Page 481 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

2rl2 SAMAGRA TILAK - 2 • THE ARCTIC HOME
wheel, or the sun himself, which he stole in this way ? We are
told that he used solar rays as his weapon to kill or burn the
demons (VIII, 12, 9 ). It is, therefore, clear that the stealing of the
solar wheel and the conquest over the demons are contempo-
raneous events. Indra's fight with the demons is mainly for the
purpose of regaining light, and it may be asked how Indra can
be· described to have used the solar orb as a weapon of attack
for the purpose of regaining Silrya that was lost in darkness ?
For it amounts to saying that the solar orb was used as a weapon
in recovering the sun himself, which was believed to be lost in
darkness. But the difficulty is only apparent and is due to the
modern notions of light or darkness. St1rya and darkness,
according to the modern notions, cannot be supposed to exist
in the same place; but the :Rig-Veda distinctly speak of " the
sun dwelling in darkne s " in two places at least ( III, 39, 5;
I, 117, 5 ); and this can be explained only on the supposition that
the Vedic bard believed that the sun was deprived of this lustre
when he sank below the horizon, or that his lustre was tempora-
rily ob cured during hi truggle with the demons of darkness.
It is impossible to explain the expression tamasi kshiyantam
( dwelling in darkne s ) on any other theory; and if this expla-
nation i accepted, it is not difficult to understand how the solar
orb could be said to be utilized by lndra in vanquishing the
demons and regaining the morning light. In other words, lndra
helps the sun in destroying the obstruction which marred or
clouded his lustre, and when this obstruction is removed the sun
regains his light and rises up from the nether ocean. lndra is
therefore, correctly described in IV, 17, 14 as having stopped
the wheel of the sun, and, turning it round, flung it into the
concealing darkness at the bottom of rajas or in the nether world
of darkness. But the passage important for our purpose is VI,
31, 3. It reads as follows :-
Tvam Kutsena abhi Shu~hl)am lndra
Ashu~hanz yudhya Kuyavam gavi~h~aul
Dasha prapitve adha Suryasya
mu~hdyas chakram avive rapamsill
The first half of the verse presents no difficulty. It means
., 0 Indra ! in the striving for the cows, do you, with Kutsa,