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

VEDIC MYTHS—THE MATUTINAL DEITIES. 343
Ṛig-Veda, but in X, 67, 1, “our father,” meaning the father
of the Aṅgirases, is said to have acquired seven-headed (sapta-
shīrṣhṇī) devotion or intelligence (dhī).
Seven divisions of the earth are mentioned in I, 22, 16.
But the earths are said to be ten (dashāvanī) in X, 94, 7,
(also cf. I, 52, 11).
The cows’ stable which the Ashvins opened is said to be
saptāsya or seven-mouthed in X, 40, 8. But a ten-fold cows’
stable (dashavraja) is mentioned in VIII, 8, 20; 49, 10; 50, 9.
In X, 93, 4, Aryaman, Mitra, Varuṇa, Rudra, Maruts,
Pūṣhan and Bhaga are mentioned as seven kings. But ten
gold-like (hiraṇyasaṅdṛisha) kings are referred to in VIII,
5, 38, and ten non-sacrificing (ayajyavaḥ) kings are mentioned
in VII, 83, 7. The Atharva Veda, XI 8, 10, further tells
us that there were only ten ancient gods.
These references will make it clear that if the horses of the
sun are mentioned as seven in one place, they are said to be ten
in another; and so there are seven devotions and ten devo-
tions; seven earths and ten earths; seven cowpens and ten
cowpens, and so on. This double division may not be equally
explicit in all cases; but, on the whole, there can be no
doubt that the several objects mentioned in the above passages
are conceived as divided in a double manner, once an seven-
fold and once as ten-fold. To this double division may be added
the three-fold division of the heaven, the earth and the nether
world or Nir-ṛiti; and the eleven-fold division of gods in the
heaven, the earth and waters mentioned previously. In the
Atharva Veda XI, 7, 14, nine earths, nine oceans and nine skies
are also mentioned, and the same division again occurs in the
Atharvashiras Upanishad, 6. Now it is evident that the theory
started by Yâska cannot explain all these different methods
of division. We might say that the three-fold division was
suggested by the heaven, the earth and the lower world. But
how are we to account for all kinds of division from seven to