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

144 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
the Aryan race over the non-Aryans, or anything of that kind
as supposed by Western scholars. Sâyaṇa, who had no historic
theories to mislead him, has rightly interpreted Ârya and Dâsa
in this verse as referring to Indra and his enemy; but he, in his
turn, has misinterpreted, as shewn above, the first half of the verse
in regard to the sun's long halt in the midst of the sky. The
misinterpretation of the second hemistich comes from Western
scholars, like Muir, who interprets Ârya, as meaning the Aryans
and Dâsa, the non-Aryans. This shows how in the absence of
the true key to the meaning of a passage, we may be led away by
current theories, even where the words are plain and simple
in themselves.
We thus see that the Ṛig-Veda speaks of two different
couples of Day and Night, one alone of which represents the
ordinary days and nights in the year, and the second, the Ahanî,
is a distinct couple by itself, forming, according to the Taittirîya
Âraṇyaka, the right and the left hand side of the Year, indicat-
ing the long Arctic day and night. The Taittirîya Saṁhitâ
again gives us in clear terms a tradition that in the former age
the night was so long that men were afraid it would not dawn.
We have also a number of expressions in the Ṛig-Veda denoting
‘long nights’ or ‘long and ghastly darkness,’ and also the ‘long
journey’ of the sun. Prayers are also offered to Vedic deities to
enable the worshipper to reach safely the end of the night, the
‘other boundary of which is not known.’ Finally we have an
express text declaring that the sun halted in the midst of
the sky and thereby retaliated the mischief brought on by
Dâsa's causing the long night. Thus we have not only the
long day and the long night mentioned in the Ṛig-Veda,
but the idea that the two match each other is also found
therein, while the Taittirîya Âraṇyaka tells us, that they
form the opposite sides of the Year-God. Besides the passages