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

326 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
up the phrase into dasha and prapitve, its correct meaning
might not have become so obscure as at present. But
the Pada text is not infallible; and even Yâska and Sâyaṇa
have adopted amendments in certain cases (cf. I, 105, 18; X,
29, 1; and Nir. V, 21; VI, 28), and the same thing has been
done rather more freely by Western scholars. We are not,
therefore, following an untrodden path in giving up the Pada
text, especially when the verse is more naturally and intelligently
interpreted by taking dasha-prapitve as one compound word.
When the verse is so interpreted we get a complete account of
the annual course of the sun in the home of the Aryans in an-
cient days. It was Indra, who caused the sun to rise after his
long fight with Vṛitra; and when the sun had shone for ten
months, Indra stole the solar orb and took the sun with him into
darkness to fight with the demons. That is the meaning of the
whole legend; and when it can be so naturally explained only by
the Arctic theory, the necessity of the latter becomes at once
established.
Vishnu's three strides.
There are a few more Vedic legends which indicate or
suggest the Arctic conditions of climate or calendar, and I
propose to briefly examine them in this chapter. One of these
legends relates to Viṣhṇu and his three long strides, which are
distinctly mentioned in several places in the Ṛig-Veda (I, 22,
17-18; I, 154, 2). Yâska (Nir. XII, 19) quotes the opinion
of two older writers regarding the character of these three
steps. One of these, viz., Shâkapûṇi, holds that the three steps
must be placed on the earth, in the atmosphere, and in the
sky; while Aurṇavâbha thinks that the three steps must be
located, one on the hill where the sun rises (samârohaṇa),
another on the meridian sky (Viṣhṇu-pada), and the third on the
hill of setting (gaya-shiras.) Prof. Max Muller thinks that this
three-fold stepping of Viṣhṇu is emblematic of the rising, the