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

THE VEDIC DAWNS. 95
they could not, therefore, understand how ‘many dawns’ could be
described as “not-fully-flashed-forth.” An explanation was thus
felt to be a necessity, and this was obtained by converting, in
sense, the past passive participle avyushṭa into a future participle;
and the expression in question was translated as meaning, “during
the dawns (or days) that have not yet dawned,” or, in other words,
“ in days to come.” But the interpretation is on the face of it
strained and artificial. If future days were intended, the idea
could have been more easily and briefly expressed. The poet is
evidently speaking of things present, and, taking vi-ushṭa to
denote what it literally signifies, we can easily and naturally
interpret the expression to mean that though many dawns, mean-
ing many day-long portions of time during which the dawn last-
ed, have passed, yet it is not vyushṭa, that is the sun's orb has
not yet emerged from below the horizon, and that Varuṇa should
protect the worshipper under the circumstances.
There are many other expressions in the Ṛig-Veda which
further strengthen the same view. Thus corresponding to bhūy-
asīḥ in the above passage, we have the adjective pūrvīḥ (many)
used in IV, 19, 8 and VI, 28, 1, to denote the number of the
dawns, evidently shewing that numerically more than one dawn
is intended. The dawns are again not unfrequently addressed
in the plural number in the Ṛig-Veda, and the fact is well-known
to all Vedic scholars. Thus in I, 92, which is a dawn-hymn,
the bard opens his song with the characteristically emphatic
exclamation, “these (etāḥ) are those (tyāḥ) dawns (ushasaḥ), which
have made their appearance on the horizon,” and the same ex-
pression again occurs in VII, 78, 3. Yâska explains the plural
number ushasaḥ by considering it to be used only honori-
fically (Nirukta XII, 7); while Sâyaṇa interprets it as re-
ferring to the number of divinities that preside over the.