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

LONG DAY AND LONG NIGHT. 141
cannot, therefore, apply to the eclipsed sun. As regards the-
other suggestion, viz., that the sun remained stationary for a
while to allow his favourite race, the Aryans, to overthrow
their enemies, it seems to have had its origin in the Biblical
passage (Joshua, X, 12, 13), where the sun is said to have stood
still, at the word of Joshua, until the people had avenged them-
selves upon their enemies. But there is no authority for
importing this Biblical idea into the Ṛig-Veda. Indra's exploits
are described in a number of hymns in the Ṛig-Veda, but in no
other hymn he is said to have made the sun stand still for the
Aryans. We must, therefore, reject both the explanations
suggested by Griffith. Sâyaṇa gets over the difficulty by interpreting
the phrase, ratham vi amuchat madhye divaḥ, as meaning that
“ the sun loosened (vi-amuchat) his carriage, that is, set it free
to travel, towards the middle (madhye) of heaven, (ratham
prasthânâya vi-muktavân).” Sâyaṇa's meaning, therefore, is that
when Indra obtained compensation from Vṛitra, he let loose-
the chariot of the sun to travel towards the midst of the
sky. But the construction is evidently a strained one. The
verb vi much is used in about a dozen places in the Ṛig-Veda
in relation to horses, and everywhere it means to ‘unharness,’
‘unyoke,’ or ‘separate the horses from the carriage for rest;’
and even Sâyaṇa has interpreted it in the same way. Thus
vi-muchya is explained by him as rathat vishliṣhya in I, 104,
1, and rathât vi-muchya in III, 32, 1, and rathât visṛijya in
X, 160, 1, (also compare I, 171, 1 ; I, 177, 4 ; VI, 40, 1). The
most natural meaning of the present verse would, therefore,
be that the ‘sun unyoked his carriage.’ But even supposing
that vi much can be interpreted to mean ‘to loosen for
travel,’ the expression would be appropriate only when there
is an antecedent stoppage or slow motion of the sun. The
question why the sun stopped or slackened his motion in