Page 458 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

VEDIC MYTHS-THE CAPTIVE WATERS 239
in Burma after the well-known places in their native land. There-
is no reason why the same theory should not be applied in the case
of Hapta-hindu, especially when we see that the rivers set free by
Indra by slaughtering Vptra cannot but be celestial.
It will be seen from the foregoing discussion that the true
nature and movements of waters released by Indra from the grasp
of V~itra has been misunderstood from the days of the most anci-
ent Nairuktas, or, we might say, even from the days of the Brah-
mapas. There are passages in the ~ig-Veda where Pushan is said
to cross the upper celestial hemisphere in boats; but the Ashvins
and Surya are generally described as traversing the heaven in their
chariots. This led the ancient Nairuktas to believe that the upper
celestial hemisphere was not a seat of aerial waters, and that when
Indra was described as releasing waters by slaughtering Vptra, the
waters referred to could not but be the waters imprisoned in the
rain-clouds. The seven rivers set free to flow by killing Vptra were
similarly understood to be the rivers of India, like the Ganges, the
Jamuna, etc. while the piercing of the mountains was explained
away by distorting or straining the meaning of such words as,
parvata, giri etc, as stated above. It was at this stage that the sub-
ject was taken in hand by Western scholars who, taking their cue
from the Hapta-hindu of the Avesta eloquently advanced the theory
that the seven rivers, set free by Indra, were the rivers of the Panjaub.
This explanation, when first started, was regarded as an important
historical discovery; and so it would have been, if it had been a
real fact. But, as pointed out above, the Panjaub is, by nature, a
land of five rivers and not seven; and it is so described in the
Vajasaneyi Samhita. It is also evident that as the seven rivers set
free to flow by Indra, were released simultaneously with the dawn,
they could not be the rivers of the Panjaub. We do not mean to say
that the Panjaub was not an Aryan settlement at the time when the
Vedic hymns were sung, for the rivers of the Panjaub are expressly
mentioned in the ~g-Veda. But the rivers of the Panjaub were
not the seven rivers mentioned in the Vedas; and if so, a new expla-
nation of the Vritra legend becomes necessary, and such an expla-
nation is furnished only by the theory of the cosmic circulation of
aerial waters or rivers through the lower and the upper world,
carrying along with them the sun, the moon and the other hea-
venly bodies. We can now very well explain how Vtitra, by stretch-
ing his body across, closed the passages ill the mountainous ranges