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

310 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
seen that the 350 sheep of Hêlios are taken to represent 350
nights, while the corresponding 350 days are said to be re-
presented by his 350 oxen. In short, the Greek legend refers to
a year of 350 days and a continuous night of ten days ; and
the period of 10 nights mentioned in the legend of Rebha well
accords with this conception of the ancient Aryan year, infer-
red from the story of Hêlios. This resemblance between the
two stories naturally leads us to inquire if any clue cannot
be found to the interpretation of the legend of Ṛijrâshva in
the story of Hêlios ; and when we examine the subject from
this point of view, it is not difficult to discover the similarity be-
tween the slaughter of sheep by Ṛijrâshva and the consuming
of the oxen of Hêlios by the companion of Odysseus. The
wolf, as observed by Prof. Max Muller, is generally understood
in the Vedic literature to be a representative of darkness and
mischief rather than of light, and therefore the slaughter
of 100 sheep for him naturally means the conversion of
hundred days into nights, producing thereby a continuous
darkness for a hundred nights, of 24 hours each. Ṛijrâshva or
the Red-sun may well be spoken of as becoming blind during
these hundred continuous nights, and eventually cured of his
blindness by the Ashvins, the harbingers of light and dawn.
The only objection that may be urged against this interpreta-
tion is that hundred days should have been described as
oxen or cows and not as sheep. But I think, that such nice
distinctions cannot be looked for in every myth, and that if
hundred days were really converted into so many nights we can
well speak of them as "sheep." The slaughter of 100 or 101
sheep can thus be easily and naturally explained on the theory
of long continuous darkness, the maximum length of which,
as stated in the previous chapter, was one hundred days, or a
hundred periods of 24 hours. In short, the legends of the
Ashvins furnish us with evidence of three, ten, or a hundred
continuous nights in ancient times; and the incidents which