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

LONG DAY AND LONG NIGHT. 145
proving the long duration of the dawn, we have, therefore,
sufficient independent evidence to hold that the long night in the
Arctic regions and its counterpart the long day were both known to
the poets of the Ṛig-Veda, and the Taittirîya Saṁhitâ distinctly
informs us that it was a phenomenon of the former (purâ) age.
I shall close this chapter with a short discussion of another
Circum-Polar characteristic, I mean the southern course of the
sun. It is previously stated, that the sun can never appear over-
head at any station in the temperate or the frigid zone, and that
an observer stationed within these zones in the northern hemi-
sphere will see the sun to his right hand or towards the south,
while at the North Pole the sun will seem to rise from the south.
Now the word dakshiṇa in Vedic Sanskrit denotes both the
'right hand' and the 'south,' as it does in other Aryan languages ;
for, as observed by Prof. Sayce, these people had to face the
rising sun with their right hands to the south, in addressing their
gods, and hence "Sanskrit dakshiṇa, Welsh dehau and Old Irish
des all mean at once 'right hand' and 'south'."* With this
explanation before us, we can now understand how in a number
of passages in the Ṛig-Veda Western scholars translate dakshiṇa
by 'right side,' where Indian scholars take the word to
mean 'the southern direction.' There is a third meaning of
dakshiṇâ, viz., 'largess' or 'guerdon,' and in some places
the claims of rich largesses seem to have been pushed too far.
Thus when the suns are said to be only for dakshiṇâvats in
I, 125, 6, it looks very probable that originally the expression
had some reference to the southern direction rather than to
the gifts given at sacrifices. In III, 58, 1, Sûrya is called
the son of Dakshiṇâ, and even if Dakshiṇâ be here taken to
mean the Dawn, yet the question why the Dawn was called

• See Sayce's Introduction to the Science of Language, Vol.
  II, p. 130.