Page 471 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

i 5t SMfAGRA TILAK- 2 • THE ARCnc HOME
fighting with Azi DahAka, the Avestic representative of the -Ahi
Vtitra, in the sea Vouru-Kasha; and this strengthens our view
that the bowl with the bottom up and the mouth downwards is
the inverted hemisphere of the nether world, the seat of darkness
and the home of aerial waters. It was this region wherein
Bhujyu was plunged and had to be saved by the intervention of
the Ashvins.
Now if Bhujya was plunged in this bottomless darkness and
ocean for three nights and three days ( I, 116, 4) or Rebha was
there for ten nights and nine days (I, 116, 24 ), it is clear that
the period represents a continuous darkness of so many days
and nights as stated above; and I think, the story of ~ijd.shva,
or the Red-horse, also refers to the same incident, viz. the con·
tinuous darkness of the Arctic region. ~ijn\shva, that is, the
Red-horse, is said to have slaughtered 100, 101 sheep and gave
them to the Vrilci, or the she-wolf and his own father being angry
on that account is said to have deprived him of his sight. But
the Ashvins at the prayer of the she-wolf restored to ~jn\shav
his eye-sight and thus cured him of his blindness. Prof. Max
Muller thinks that the sheep may here mean the stars, which
may be said to have been slaughtered by the rising sun. But we
have seen that the 350 sheep of H~lios are taken to represent 350
nights, while the corresponding 350 days are said to be repre-
sented by his 350 oxen. In short, the Greek legend refers to a
year of 350 days and a continuous night of ten days; and the
period - of 10 nights mentioned in the legend of Rebha well ac-
cords with this conception of the ancient Aryan- year, inferred
from the story of Helios. This resemblance between the two
stories naturally leads us to inquire if any clue cannot be found
to the interpretation of the legend of ~ijnl.shva in the story of
Helios; and when we examine the subject from this point of view.
it is not difficult to discover the similarity between the slaughter
of sheep by ~ijrashva and the consuming of the oxen of Helios
by the companion of Odysseus. The wolf, as observed by Prof.
Max Muller, is generally understood in the Vedic literature to
be a representative of darkness and mischief rather than of light
and therefore the slaughter of 100 sheep for him naturally means
the conversion of hundred days into nights; producing thereby
a continuous darkness for a htiildred nights, of 24 bouts eachi
~ijnl.shva or the Red-sun may: well be spoken. of as becoming