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

166 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
Dashagva may have to dasha. But dasha or rather dashan, is a
numeral signifying 'ten' and cannot be taken in any other sense;
therefore, as observed by Prof. Lignana,* nava or rather navan
must be taken to mean 'nine'. The meaning of gva (gu+a) is,
however, yet to be ascertained. Some derive it from go, a
cow, and others from gam, to go. In the first case the meaning
would be 'of nine cows' or 'of ten cows'; while in the second
case the words would signify 'going in nine' or 'going in ten,' and
the fact that the Dashagvas are said to be ten in III, 39, 5, lends
support to the latter view. But the use of the words Navagva
and Dashagva, sometimes even in the singular number as an ad-
jective qualifying a singular noun, shows that a group or a com-
pany of nine or ten men, is not, at any rate, always intended.
Thus in VI, 6, 3, the rays of Agni are said to be navagvas, while
Adhrigu is said to be dashagva in VIII, 12, 2, and Dadhyañch
navagva in IX, 108, 4. We must, therefore, assign to these
epithets some other meaning, and the only other possible expla-
nation of the numerals 'nine' and 'ten' is that given by Sâyaṇa,
who says “(Comm. on Ṛig. I, 62, 4), “The Aṅgirases are of two
kinds, the Navagvas or those who rose after completing the
sattra in nine months, and the Dashagvas, or those who rose
after finishing the sattra in ten months.Ӡ We have seen
that in the Ṛig-Veda V, 45, 7 and 11, the Dashagvas and

• See his Essay on “The Navagvas and the Dashagvas of the
  Ṛig-Veda” in the Proceedings of the 7th International Congress of Ori-
  entalists, 1886, pp. 59-68. The essay is in Italian, and I am indebted
  to the kindness of Mr. Shrinivâs Iyengar, B. A., B. L., High Court
  Pleader, Madras, for a translation of the same.
  † Sâyaṇa, in his gloss. on Ṛig. I, 62, 4, says:— अंगिरसो द्विवि-
  धाः । सत्रमभिगमनुतिष्ठन्तो ये नवभिर्मासैः समाप्य गतास्ते नवग्वाः ।...
  ‘नवग्वा नवनीतगतय’ इति यास्को व्याचख्यौ। ये तु दशभिर्मासैः समाप्य-
  जग्मुस्ते दशग्वाः । Again in his gloss. on X, 62, 6, he states:—सत्रमा-
  सीनानामंगिरसां मध्ये केचन नवसु मास्सु कर्म कृत्वोदतिष्ठन् केचन दशसु
  मास्स्विति । एवमंगिरसामयनमुक्तम् । तेषामग्निर्नवग्वश्च दशग्वश्चोक्तः ।