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

THE VEDIC DAWNS. 91
Etymologically ahâni may, therefore, mean splendours ; but the
question is whether it is so used anywhere, and why we should
here give up the ordinary meaning of the word. Sâyaṇa's answer
is given above. It is because the word 'day' (ahan) can, according
to him, be applied only to a period after sunrise and before sun-
set. But this reasoning is not sound, because in the Ṛig-Veda
VI, 9, 1, ahaḥ is applied to the dark as well as to the bright pe-
riod of time, for the verse says, “there is a dark day (ahaḥ) and
a bright day (ahaḥ).” This shows that the Vedic poets were in the
habit of using the word ahaḥ (day) to denote a period of time devoid
of the light of the sun.* Sâyaṇa knew this, and in his commentary
on I, 185, 4, he expressly says that the word ahaḥ may include
night. His real difficulty was different, viz., the impossibility of
supposing that a period of several days could have elapsed between
the first appearance of light and sunrise, and this difficulty seems to
have been experienced even by Western scholars. Thus Prof.
Ludwig materially adopts Sâyaṇa's view and interprets the verse
to mean that the splendours of the dawn were numerous, and that
they appear either before sunrise, or, if prâchînam be differently
interpreted 'in the east' at the rising of the sun. Roth and Grass-
mann seem to interpret prâchînam in the same way. Griffith
translates ahâni by 'mornings' and prâchînam by 'aforetime.' His
rendering of the verse runs thus:—“Great is, in truth, the number
of the mornings, which were aforetime at the sun's uprising; since
thou, O Dawn, hast been beheld repairing as to thy love, as
one no more to leave him.” But Griffith does not explain
* Ṛig. VI. 9, 1,—अहश्च कृष्णमहरर्जुनं च वि वर्तेते रजसी वेद्याभिः
Also cf. T. S. III, 3, 4, 1,—एतद्वा अहो रूपं यद्रात्रिः । Similarly in T. S.
VI, 3, 9, 1, the phrase शमहॊभ्याम् ( 1, 3, 9, 1 ) is thus explained:—
शमहोभ्यामिति निनयत्यहोरात्राभ्यामेव ।