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

274 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
for the appearance of Tishtrya after conquering Apaosha in the
watery regions is described as one night, two nights, fifty, or
one hundred nights, has already been referred to in the last
chapter. From all these passages taken together, it inevitably
follows that it was during winter that the water ceased to
flow, and the sun to move, and that the period of stagnation
lasted from one night to a hundred nights. It was a period of
long darkness, when the sun was not seen above the horizon ;
and if a man died during the period, his corpse had to be kept in
the house until the waters again commenced to flow, and the
sun appeared on the horizon along with them. I have pointed
out previously how the Hindu belief that it is inauspicious to die
in the Dakshiṇâyana must be traced to this primeval practice
of keeping the dead body undisposed of during the long Arctic
night. The word Kata which is used for 'grave' in the Parsi
scriptures occurs once in the Ṛig-Veda, I, 106, 6, where the sage
Kutsa, lying in Kâṭa is described as invoking the Vṛitra-slaying
Indra for his protection; and I think that we have here, at least,
an indirect reference to the practice of keeping dead bodies in a
Kâṭa, until Vṛitra was killed, and the waters and the sun made
free to run their usual course. We are, however, concerned here
only with the circulation of the celestial waters ; and from the
Avestic passages quoted above, it is clear that the aerial waters
ceased to flow during winter for several days or rather nights,
and that, since light sprang from the same source as waters, the
sun also ceased to move during the period and stood still in the
watery regions, until the Fravashis, who helped the gods in
their struggle for waters or in their conflict with powers of
darkness, made the waters and the sun move onwards to take
their usual course in the upper celestial hemisphere. We can
now understand why Indra is described as moving by his
might the stream upwards (udañcha) in II, 15, 6, and how the
rivers are said to be set free to move on (sartave) by killing