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

LONG DAY AND LONG NIGHT. 137

zone would vary at the same place, the length of the long night
and the long day would not vary at one and the same place, but
only at different latitudes. Taking a couple of Day and Night,
as representing the days and nights of the year, we shall have,
therefore, to divide the different kinds of diurnal changes over
the globe into three classes:—
(i) At the Equator,—A single couple; dark and bright, but
always of the same form, or length (sarûpe).
(ii) Between the Equator and the Arctic Circle,—A single
couple; dark and bright, but of various forms, or lengths,
(virûpe).
(iii) Between the Arctic Circle and the Pole,—Two couples;
each dark and bright, but of various forms, or lengths, (virûpe).
At the Pole, there is only one day and one night of six
months each. Now if we have an express passage in the Ṛig-
Veda (IV, 55, 3) indicating two different couples of Day and
Night, Ushásâ-naktâ and Ahanî, it is evident that the aho-râtre
represented by them are the days and nights of the Circum-Polar
regions, and of those alone. In the light of IV, 55, 3, we must,
therefore, interpret III, 55, 11, quoted above, as describing two
couples, one of the twin pair and the other of two sisters. The
verse must, therefore, be translated:—“The twin pair (the first
couple) make many forms (lengths); of the two one shines and
the other is dark. Two sisters are they, the shyâvî or the dark
and arushî or the bright, (the second couple).” No part of the
verse is thus rendered superfluous, and the whole becomes far
more comprehensible than otherwise.
We have seen that days and nights are represented
by two distinct typical couples in the Ṛig-Veda Ushásâ-
naktâ and Ahanî; and that if the distinction is not unmeaning
we must take this to be the description of the days and