Page 447 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

228 SAMAGRA TILAK 2 • THE ARCTIC IIOME

mountains ( in ) chatwiriinshyam sharadi. * Now chatvarimshyam
is an ordinal numeral in the feminine gender and in the locative
case, and similarly sharadi is the locative of sharad ( autumn ),
which also is a word of feminine gender in Sanskrit. The phrase
chatvari"mshyam sharadi is, therefore, capable of two interpreta-
tions or constructions, though the words are simple in themselves,
Chatavriinshyam literally means ' in the fortieth,' and sharadi
' in autumn.' If we now take chatvariinshyam ( in the fortieth )
as an adjective qualifying sharadi ( in autumn ), the meaning of
the phrase would be " in the fortieth autumn "; while if the two
words are taken separately the meaning would be " on the fortieth,
in autumn. " SayaQa and Western scholars have adopted the first
construction and understand the passage to mean, " Indra found
Shambara dwelling on the mountains in the fortieth autumn, that is,
in the fortieth year" for the words indicating seasons, like Vasant
( spring ), Sharad ( autumn ), or Hemanta ( winter ), are under-
stood to denote a year, especially when used with a numeral adjec-
tive meaning more than one. This construction is grammatically
correct, for chatvariinshyam and sharadi being both in the feminine
gender and in the locative case, the two words can be taken together,
and understood to mean " in the fortieth autumn or year. " But
what are we to understand by the statement, that Shambara was
found in the fortieth year by Indra ? Are we to suppose that Indra
was engaged in searching out the demon for 40 years, and it was
only at the end of this long period that the enemy was, at last,
found dwelling on the mountains ? If so, Indra's conflict with
Shambara cannot be daily or yearly, but must be supposed to have
taken place only once in 40 years, an inference, which is directly
opposed to the statement (X, 62, 2) that " Vala was killed at the
end of the year ( parivatsare ).'' Some scholars try to get out of
the difficulty by suggesting that the passage may be taken as
referring to a famine or drought that occurred after 40 years, or that
it may represent a forty years' war between the Aryans protected
by Indra, and Shambara, the chief of the aboriginal races dwelling
on the mountains ! But both these explanations are too far-
fetched and imaginary to deserve any serious attention or refu-
tation. The story of Shambara is mentioned in a number of places

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