Page 435 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

216 SAMAGRA TILAK - 2 • THE ARCTIC HOME
about this underworld were not very distinct, that does not, in
the least, affect ,he value of the evidence.
If we, therefore, dismiss from our mind the idea that the
lower world was not known to the Vedic people,-an assumption
which is quite gratuitous, the movements and character of the
celestial waters become at once plain and intelligible. The ancient
Aryans, like the old Hebrews, believed that the subtle matter,
which filled the whole space in the universe, was nothing but
watery vapours; and secondly that the movements of the sun,
the moon and other heavenly bodies were caused by these vap-
ours which kept on constantly circulating from the nether to
the upper and from the upper to the lower celestial hemisphere.
That is the real key to the explanation of many a Vedic myth;
and unless we grasp it thoroughly, we cannot rightly understand
some of the utterances of the Vedic poets. These waters were
sometimes conceived as rivers or streams, moving in the heaven,
and eventually falling into the mouth of Varu!la or the nether
ocean (VII, 49, 2; VIII, 69, 12 ). The nether world was, so to say,
the seat or the home of these waters, called yahvatitz or the eternal
( IX, 113, 8 ) ; and they formed the kingdom of Varu va and Yama,
as well as the hidden ( ni~ya ) abode of V~itra. This movement of
waters is very clearly expressed in the Parsi scriptures. In the
Vendidad, XXI, 4- 5 ( 15- 23 ), the waters are described as follows,
"As the sea Vouru-Kasha is the gathering place of waters, rise
up, go up the arerial way and go down on the earth; go down on
the earth and go up the aerial way. Rise up and roll along !
thou in whose rising and growing Ahura Mazda made the ·aerial
way ! Up ! rise up and roll along ! thou swift-horsed sun, above
Hara Berezaiti, and produce light for the world, and mayest thou
rise up there, if thou art to abide in Garo-nmanem, along the path
made by Mazda, along the way made by the gods, the watery way
they opened. " Here the aerial waters are said to start from their
gathering place, the sea Vouru-Kasha, go up into heaven and
come back again to the sea to be purified before starting on a
second round. Prof. Darmesterer in a note on this passage observes
that, "waters and light are believed to flow from the same spring
and in the same bed", and quotes Bundahish, XX, 4, which says,
~' just as the light comes in through Albftrz ( Hara Berezaiti(
the mountain by which the earth is surrounded ) and goes out
through Albftrz, the water also comes out through Albt1rz and