वेदों की प्राचीनता एवं काल-निर्णय / ओरायन (लोकमान्य बाल गंगाधर तिलक - खगोलीय वैदिक शोध)

THE VEDIC DAWNS. 85
The three-fold division of the dawn does not seem to be
unknown to the poets of the Ṛig-Veda. For, in VIII, 41, 3,
Varuṇa's "dear ones are said to have prospered the three dawns
for him,"* and by the phrase tisraḥ dānuchitrāḥ in I, 174, 7,
'three dew-lighted' dawns appear to be referred to. There are other
passages in the Ṛig-Veda† where the dawn is asked not to delay,
or tarry long, lest it might be scorched like a thief by the sun
( V, 79, 9 ); and in II, 15, 6, the steeds of the dawn are said to
be 'slow' (ajavasaḥ), showing that the people were sometimes
tired to see the dawn lingering long on the horizon. But a still
more remarkable statement is found in I, 113, 13, where the poet
distinctly asserts,‡ "the Goddess Uṣhas dawned continually or
perpetually (shasvat) in former days (purā);" and the adjective
shashvat-tamā ( the most lasting ) is applied to the dawn in I, 118,
11. Again the very existence and use of two such words as uṣhas
and vi-uṣhṭi is, by itself, a proof of the long duration of the dawn;
for, if the dawn was brief, there was no practical necessity of
speaking of the full-blown state (vi+uṣhṭi) of the dawn as has
been done several times in the Ṛig-Veda. The expression, uṣhasaḥ
vi-uṣhṭau, occurs very often in the Ṛig-Veda, and it has been
translated by the phrase, " on the flashing forth of the dawn." But
no one seems to have raised the question why two separate
words, one of which is derived from the other simply by prefixing
the preposition vi, should be used in this connection. Words are
made to denote ideas, and if uṣhas and vi-uṣhṭi were not
required to denote two distinct phenomena, no one, especially

• Ṛig. VIII, 41, 3,—स क्षपः परि षस्वजे...तस्य वेनीरनु व्रतमुष-
  स्तिस्रो अवर्धयन् ।
  † Ṛig. V, 79, 9,—व्युच्छा दुहितर्दिवो मा चिरं तनुथा अपः । नेत्त्वा
  स्तेनं यथा रिपुं तपाति सूरो अर्चिषा ।
  ‡ Ṛig. I, 113, 13,—शश्वत्पुरोषा व्युवास देवी ।