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

VEDIC MYTHS—THE CAPTIVE WATERS. 289
the Panjaub or India. But the hypothesis, howsoever tempting
it may seem at the first sight, is quite inadequate to explain
the seven-fold division of waters in a satisfactory way.
It has been pointed out above that the simultaneous release of
waters and light can be accounted for only on the theory
of the cosmic circulation of aerial waters; and if this is correct,
we cannot identify the seven rivers, set free to flow upwards
(udañcha) by Indra, with any terrestrial rivers whether in the
Panjaub or elsewhere. The Panjaub is, again, as its name
indicates, a land of five and not of seven rivers; and it is
so described in the Vâjasaneyî Saṁhitâ.* The term pañcha-
nada is, therefore, more appropriate in the case of the
Panjaub, than sapta sindhavaḥ or the Hapta-hindu of the
Avesta. But we might get over the difficulty by supposing
that Kubhâ and Sarasvatî, or any other two tributaries of the
Indus were included in the group by the Vedic bards, when
they spoke of seven rivers. In the Ṛig-Veda (X, 75), about
fifteen different rivers are mentioned, including the Gaṅgâ,
the Yamunâ, the Kubhâ, the Krumu, the Gomatî, the Rasâ,
and the five rivers of the Panjaub; but nowhere do we find
what specific rivers were included in the group of seven rivers.
This has given rise to a difference of opinion amongst scholars.
Thus Sâyaṇa includes the Ganges and the Jamuna in the
group, which, according to Prof. Max Muller, is made up by
adding the Indus and the Sarasvatî to the five rivers of the
Panjaub. On the other hand, Lassen and Ludwig hold that the
Kubhâ must be included in the group at the cost of the Sarasvati.
This shows that we are not on a safe ground in supposing
that the expression "seven rivers" once meant what is, by
nature, "the land of five rivers." The expression sapta
sindhavaḥ occurs in about a dozen places in the Ṛig-Veda, and
in five of these it distinctly denotes the seven rivers set free by

• See Vâj. Saṁ. XXXIV, 11,— पंच नद्यः सरस्वतीमपि यंति सस्रोत-
  तसः। सरस्वती तु पंचधा सो देशेऽभवत् सरित्॥ Here सो is equal to सा+अटः.
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