Page 445 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

226 SAMAGRA TILAK- 2 • THE ARCTIC HOME
In I, 46, 7, the Ashvins are again spoken of as having both a chariot
and a boat, as a sort of double equipment; and their chariot is
said to be samana yojana, or traversing, without distinction, both
the heaven and the watery regions in I, 30, 18. The word samana
is meaningless unless there is some difficulty in traversing over
one part of the celestial sphere as distinguished from the other.
The Vedic gods used these boats especially in crossing the lower
world, the home and seat of aerial waters; and when they appeared
above the horizon, they are described as traversing the upper sphere
by means of their chariots. But sometimes the waters are said to
carry them even across the sky above, just as the chariot is de crib-
ed as going over the lower world. For instance in the legend of
Dirgbatamas, discussed previously, he is said to be borne. on waters
for ten months and then growing old was about to die or reach
the ocean, to which the waters were speeding. In other words, this
means that the sun, who was borne on waters for ten months, was
about to go into the lower watery regions as explained in the chapter
VI. But to proceed with the subject in band, the idea of the cosmic
circulation of aerial waters, is not confined to the Indian, the Ira-
nian or the Greek mythology. In the Egyptian mythology, Nu-t,
the goddess of the sky, is sometimes " represented by a figure in
which the band of stars is accompanied by a band of water. " and
Sir Norman Lockyer tells us that " not only the Sun-gods, but the
stars, were also supposed to travel in boats across the firmament
from one horizon to the other. " * The Jewish idea of the firma-
ment in the midst of waters, the waters above being afterwards
separated from the waters below the firmament, is already referred
to above. There is, therefore, nothing strange or surprising if
we find in the Vedas and in the Avesta more or less clear references
to the circulation of aerial waters through the upper and thel ower
celestial hemispheres of the universe. It is an idea which is found
in the ancient mythology of every other nation, and nothing but
false prejudice can deter us from interpreting the simultaneous
movements or the liberation of waters and light, described in the
Vedic hymns, on the theory of the cosmic circulation of aerial
waters.
But even after accepting the theory of the cosmic circulation
of celestial waters and the simultaneous release of waters and

* See Loci\yer's Dawn of Astronomy, p. 35·