Page 457 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

238 SAMAGRA TILAK - 2 • THE ARCTIC HOME
from the nether world, each with its own sun ? In short, when the
close connection between waters and light is once established, it
is not difficult to perceive why the waters and the light are each said
to be seven-fold. The seven celestial rivers are expressly mention-
ed in the ~ig-Veda (IX, 54, 2 ), and the flowing forth of the rivers
and the appearance of the dawn on the horizon are described as
simultaneous in many passages, some of which have been already
referred to above. Neither the Storm theory nor the geography of
the Panjaub, satisfactorily accounts for the simultaneous happen-
ing of these events; and so long as this difficulty is not solved,
except by the Arctic theory and the cosmic circulation of aerial
waters, we cannot accept the hypothesis of Western scholars referred
to above, howsoever eloquently expounded it may be. As regards
the origin of the phrase. Hapta-hindu, which is believed to denote
India in the A vesta, I think, we can explain it by supposing that the
expression sapta-sindhava!J was an old one, carried by the Aryans
with them to their new home, and there applied to new places or
countries, just as the British colonists now carry the old names of
their mother country to their new places of settlement. Hapta-
hindu is not the only expression which occurs in the A vesta in the
enumeration of the Aryan countries. We have, Varena, Haetumant,
Rangha and Harahvaiti in the list, which are the Zend equivalents
of Varupa, Setumat, Rasa and Sarasvati. * But it is never argued
from it that the Vedic deity, Varu11a, was so named from the country
called Varena by the worshippers of Mazda; and the same may be
said of Rasa and Sarasvati. Rasa and Sarasvati sometimes denote
the terrestrial rivers even in the ~ig-Veda. But there is ample evi-
dence to show that they were originally the aerial rivers. It is, there-
fore, more natural to hold that all these were ancient mythological
names brought with them by the Aryan settlers to their new home
and there applied to new places or objects. There are places in
Burma which are named Ayodhya, Mithila, etc. and this is explain-
ed on the ground that they were so named by the Indian settlers.

• Darmesteter, in his introduction to Fargard I of the Vendidad,
observes that "names, originally belonging to mythical lands, are often.
in later times attached to real ones." If this is true of Varena, Rangha,
(Rasa) and othet names, there is no reason why Hapta-hindu should not
be Similarly explained, especially when it is now clear that the phrase
sr.pta sindh,·ca1 denotes celestial rivers in the Vedas.