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

LONG DAY AND LONG NIGHT. 129
have a similar Mantra or prayer addressed to Night in these
words:—"O Chitrâvasu! let me safely reach thy end." A little
further, (I, 5, 7, 5,) the Saṁhitâ itself explains this Mantra, or
prayer thus:—"Chitrâvasu is (means) the night; in old times
(purâ), the Brâhmans (priests) were afraid that it (night) would
not dawn." Here we have an express Vedic statement, that,
in old times, the priests or the people, felt apprehensions regard-
ing the time when the night would end. What does it signify?
If the night was not unusually long, where was the necessity for
entertaining any misgivings about the coming dawn? Sâyaṇa,
in commenting on the above passage, has again put forward
his usual explanation, that nights in the winter were long
and they made the priest apprehensive in regard to the coming
dawn. But here we can quote Sâyaṇa against himself, and show
that he has dealt with this important passage in an off-hand
manner. It is well known that the Taittirîya Saṁhitâ often
explains the Mantras, and this portion of the Saṁhitâ is called
Brâhmaṇa, the whole of the Taittirîya Saṁhitâ being made up
in this way of Mantras and the Brâhmaṇa, or prayers and their
explanations or commentary mixed up together. The statement
regarding the apprehensions of the priests about the coming dawn,
therefore, falls under the Brâhmaṇa portion of the Saṁhitâ. Now
the contents of the Brâhmaṇas are usually classified by Indian
divines under the ten following heads*:—(1) Hetu or reason; (2)
Nirvachana, or etymological explanation; (3) Nindâ, or censure;
(4) Prashamsâ, or praise; (5) Saṁshaya, or doubt; (6) Vidhi, or
the rule; (7) Parakriyâ, or others' doings; (8) Purâ-kalpa, or ancient
rite or tradition; (9) Vyavadhâraṇa-kalpanâ or determining the

• These are enumerated in the following verses:—
  हेतुर्निर्वचनं निंदा प्रशंसा संशयोविधिः । परक्रिया पुराकल्पो व्यवधारणकल्पना ॥
  उपमानं दशैवैते विधयो ब्राह्मणस्य तु । एतद्वै सर्ववेदेषु नियतं विधिलक्षणम् ॥