Page 469 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

250 SAMAGRA TILAK - 2 • THE ARCTIC HOME
or downwards;" and in I, 85, 11, a well lying obliquely (jimha)
is said to have been pushed up by . the Ashvins for satisfy-
ing the thirst of Gotama. These words and phrases are not
properly explained by the commentators, most of whom take
them as referring to the clouds. But it seems to me that these
phrases more appropriately describe the antepodal region, where
every thing is believed to be upside down in relation to the things
of this world. Dr. Warren tells us that the Greeks and the Egyp-
tians conceived their Hades, or things therein, as turned upside
down, and he. has even tried to show that the Vedic conception
of the nether world corresponds exactly with that of the Greeks
and the Egyptians.* The same idea is also found underlying the
Hades conception of many other races, and I think Dr. Warren
has correctly represented the ancient idea of the antepodal under
world. It was conceived by the ancients as an inverted tub or
hemisphere of darkness, full of waters, and the Ashvins had to
make an opening in its side and push the waters up so that after
ascending the sky they may eventually come down in the
form of rain to satisfy the thirst of Gotama. The same feat is
attributed to the Maruts in I, 85, 10 and 11 and there too we
must interpret it in the same way. The epithets uchchd-budhna
( with the bottom up) and jimha-bara (with its mouth downward
or sidewards ), as applied to a well ( avata ), completely show that
something extraordinary, or the reverse of what we usually
see, is here intended; and we cannot take them as referring to
the clouds, for the well is said to be pushed up ( urdhvam nunudre)
in order to make the waters flow from it hitherward. It may also
be observed that in I, 24, 7, the king Varupa of hallowed might
is said to sustain " erect the Tree's stem in the bottomless
( abudhna ) region, " and its rays which are hidden from us
have, " we are told, " their bottom up and flow downwards
( n£chind!z )." This description of the region of Varu~a exactly
corresponds with the conception of the Hades in which every
thing is turned upside down. Being regarded as an inverted
hemisphere, it is rightly described, from the point of view of
persons in this world, as a supportless region with bottom up
·and mouth downwards; and it was this bottomless darkness
(I, 182, 6 ), or the bottomless and supportless ocean, in which

• See Paradise Found, pp. 48r- 82.