Page 744 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

96 SAMAGRA TILAK - 2 • CHALDEAN AND INDIAN VEDAS
foreign word, and tur-pharttu in that well known unintelligible
verse ( ~. X. 106. 6) also wears a suspicious look. I shall not,
therefore, be surprised if that verse is found to contain some
words of foreign origin. On the other hand itu meaning ' a month '
in the Chaldean language seems to me to be the same word as
the Vedic ritu meaning ' a season ' or a 'month '.
Lastly I may here mention that we find a very close resem-
blance between the Chaldean and the Vedic legends regarding
the place and movements of cosmic waters, their conquest by
the powers of light, viz. by Indra or Marduk, and also between
the cosmographic ideas of the two nations, that is those relating
to the arrangement of the whole universe, as may be seen by a
comparison of the illustrative diagram of ' the world according
to Babylonish ideas' given by Jenson at the end of his book,
and the one given by me in my Artie Home in the Vedas at the
end of Chapter IX.* Dr. Jenson has also discussed the sevenfold
division of the earth's continents by the Babylonians, and pointed
out its resemblance with the Paura:Q.ic account of the seven conti-
nents.t But I think that the parrallel can be carried much further;
for I have shown elsewhere that this sevenfold division is
to be found not only in the Punh.J,as but also in the Vedas.:j:
It is really interesting to note that there are not only seven
Heavens and seven Hells in the Chaldean mythology, but that
the serpent Tiamat killed by Marduk is sometimes represented
as having seven heads, while Indra is called Sapta-han or ' Killer
of seven ' in the Vedas,§ and the closed watery ocean, the doors
of which Indra and Agni opened by their powers, is described
as sapta-budhna ( seven-bottomed) in ~. VIII, 40. 5. Again
there are indications in the ancient Chaldean literature of a dark

is one of the epithets of A,hvins in the ~igveda. The word sinn appears
in J;ligveda ii. 302 and there Jt is said to be brought to or presented to
Vritra. Can siua here mean the moon? Owing to her waning she may
be properly said to be handed over or.delivered to Vritra, the demon
of darlcness.
• Compare also Maspero's Darm of Civilisatiun, English translation;
Vol. II, pp. 542- 543·
t Kosmologie rk1· Babrlomtr, pp. 163-18~.
t Cf. A1dic Home in the Vedas, pp. 3-40f.
§ J;l. X. 49. 8.