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

292 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
located in seven different regions and producing seven
months of sun-shine of different temperatures. But how could
the seven suns move in seven different parts of heaven except
by the agency of seven different aerial rivers coming up from
the nether world, each with its own sun ? In short, when the
close connection between waters and light is once established,
it is not difficult to perceive why the waters and light are each
said to be seven-fold. The seven celestial rivers are expressly
mentioned in the Ṛig-Veda (IX, 54, 2), and the flowing forth
of the seven rivers and the appearance of the dawn on the
horizon are described as simultaneous in many passages, some
of which have been already referred to above. Neither the
Storm theory, nor the geography of the Panjaub, satisfactorily
accounts for the simultaneous happening of these events; and so
long as this difficulty is not solved, except by the Arctic theory
and the cosmic circulation of aerial waters, we cannot accept
the hypothesis of Western scholars referred to above, howso-
ever eloquently expounded it may be. As regards the origin
of the phrase Hapta-hindu, which is believed to denote India
in the Avesta, I think, we can explain it by supposing that
the expression sapta sindhavaḥ was an old one, carried by
the Aryans with them to their new home, and there applied to
new places or countries, just as the 'British colonists now carry
the old names of their mother country to their new places of
settlement. Hapta-hindu is not the only expression which
occurs in the Avesta in the enumeration of the Aryan coun-
tries. We have, Vârena, Haêtumant, Rangha and Harahvaiti
in the list, which are the Zend equivalents of Varuṇa, Se-
tumat, Rasâ and Sarasvatî.* But it is never argued from it

• Darmesteter, in his introduction to Fargard I of the Vendidad,
  observes that "names, originally belonging to mythical lands, are often,
  in later times, attached to real ones." If this is true of Varena, Rangha-
  (Rasâ), and other names, there is no reason why Hapta-hindu should not
  be similarly explained, especially when it is now clear that the phrase
  sapta sindhavaḥ denotes celestial rivers in the Vedas.