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

306 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
that the period of ten days may be thus accounted for, the
explanation entirely fails in the case of the legend of Dîrghatamas
who is said to have grown old in the tenth yuga and rescued by
the Ashvins from the torment to which he was subjected by his
enemies. I have shown previously that yuga here means a
month; and if this is correct, we shall have to suppose that
Dîrghatamas, representing the annual course of the sun, stood
still at the winter solstice for two months ! The whole difficulty,
however, vanishes when we explain the legends on the Arctic
theory, for the sun may then be supposed to be below the horizon
for any period varying from one to a hundred nights, or even for
six months.
The third point, left unexplained by the Vernal theory, is
the place of distress or suffering from which the proteges are
said to have been rescued by the Ashvins. Bhujyu was saved
not on land, but in the watery region (apsu) without support
(anârambhaṇe) and unillumined (tamasi) by the rays of the sun
(I, 182, 6). If we compare this description with that of the
ocean said to have been encompassed by Vṛitra, or of the dark
ocean which Bṛihaspati is said to have hurled down in II, 23, 18,
we can at once recognize them as identical. Both represent the
nether world which we have seen is the home of aerial waters,
and which has to be crossed in boats by the drowned sun in the
Ṛig-Veda or by Hêlios in the Greek mythology. It cannot, there-
fore, be the place where the sun goes in winter ; and unless we
adopt the Arctic theory, we cannot explain how the proteges of
the Ashvins are said to have been saved from being drowned in a
dark and bottomless ocean. In VIII, 40, 5, Indra is said to have
uncovered the seven-bottomed ocean having a side-opening
(jimha-bâram), evidently referring to the fight for waters in the
nether world. The same expression (jimha-bâram) is used again in
I, 116, 9, where the Ashvins are described as having lifted up a
well "with bottom up and opening in the side or downwards;"