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

168 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
the nine months' to the Navagvas. For navan in Navagva
is only a numerical variation for dashan in Dashagva, and
it follows, therefore, that what the Dashagvas did by tens, the
Navagvas did by nines.
There is another circumstance connected with the Aṅgi-
rases which further strengthens our conclusion, and which
must, therefore, be stated in this place. The Aṅgirases are
sometimes styled the Virūpas. Thus in ·III, 53, 7, the Aṅgi-
rases are described as "Virūpas, and sons of heaven"; and the
name Virūpa once occurs by itself as that of a single being,
who sings the praises of Agni, in a stanza (VIII, 75, 6) imme-
diately following one in which Aṅgiras is invoked, showing that
Virūpa is here used as a synonym for Aṅgiras. But the most
explicit of these references is X, 62, 5 and 6. The first of these
verses states that the Aṅgirases are Virūpas, and they are the
sons of Agni; while the second describes them along with the
Navagva and the Dashagva in the following terms, "And which
Virūpas were born from Agni and from the sky; the Navagva
or the Dashagva, as the best of the Aṅgirases (Aṅgiras-tama),
prospers in the assemblage of the gods."* Now Virūpas literal-
ly means 'of various forms,' and in the above verses it seems
to have been used as an adjective qualifying Aṅgirases to de-
note that there are many species of them. We are further
told that the Navagvas and the Dashagvas were the most
important (Aṅgiras-tamaḥ) of these species. In the last
chapter I have discussed the meaning of the adjective Vi-
rūpa as applied to a couple of Day and Night and
have shown, on the authority of Mādhava, that the word,
as applied to days and nights, denotes their duration, or the
period of time over which they extend. Virūpas in the
present instance appears to be used precisely in the same

• Rig. X, 62, 6,—ये अग्नेः परि जज्ञिरे विरूपासो दिवस्परि । नवग्वो
  नु दशग्वो अंगिरस्तमः सचा देवेषु मंहते ॥