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

VEDIC MYTHS—THE CAPTIVE WATERS. 275
Vṛitra (I, 32, 12), or how in I, 80, 5, Indra is said to have made
the lights of heaven shine forth without obstruction and set the
waters (apaḥ) free to flow (sarmaṇa). There are many other
passages in the Ṛig-Veda, where the flowing of waters and the
appearance of the sun or the dawn are spoken of as taking place
simultaneously, as may be seen from the quotations from
Macdonell's Vedic Mythology given above. All these passages
become intelligible only when interpreted on the theory of the
cosmic circulation of aerial waters through the upper and the
lower celestial hemispheres. But as the theory was little understood
or studied in this connection, the Vedic scholars, ancient and
modern, have hitherto failed to interpret the Vṛitra legend in a
rational and intelligible way, especially the four simultaneous
effects of the conquest of Indra over Vṛitra mentioned therein.
The cosmic circulation of aerial waters described above,
is not peculiar to the Indo-Iranian mythology. Dr. Warren, in
his Paradise Found, states that a similar circulation of aerial
waters is mentioned in the works of Homer. Homer describes
the sun as returning to the flowing of the ocean, or sinking into
it, and again rising from it and mounting the sky. All rivers
and every sea and all fountains and even deep wells are again
said to arise from the deep flowing ocean, which was believed
to encircle the earth.* Hêlios or the sun is further described
as sailing from west to east in a golden boat or cup, evidently
meaning that the underworld was supposed to be full of waters.
But Homeric scholars seem to have raised unnecessary
difficulties in the proper interpretation of these passages
by assuming that Homer conceived the earth to be flat and
that as the Hades was a region of complete darkness, the sun
could not be said to go there even after his setting. Dr. Warren
has, however, shown that the assumption is entirely groundless,

• See Dr. Warren's Paradise Found, 10th Edition (1893), Part
  V, Chap. V, pp. 250-260.