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

the phrases 'thirty yojanas,' 'thirty sisters,' and 'thirty steps' as
different versions of one and the same fact, viz., the circuits of
the dawn along the Polar horizon. The phrase 'each its destined
course' also becomes intelligible in this case, for though thirty
dawns complete thirty rounds, each may well be described as
following its own definite course. The words pari yanti in the
text literally apply to a circular (pari) motion, (cf. the words
pari-ukshaņam, pari-staraņam, &c.); and the same term is used
in the Taittirîya Samhitâ with reference to 'thirty sisters'. The
word yojana primarily means 'a chariot' (VIII, 72, 6), and then
it came to denote 'distance to be accomplished without unharnes-
sing the horses', or what we, in the vernacular, call a 'ṭappâ.'
Now this ṭappâ, or 'the journey to be accomplished without
unharnessing the horses', may be a day's journey, and Prof.
Max Muller has in one place interpreted the yojana in this way.*
In V, 54, 5, the Maruts are said "to have extended their
greatness as far as the sun extends his daily course," and the
word in the original for 'daily course' is yojanum. Accepting
this meaning, we can interpret the expression 'the dawns
forthwith go round (pari yanti) thirty yojanas' to mean that
the dawns complete thirty daily rounds as at the North Pole.
That circular motion is here intended is further evident from
III, 61, 3, which says, in distinct terms, "Wending towards the
same goal (samânam artham), O Newly-born (Dawn)! turn on
like a wheel (chakramiva â vavṛitsva)."† Although the word
navyasi (newly-born) is here in the vocative case, yet the
meaning is that the dawn, ever anew or becoming new every
day, revolves like a wheel. Now a wheel may either move in

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• See S. B. E. Series, Vol. XXXII, pp. 177 and 325.
  † Ṛig. III, 61, 3,—उषः प्रतीची भुवनानि विश्वोध्वा॑ तिष्ठस्य॒मृत॑स्य
  केतुः। स॒मानमर्थं॑ चरणीयमाना च॒क्रमिव॒ नव्य॒स्या व॑वृत्स्व ॥