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

THE COWS' WALK. 215
Long-Night, informs us (p. 75) that although the sun went below
the horizon for several days in the Arctic regions, yet during the
period "the Lapps could tell from the stars whether it was night
or day, for they were accustomed to gauge time by the stars
according to their height above the horizon, just as we do at
home with the sun"; and what the Lapps do now, must have
been done by the oldest inhabitants of the circum-polar regions.
It is, therefore, clear that the ancient sacrificers of the Aryan race
could not have gone to sleep after sacrificing for ten months. Did
they then sit idle with their hands folded when Indra was
fighting for them with the powers of darkness? They per-
formed their sacrifices for ten months with a view to help In-
dra in his war with Vala; and just at the time when Indra most
needed the help of invigorating songs and Soma libations, are we
to suppose that these sacrificers sat idle, gave up the sacrifices
and left Indra to fight with Vala alone and single-handed as best
as he could? The whole theory of sacrifices negatives such a
supposition. Therefore, if the Arctic theory is true, and if the
ancestor of the Vedic Ṛiṣhis ever lived in a region where the
darkness of the night lasted for several days, (a day being taken
as a measure of time equal to 24 hours), we naturally expect to
find a series of nightly Soma sacrifices performed during the
period, to help the gods in their struggle with the demons of
darkness; and, as a matter of fact, there are in the Vedic sacri-
ficial literature, a number of sacrifices which, if we include the
Ati-râtra in it, extend from one to a hundred nights. The Mîmâ-
ṁsakas and even the authors of the Brâhmaṇas, who knew little
about the ancient Arctic home, have converted these night-sac-
rifices into day-sacrifices; but the explanation evidently appears
to be invented at a time when the true nature of the Râtri-kratus or
Râtri-sattras was forgotten, and it does not, therefore, preclude us
from interpreting these facts in a different way. I have already