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

MONTHS AND SEASONS. 181
nights', it could mean nothing except 'the long continuous
night,' and if so, why not take mânushâ yugâ to represent the
period of the solar year, which remains after the long night is
excluded from it ? As observed by me before, Prof. Max Muller
has correctly translated kṣhapaḥ by 'continuous nights,' but has
missed the true meaning of the expression mânushâ yugâ in this
place. A similar mistake has been committed with respect to IV,
16, 19, where the expression is kṣhapaḥ madema śaradas cha
pûrvîḥ. Here, in spite of the accent, Max Muller takes kṣhapaḥ
as accusative and so does Sâyaṇa. But Sâyaṇa correctly inter-
prets the expression as 'May we rejoice for many autumns
(seasons) and nights.' 'Seasons and nights' is a compound
phrase, and the particle cha becomes unmeaning if we split it up
and take nights (kṣhapaḥ) with one verb, and seasons (śaradaḥ)
with another. Of course so long as the Arctic theory was
unknown the phrase 'seasons and nights' or 'mânushâ yugâ and
nights' was unintelligible, inasmuch as nights were included in
the seasons or the yugas. But Prof. Max Muller has himself
suggested the solution of the difficulty by interpreting kṣhapaḥ
as 'continuous nights' in II. 2, 2; and adopting this rendering,
we can, with greater propriety, take seasons and nights together,
as indicated by the particle cha, and understand the expression
to mean a complete solar year including the long night. The
addition of kṣhapaḥ to mânushâ yugâ, therefore, further supports
the conclusion that the phrase indicated a period of sunshine as
stated above. There are many other passages in translating which
unnecessary confusion or obscurity has been caused by taking
mânushâ yugâ to mean human tribes; but a discussion of these
is not relevant to the subject in hand.
An independent corroboration of the conclusion we have
drawn from the legends of the Dashagvas and Dirghatamas