Page 759 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

HELLEBRANDT'S ' VEDIC MYlHOLOGY ' 105
whole Pitriyana or only a part of the time, perhaps the last
months of the year were assigned to the ritual of the manes; or
whether different kinds of measurement ( of time) prevailed,
one in the .({ig-Veda and another in the classical ritual, which
performed the V ajpeya etc. in the autumn. The ' darkness ' has
in southern places less significance than in northern; and the
representation ( of Agni etc. ) as a whole might be an inheritance
from previous Home under other latitudes; but of the significance
of the winter solstice for the Vedic times, there can be no doubt.
To this time of Pitriyana, the period of the year belonging to the
manes I assign the words, which speak of Agni's residing in dark-
neil& or the likes. If one takes, for instance, .({ig. III. 31. 3 ff; IV.
1. 11 ff; 2. 17 ff, and asks whether these passages with their imple-
cations and hints about the ragaining of the Bull, opening of the
Rock Stalls, light and darkness, h'ave not for their basis the produ-
ction of the new fire rather than the Agnihotra of every day; .({ig.
X. 35, testify - without comparing the readings.
Probably the daily Agnihotra was known to the .({ig-Veda.
Therefore it is often difficult to distinguish whether the perfor-
mance of the daily Agnihotra or of the new fire is indicated; for
the course of the day is like that of the year in many things. The-
Brahmaps ( books ) see even in the daily Agnihotra a Stlrya-
magic, when they state that without the dawn offerings the Sun
would not rise; but I would rather think that great divisions ( of
time - e. g. Ayanas ) and turning points have been of influence on
the first origin of such views than daily appearance ( phenomena ).
(Pages 136-137)- Oftener we hear of the anxiety of Gods
regarding the falling out of the Sun from heavens; it is the metres
and ~'f\IJ with which they support the wavering at the turning point.
It cannot be anything else than a reminiscence of an old sun-
turning festival which was accompanied with songs.

Agni's Flight.

Page 138 ff- The disappearance of the three brothers of
Agni is narrated in T. S. VI. 2. 8. 4. 'It treats, I think, not of
the preparation for a single Yajna but of the beginning of the
ritual year at the beginning of the Devayana following the Pitri-
yana. The whole narrative has too fixed a character to refer to a
single sacrifice. ' The Indian Mythology has chosen that image