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

LONG DAY AND LONG NIGHT. 133
and they literally mean ‘make many bodies or forms.’ We
have thus a two-fold description of the couple ; it is called the
shining and the dark, and also described as possessed of many
forms. In I, 123, 7, the couple of Day and Night is said to be
vishurûpe; while in other places the adjective virûpe is used
in the same sense. It is evident, therefore, that the ‘bodies’
or ‘forms’ intended to be denoted by these words must be
different from the two-fold character of the couple as shining
and dark; and if so, the phrases vishurûpe, virûpe or nânâ vapûmṣhi
used in connection with the couple of Day and Night must
be taken to mean something different from ‘bright and dark’,
if these expressions are not to be considered as superfluous
or tautological. Sâyaṇa. interprets these phrases as referring
to different colours (rûpa), like black, white, &c., and some
of the Western scholars seem to have adopted this interpreta-
tion. But I cannot see the propriety of assigning different
colours to Day and Night. Are we to suppose that we may
have sometimes green, violet, yellow or blue days and nights ?
Again though the word rûpa lends itself to this construction,
yet vapûmṣhi cannot ordinarily be so understood. The question
does not, however, seem to have attracted the serious atten-
tion of the commentators; so that even Griffith translates vishurûpe
by ‘unlike in hue’ in I, 123, 7. The Naktoshâsâ are described as
virûpe also in I, 113, 3, but there too Sâyaṇa gives the same
explanation. It does not appear to have occurred to any one
that the point requires any further thought. Happily, in the
case of Ṛig. I, 113, 3, we have, however, the advantage of
consulting a commentator older than Sâyaṇa. The verse occurs
in the Uttarârchika of Sâma-Veda (19, 4, 2, 3), and Mâdhava
in his Vivaraṇa, a commentary on the Sâma-Veda, explains virûpe
thus:— “In the Dakshiṇâyana during the year there is the increase of