Page 477 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

258 SAMAGRA TJLAK - 2 • THE ARCTIC HOME

fading face, laid down with the Arati. "* In I, 72, 2, we further read,
" All the clever immortals did not find the calf though sojourn-
ing round about u . The attentive (gods) wearing themselves,
following his foot-step , stood at the highest beautiful standing
place of Agni," and the same idea is expressed in I, 95, 4, wlllch
says, " Who amongst you has understood this sercet? The calf has
by itself given birth to its mother. The germ of many, the great
seer moving by his own strength comes forward from the lap
of the active one ( apasam )." It i the story of the hidden Agni
who is described in X, 124, 1, as having long (jyok) resided in
the long darkness ( d!rgham tama~ ), and who eventually comes
out as the child of waters ( apdm napat, I, 143, 1 ). The epithet apam
napdt as applied to Agni is usually explained as referring to the
lightening produced from the clouds, but this explanation does
not account for the fact of his long residence in darkness.
The puzzle or the riddle is, however, satisfactorily solved by the
Arctic theory, combined with the cosmic circulation of aerial
waters. The sun, who moves in the interior of heaven and earth
for ten months, as in the womb of his mother, naturally suggested
to the Vedic poets the parallel idea of the period of ten months'
gestation; but the wonder was that while a child is visible to all
as soon as it is born, the sun became invisible just at the time
when he came out of the womb. Where did be go ? Was he locked
up in a wooden chest or bound down with leather straps in the
region of waters ? Why did the mother not present him to the
father after he was safely delivered ? Was he safely delivered ?
These questions naturally arise out of the story, and the Vedic
.poets appear to take delight in reverting again and again to the
sam~ paradox in different places. And what applies to St1rya or
.the sun applies to Agni as well; for there are many passages in
the :Rig-Veda where Agni is identified with the sun. Thus Agni
is said to be the light of heaven in the bright sky, waking at dawn,
the head of heaven (III, 2, 14 ), and he is described as having been
l;>orn on the other side of the air in X, 187, 5. In the Aitareya
'Brahmapa ( VIII, 28 ), we are further told that the sun, when
• See Oldenberg's Vedic Hymns, S. B. E. Series, Vol. XLVI, pp.
366- 68. The first two verses of the hymn are:-~R +mrr ~: ~li ~
fir'l1Rr., ~1% M I ~~~ ., ~~: ~~= ~1% ~~ II ~ II <fi~6' ~<f
:¥et ~~% ~'l1Pf ~lfl' \i(ijffii I l_•Hfi ~: 'WcU <f<r~m~ iiim ~~~ m~T II~ II