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

VEDIC MYTHS—THE MATUTINAL DEITIES. 313
"8. Just as the wind, just as the forest, just as the sea
moves, so O ten-monthed (embryo)! come out with the outer
cover (jarâyu)."
"9. May the child (kumâra), lying in the mother's (womb)
for ten months, come out alive and unhurt, alive for the living
mother."
These three verses, as observed above, immediately follow
the verses where the wooden case is said to be shut and open-
ed for Saptavadhri, and naturally they must be taken to refer
to, or rather as forming a part of the same legend. But nei-
ther the Vernal nor the Dawn theory supplies us with any clue
whatsoever to the right interpretation of these verses. The
words used present no difficulty. A child full-grown in the womb
for ten months is evidently intended, and its safe delivery is
prayed for. But what could this child be ? The wife of the
eunuch Vadhrimatî is already said to have got a child Hiranya-
hasta through the favour of the Ashvins. We cannot, therefore,
suppose that she prayed for the safe delivery of a child, nor can
Saptavadhri be said to have prayed for the safe delivery of his
wife, who never bore a child to him. The verses, or rather
their connection with the story of Saptavadhri told in the first
six verses of the hymn, have, therefore, remained unexplained up
to the present day, the only explanations hitherto offered being,
as observed above, either utterly unsatisfactory or rather no
explanations at all.
The whole mystery is, however, cleared up by the light
thrown upon the legend by the Arctic theory. The dawn is
sometimes spoken of in the Ṛig-Veda as producing the sun
(I, 113, 1; VII. 78, 3). But this dawn cannot be said to have
borne the child for ten months; nor can we suppose that
the word dasha-mâsyaḥ (of ten months), which is found in the
7th and the 8th, and the phrase dasha mâsân found in the 9th
verse of the hymn were used without any specific meaning
or intention. We must, therefore, look for some other