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

THE VEDIC DAWNS. 87
MUIR, (following Aufrecht) :—How great is the interval
that lies between the Dawns which have arisen, and those which
are yet to rise ? Uṣhas yearns longingly after the former Dawns,
and gladly goes on shining with the others (that are to come).
But in spite of these different renderings, the meaning of the
verse, so far as the question before us is concerned, can be easily
gathered. There are two sets of dawns, one of those that have
past, and the other of those that are yet to shine. If we adopt
Wilson's and Griffith's translations, the meaning is that these
two classes of dawns, taken together, occupy such a long period of
time as to raise the question,—How long they will be together?
In other words, the two classes of dawns, taken together, were
of such a long duration that men began to question as to when
they would terminate, or pass away. If, on the other hand, we
adopt Aufrecht's translation, a long period appears to have interve-
ned between the past and the coming dawns ; or, in other
words, there was a long break or hiatus in the regular sequence
of these dawns. In the first case, the description is only possible
if we suppose that the duration of the dawns was very long,
much longer than what we see in the temperate or the tropical
zone; while in the second, a long interval between the past and
the present dawns must be taken to refer to a long pause, or night,
occurring immediately before the second set of dawns com-
menced their new course,—a phenomenon which is possible
only in the Arctic regions. Thus whichever interpretation
we adopt—a long dawn, or a long night between the two sets of
dawns,—the description is intelligible, only if we take it to
refer to the Polar conditions previously mentioned. The
Vedic passages, discussed hereafter, seem, however, to support
Sâyaṇa's or Max Muller's view. A number of dawns is spoken