the arne hymn. The phrase divo ndkam
occurs several times in the Rig-Veda and means the top or the
vault of the heaven. Thus in IV, 13, 5, the sun i said to guard
( pati) the vault of the heaven ( divo nakam ); and as regards the
three-fold division of the earth it is mentioned in several places
in the .J;{ig-Veda ( I, 102, 8 · IV, 53, 5; V ll, 87, 5 ), and also in the
Avesta (Yr. XIII, 3; Yasna, XI, 7 ). In IV, 53, 5, this three-fold
division is further extended to antarik~ha, rajas rochana and dyu
or heaven. This shows what we are to understand by' three earths.'
It is the one and the same earth, regarded as three-fold; and since
the Ashvins are described as protecting the vault of heaven by
moving" above the three earths", it is clear that in contrast with
the vault above, a nether region, as far below the three earths as
the heaven is above them, must have been conceived and denoted
by the phrase " below the three earths," and that the latter
expression did not merely mean an interterranean ground. When
we meet with two such phrases as the heaven " above the three
earths," and the region " below the three earths " in the Rig-
Veda, phrases, which cannot be mistaken or misunderstood, the
hypothesis that the Vedic bards were not acquainted with the
nether world at once falls to the ground.
Mr. Wallis seems to think tbat since rajas is said to be divided
three-fold, like the earth, and since the highest rajas is mentioned
as the seat of waters, there is no scope in the Vedic division of
rajas for a region beneath the earth; for the three rajas are exhausted
by taking them as the rajas of the earth ( plirthivt4m ), the rajas of
the sky ( divo raja!J) and the highest (paramam ) rajas, the seat of
waters. But this objection .is quite untenable, inasmuch as six