Page 480 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

VEDIC MYTHS-THE MATUTINAL DEITIES 261
of Surya in the ~ig-Veda, which refers to this phenomenon ?-is
the question we have now to consider. The statement that ten
horses are yoked to the carriage of the sun has been shewn to
point out to a period of ten months' sunshine; but the legend
of lndra's stealing the wheel of the sun is still more explicit; To
understand it properly we must however, first see in what relation
Indra generally stands to Silrya. It has been shown in the last
chapter, that Indra is the chief hero in the fight between the
powers of light and darkness. It is he, who causes the suo to
rise with the dawn, or makes the sun to shine (VIII, 3, 6; VIII,
98, 2 ) and mount the sky ( I, 7, 3 ). The sun, it is further stated,
( III, 39, 5 ), was dwelling in darkness, where Indra, accompanied by
the Dashagvas found him and brought him up for man. It is
Indra again who makes a path for the sun ( X, III, 3 ), and
fights with the demons of darkness in order to gain back the light
of the morning. In short, Iodra is every where described as a
friend and helper of Silrya, and yet the ~ig-Veda mentions a
legend in which Indra is said to have taken way or stolen the
wheel of Silrya and thus vanquished him (I, 175, 4; IV, 30, 4;
V, 31, 11; X, 43, 5 ). It has been supposed that the legend may
refer either to the obscuration of the sun by a storm-cloud, or to
his diurnal setting; but the former is too uncertain an event to
be made the basis of a legend like the present, nor can a cloud
be said to be brought on by Indra, while we have no authority
to assume, as presupposed in the latter case, that the legend refers
to the daily setting of the sun. We must, therefore, examine the
legend a little more closely, and see if we can explain it in a more
intelligible way. Now Surya's chariot is described in the ~ig­
Veda as having but one wheel (I, 164, 2 ), though the wheel is
said to be seven fold; and in the later mythology it is distinctly
stated that the chariot of the sun is eka·chakra or a monocycle.
If this wheel is taken away, the progress of the sun must cease,
bringing everything to a dead lock. It seems, however, that the
wheel of the sun means the sun himself in the present legend.
Thus in I, 175, 4, and IV, 30, 4, the phrase used is suryam chkram,.
evidently meaning that the solar orb itself is conceived as a wheel·
When this wheel is said to be stolen, we must, therefore, suppose
that the sun himself was taken away, and not that one of the two
wheels of this carriage was stolen, leaving the carriage to run on
I "
one wheel as best as it could. What did Indra do with this solar