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

254 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
other word or words may be found used to denote the place of
the confinement of the waters, as meaning a cloud, and explain
the legend of Vṛitra by the Storm theory as best as we can.
It will be found from the feregoing discussion regarding the
Storm theory as applied to the legend of Indra and Vṛitra, that
it explains neither the simultaneous effects of Indra's conquest
over Vṛitra, nor the statements regarding the seat of the battle
between them, nor those regarding the time when it took place,
nor again does it allow us to take the words, used in certain
Vedic passages, in their natural sense ; and yet we find that the
theory has been accepted as the basis of the legend from the
times of the Nairuktas upto the present. Why should it be
so?—is a question, which would naturally occur to any one,
who examines the subject. It is true that the Storm theory
fully explains the release of waters as a result of the fight ; but
the release of waters is not the only consequence, which we
have to account for. There are four simultaneous effects of
the war, the release of the waters, the release of the cows, the
recovery of the dawn and the production of the sun. The Storm
theory explains the first two and the Dawn theory the last
two of these ; but the whole set of four is explained by neither,
nor could the theories be so combined as to explain all the
four effects, unless, like Prof. Macdonell, we suppose that the
Vedic bards have confused the two entirely different ideas, viz.,
the restoration of the sunlight after thunderstorm, and the re-
covery of light from the darkness of night. Of the two theories,
the Storm and the Dawn, the ancient Nairuktas, therefore, seem
to have adopted that which adequately accounted for the release of
the waters and which suited better with their notion of Indra as a
thunder-god, on the principle that half a loaf is better than none,
and have ignored the remaining incidents in the legend as inex-
plicable, unimportant, or immaterial. The same theory has also
been adopted by Western scholars, and it is the only theory in the