Page 499 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

280 SAMAGRA TILAK- 2 • THE ARCTIC HOME

Seven divisions of the earth are mentioned in I, 22, 16.
But the earths are said to be ten ( dashavani) in X, 94, 7,
( also cf. I, 52, 11 ).
The cows stable which the Ashvins opened is said to be
saptdsya or seven-mouthed in X, 40, 8. But a ten-fold cows'
stable ( dashavraja) is mentioned in VIII, 8, 20; 49, 10; 50, 9.
In X, 93, 4, Aryaman, Mitra, Varu~a, Rudra, Maruts,
PU~han and Bhaga are mentioned as seven kings. But ten,
gold-like ( hirll1Jyasanrjrisha) kings are referred to in VIII, 5,
38, and ten non-sacrificing ( ayajyava!;z ) kings are mentioned
,in VII, 83, 7. The Atharva Veda, XI, 8, 10, further tells us that
there were only ten ancient gods.
These references will make it clear that if the horses of
the sun are mentioned as seven in one place, they are said to
be ten in another; and so there are seven devotions and ten
devotions ; seven earths and ten earths; seven cowpens and
ten cowpens, and so on. This double division may not be
equally explicit in all cases; but, on the whole, there can be no
doubt that the several objects mentioned in the above passages
are conceived as divided in a double manner, once as seven-
fold and once as ten-fold. To this double division may be added
the three-fold division of the heaven, the earth and the nether
world or Nir-ri.ti; and the eleven-fold division of gods in the
heaven, the earth and waters mentioned previously. In the
Atharva Veda XI, 7, 14, nine earths, nine oceans and nine skies
are also mentioned, and the same division again occurs in the
Atharvashiras Upani~had, 6. Now it is evident that the theory
started by Yaska cannot explain all these different methods of
division. We might say that the three-fold division was
suggested by the heaven, the earth -'and the lower world. But
how are we to account for all kinds of division from seven to
eleven ? So far as I am aware there is no attempt made to explain
the principle of division underlying these different classifica-
tions. But now the analogy of the seven priests, the Navagvas
and the Dashagvas, suggests to us the probable reason of the
different methods of division noticed above. The fact that the
horses of the sun are once said to be seven and once ten, seem
naturally to refer to seven months' and ten months' period of
sunshine previously described; and if so, this helps us in under-