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

CHAPTER X.
VEDIC MYTHS--THE MATUTINAL DEITIES.
Vernal theory and the legends of the Ashvins--The part played
by the Ashvins in the struggle for waters and light--Intelli-
gible only on the Arctic theory--Their exploits and legends--
Saving or rejuvenating, rescuing from the ocean, or restoring
the eye-sight or light, to Chyavâna, Rebha, Bhujyu, Atri
Vandana &c.--All explained at present as referring to the
rescue of the daily dawn or the vernal restoration of the
powers of the winter sun--But the theory fails to explain
references to blindness or darkness in several legends--Nor
does it account for the duration of the distress of the Ashvins'
proteges--Nor for the character of the place of distress
from which the proteges were saved--Bottomless and dark
ocean really means the nether world--A bowl with bottom
up and mouth downwards indicates the inverted hemisphere
of the Hades--Legend of Rijrâshva--The slaughter of a
hundred sheep represents the conversion of a hundred days
into so many nights--The story of Saptavadhri or the seven
eunuchs, praying for safe delivery after ten months of gestation
--Remains unexplained up to the present--The interior of
heaven and earth is conceived in the Veda as the womb in
which the sun moves when above the horizon--Ten months'
gestation thus represents the ten months when the Sun is
above the horizon--Prayer for safe delivery indicates the
perils of the long night--Riddle or paradox of a child becom-
ing invisible as soon as born--The story of the hidden
Agni refers to the same phenomenon--Probable origin of the
Purânic story of Kumâra or Kârttikeya--Superiority of the
Arctic over the vernal theory in explaining the legends of the
Ashvins--The legend of Indra's stealing Sûrya's wheel--
The meaning of dasha-prapitve discussed--Indicates darkness
on the completion of ten months--Vishnu's three strides
--Different opinions about their nature quoted--Vishnu's
strides represent the yearly course of the sun--And his
third invisible step represents the nether world--Vishnu's op-
probrious name, Shipivishta--Represents the dark or the diseased
sun during the long Arctic night--The three abodes of Savitri,
Agni and the Ashvins compared to Vishnu's third step--The