Page 88 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

THE ANTELOP£?s HMO
of ali antelope's .head, the explanation presupposes that the ~hole
of the antelope is in the heavens; and if Ardra 6 e corruUy
identified with the star in the right shoulder ofOrion we shall hav,e
also to include this star in the four feet of the antelope. The old
Vedic works, however, seem to lay down that it was the head of
the antelope and not the antelope itself, that was transplanted
to the heavens. Referring to the legend of Rudra piercing Pra;
japati, SAyalla in his commentary on the Shatapatha Brahma~a
( ii. 1. 2. 8. )"' 0bserves that he, the terrible form created by the
gods, • cut off Prajapati's head by the arrow,' and 'the arrow and
the head both jumped up to the _heavens and are there stationed.'
The Aitareya Brahma~a (iii. 33.) gives the same story and there
too Pashuman _or BMtavan is said to' have p~rced Prajapati
with an arrow; But it do.es. not distin<:tly· say wh,cther it was the.
head or the body that was pierced by him though in the Shatapatha
BnihmaDa Mtigashiras is described as the head of Prajapati. The
tradition of piercing the head does not, however, occur in this
form in the ~igveda,1th.ough in ~ig. X. 61. s-1 this' story of Praja-
pati is alluded to. But:in many places where. Jndi'a is mentioned
as killing V ritra:we are told that he cut off the head of this enemy
( i. 52. 10; iv.l.S; 9;·viii. 6. 7) and in ~ig. v. 34. 2 and viii. 93. 14,
Indra'-:; enemy is described as appearing·in the fdrm of an antelope.
This shows that the ~igveda indirectly speaks of an antelope's
head having been cut off by Indra, and it may justify us in holding
that Rudra did the same. The tradition is preserved even in the
Greek mythology which tells us that Apollo, indignant at her
sister's affections for Orion, made her hit, with an arrow, a mark
in the distant sea; which turned out to be the Orion's head.t In
the heavens we must therefore look for the ' cut off' head of
Mriga with the arrow pierced in it. There are other circumstances
wruch point to the conclusion. Sanskrit writers have described a
small group of stars in Mrigasbiras called Invakas. Amarasinha
tells us that they are' on the top of Mrigashiras.t Now if Mriga-

• ~~rou~···~= tm:ir~ll11+RtfW~§!""~~~~~~~
SAyaQa's commentary on Shat. Br. ii. 1, z. 8. ·
t See Smith's Dictionary of Classicaf Mythology. Ov. Fast, v·. 537·
t . Thus :- M.O ~~'film~ 'I ~~00~ <fRiliT
~,f{l;.t Amara 1. 3· 23. ~~ = 4!•t~4~t()~~ according to Bhlnu
Dtkdlita.