Page 468 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

VEDIC MYTHS- THE MATUTINAL DEITIES. 249
the time when the sun at the winter solstice seems bound and
to stand still ( hence called solstice ), till he jumps up and turns
back. But ten days is too long a period for the sun to stand still
at the winter solstice, and even Prof. Max Muller seems to have
felt the difficulty, for immediately after the above explanation
he remarks that " whether this time lasted for ten or twelve
nights would have been difficult to settle even for more expe-
rienced astronomers than the Vedic ~i~his. " But even supposing
that the period of ten days may be thus accounted for, the ex-
planation entirely fails in the case of the legend of Dtrghatamas
who is said to have grown old in the tenth yuga and rescued by
the Ashvins from the torment to which he was subjected by his
enemies. I have shown previously that yuga here means a month;
and if this is correct we shall have to suppose that Dirghatamas,
representing the annual course of the sun, stood still at the winter
solstice for two months ! The whole difficulty, however, vanishes
when we explain the legends on the Arctic theory, for the sun may
then be supposed to be below the horizon for any period varying
from one to a hundred nights or even for six months.
The third point, left unexplained by the Vernal theory is
the place of distress or suffering from which the proteges are
said to have been rescued by the Ashvins. Bhujyu was saved not
on land, but in the watery region ( apsu ) without support ( anar-
ambhal}e) and a unillumined ( tamasi ) by the rays of the sun ( I,
182, 6 ). If we compare this description with that of the ocean
said to have been encompassed by V!'itra or of the dark ocean
which Bribaspati is said to have hurled down in II, 23, 18, we
can at once recognize them as identical. Both represent the
nether world which we· have seen is the home of aeria
waters, and which has to be crossed in boats by the drowned
sun in the ~ig-Veda or by Helios in the Greek mythology. It
cannot, therefore, be the place where the sun goes in winter;
and unless we adopt the Arctic theory, we cannot explain how the
proteges of the Ashvins are said to have been saved from being
drowned in a dark and bottomless ocean. In VIII, 40, 5, lndra
is said· to have uncovered the seven-bottomed ocean having a
side-opening (jiinha-baram ), evidently referring to the fight for
waters in the nether world. The same expression ( jimha-bdram )
is used again in I, 116, 9, where the Ashvins are described as
having lifted up a well " with bottom up and opening in the side