Page 436 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

VEDIC MYTHS-THE CAPTIVE WATERS 217
goes away through Albftrz. " Now waters are described in the
~ig-Veda as following the path of the gods (VII, 47, 3 ), much in
the same way as the waters in the Avesta are said to follow the
path made by Mazda or the way made by the gods. Like the
A vestic waters, the waters in the ~g-Veda have also the sea for
their goal, and going by the aerial way eventually fall into the
mouth of Varup.a. But the Avesta supplies us with the key which
establishes the connection of waters and light in unambiguous
terms, for, as remarked by Prof. Darmesteter, it states clearly
that both of them have the same source, and, in the passage
quoted above, the wift-horsed sun is accordingly asked to go
along the watery way in the skies above. In the Aban Yasht ( V, 3 ),
the river Ardvi Sura Anahita is described as running powerfully
from the height Hukairya down to the sea Vouru-Kasha, like
the river Sarasvatl, which is described in the ~ig-Veda as tear-
ing the peaks of mountains, and is invoked to ·descend from
the great mountain in the sky to the sacrifice ( V, 43, II. ). Both·
are aerial rivers, but by coming down upon the earth they are
said to fill up all the terrestrial streams. The terrestrial waters,
nay, all things of a liquid nature on the earth, i. e. the plant-sap,
the blood, etc. were thus supposed to be produced from the aerial
waters above by the agency of clouds and rain. The Parsi scriptures
further tell us that between the earth and the region of infinite
light (the parame vyoman of the ~ig-Veda ), there are three in-
termediate regions, the star region, which has the seeds of waters
and plants, the moon region, and the un region, the last being the
highe t ( Yt. XII, 29-32 ). When the ~g-Veda therefore, speak
of the highest rajas as being the seat of water , it is not to be
understood, as supposed by Wallis, that there are no nether waters,
for it is the nether water that come up from the lower world and
moving in the uppermost region of the heaven produce terrestrial
waters by giving rise to rain and clouds. Thus Ardvi Silra Anahita·
i said to run through the starry region ( cf. Yt: VII, 47 ), and has:
to be worshipped with sacrifice in order that her waters may not
all run up into the region of the sun, thereby producing a drough~.
on the surface of the earth, ( Yt. V, 85 and 90 ). In the Rig-Veda~
the Saraswati is similarly described as filling the earthly region
and the wide atmospheric space (VI, 61, 11 ) and is be ought to.
come swelling with streams, and along with the water . But the
most triking resemblance between Ardvi Sura Anah.ita and