Page 438 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

VEDIC MYTHS-THE CAPTIVE WATERS 219
therefore, necessary to worship them with sacrifices and invoke
their blessings
It is impossible to grasp the real meaning of the V~itra legend,
without first realising the true nature and importance of the
movements of the aerial waters as conceived by the ancestors of
the Indo-Iranian people. As observed by Darmesteter, celestial
waters and light were believed to flow from the same spring or
source, and they both ran a parallel course. It was these aerial
waters that make the heavenly bodies move in the sky, just as a
boat or any other object is carried down by the current of a
stream or river. If the water, therefore, ceased to flow, the
consequences were serious, for the sun, the moon, the stars,
would then all cease to rise, and world would be plunged in dark-
ness. We can now fully understand the magnitude of the mischief
worked by Vritra by stopping the flow of these waters. In his
hidden home, at the bottom of rajas, that is, in the lower hemi.
sphere, he encompassed the waters in such a way as to stop
their flow upwards through the mountain and, Indra's victory over
Vritra meant that he released these waters from the clutches of
V ~itra and made them flow up again. When the waters were thus
released they naturally brought with them, the dawn, the sun and
the cows, i. e. either days or the rays of the morning; and the
victory was thus naturally described as four-fold in character.
Now we can also understand the part played by parvatas, or
mountains, in the legend. It was the mountain Alburz, or Hara
Berezaiti; and as V\itra, by stretching his body across, closed all
the apertures in his mountainous range, through which the sun
and the waters came up, Indra had to uncover or open these
passages by killing Vritra. Thus the Bundahish ( V, 5) mentions
180 apertures in the east and 180 in the west through Albftrz; and
the sun is said to come and go through them every day, and all
the movements of the moon, the constellations and the planets are
also said to be closely connected with these apertures. The same
idea is also expressed in the later Sanskrit literature when the sun
is said to rise above the mountain in the east and set below the
mountain in the west. The mountain on which Indra is said to have
found Shambara (II, 12, 11 ), and the rock of Vala wherein the
cows were said to have been imprisoned by the demon ( IV,
3, 11; 1, 71, 2) and which was burst open by Angirases, also
represent the same mountainous range, which separated the upper