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

VEDIC MYTHS—THE CAPTIVE WATERS. 265
therefore, meet with such questions in the Ṛig-Veda (I, 35, 7) as
"Where is Sûrya now (after sunset) and which celestial region
his rays now illumine?" But there is enough explicit evidence
to prove that the Vedic people knew of the existence of a
region below the earth, and if some of their notions about this
underworld were not very distinct, that does not, in the least,
affect the value of this evidence.
If we, therefore, dismiss from our mind the idea that the
lower world was not known to the Vedic people,—an assumption,
which is quite gratuitous, the movements and character of the
celestial waters become at once plain and intelligible. The
ancient Aryans, like the old Hebrews, believed that the subtle
matter, which filled the whole space in the universe, was nothing
but watery vapours; and secondly that the movements of the
sun, the moon and other heavenly bodies were caused by these
vapours which kept on constantly circulating from the nether to
the upper and from the upper to the lower celestial hemi-
sphere. That is the real key to the explanation of many a
Vedic myth; and unless we grasp it thoroughly, we cannot
rightly understand some of the utterances of the Vedic poets.
These waters were sometimes conceived as rivers or streams,
moving in the heaven, and eventually falling into the mouth of
Varuṇa, or the nether ocean (VII, 49, 2; VIII, 69, 12). The
nether world was, so to say, the seat or the home of these
waters, called yahvatîḥ or the eternal (IX, 113, 8); and they
formed the kingdom of Varuṇa and Yama, as well as the
hidden (ninya) abode of Vṛitra. This movement of waters is
very clearly expressed in the Parsi scriptures. In the Vendi-
dad, XXI, 4-5 (15-23), the waters are described as follows,—
"As the sea Vouru-Kasha is the gathering place of waters,
rise up, go up the aerial way and go down on the earth; go
down on the earth and go up the aerial way. Rise up and roll
along! thou in whose rising and growing Ahura Mazda made the