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

100 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
a still more explicit authority be needed it will be found in the
Taittirîya Brâhmaṇa, II, 5, 6, 5. This is an old Mantra, and
not a portion of the explanatory Brâhmaṇa, and is, therefore, as
good an authority as any of the verses quoted above. It is address-
ed to the dawns and means "These very Dawns are those that
first shone forth, the Goddesses make five forms ; eternal
(shashvatîḥ), (they) are not separated (na avapṛijyanti), nor do
(they) terminate (na gamanti antam)." * The 'five forms' here
referred to correspond with the division of 30 dawns into 5 groups
of 6 each, made in the Taittirîya Saṁhitâ, after the manner of
sacrificial shaḷ-ahas, or groups of six days ; and we are expressly
told that the dawns, which make these 5 forms, are continuous,
unseparated, or uninterrupted. In the Ṛig-Veda I, 152, 4, the
garment of the lover of the dawns (lit. the maidens, kanînâṁ
jâram) is described as 'inseparable' and 'wide' (an-avapṛigṇa and
vitata), and reading this in the light of the aforesaid Mantra from
the Taittirîya Brâhmaṇa we are led to conclude that in the
Ṛig-Veda itself the dawny garment of the sun, or the garment,
which the dawns, as mothers, weave for him (cf. V, 47, 6), is
considered as 'wide' and 'continuous.' Translated into common
language this means that the dawn described in the Ṛig-Veda
was a long and continuous phenomenon. In the Atharva-Veda
(VII, 22, 2) the dawns are described as sachetasaḥ and samîchîḥ,
which means that they are 'harmonious' and 'walk together' and
not separately. The first expression is found in the Ṛig-Veda,
but not the second, though it could be easily inferred, from the
fact that the dawns are there described as "collected in the same
enclosure." Griffith renders samîchîḥ by 'a closely gathered
band' and translates the verse thus :—"The Bright one hath

• Taitt. Br. II, 5, 6, 5,—इमा एव ता उषसो या प्रथमा व्यौच्छन् ।
  ता देव्यः कुर्वते पंच रूपा । शश्वतीर्नावपृज्यंति न गमन्त्यन्तम् ॥