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

332 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
in a dark cover. The poet, therefore, asks Viṣhṇu not to be
ashamed of the epithet, because, says he, the form indicated by
the bad name is only temporarily assumed, as a dark armour,
for the purpose of fighting with the Asuras, and as it was no
longer needed, Viṣhṇu is invoked to reveal his true form (varpas)
to the worshipper. That is the real meaning of the verses quoted
above, and in spite of the attempt of Yâska and other scholars
to convert the bad name of Viṣhṇu into a good one by the help
of etymological speculations, it is plain that shipiviṣhṭa was a bad
name, and that it signified the dark outer appearance of Viṣhṇu
in his fight with the demons in the nether world. If the sun is
called bṛihach-chhepas when moving in regions above the horizon,
he can be very well described as shipiviṣhṭa or "enveloped like
shepa," when moving in the nether world; and there is hardly
anything therein of which the deity or his worshippers should be
ashamed. Later Purâṇic tradition represents Viṣhṇu as
sleeping during this period; but whether we take it as sleep or
disease it means one and the same thing. It is the story of
Viṣhṇu going down to the nether world, dark or diseased, to
plant his third step on the head of the Asuras, or in a dark
armour to help Indra in his struggle for waters and light, a
struggle, which, we have seen, lasted for a long time and resulted
in the flowing of waters, the recovery of the dawn and the
coming out of the sun in a bright armour after a long and con-
tinuous darkness.
A comparison with the abodes of other Vedic deities, who
are said to traverse the whole universe like Viṣhṇu confirms the
same view. One of these deities is Savitṛi, who in V, 81, 3,
is described as measuring the world (rajâṁsi); and in I, 35, 6,
we are told "There are three heavens (dyâvaḥ) of Savitṛi, two
of them are near and the third, bearing the brave, is in the
world of Yama." This means that two of Savitri's three
abodes are in the upper heaven and one in the nether world or