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

COMPARATIVE MYTHOLOGY. 393.
race; and I may here state that I am greatly indebted, for,
this purpose to that learned and masterly work, The Hibbert
Lectures, by Prof. Rhys, On the origin and growth of reli-
gion as illustrated by Celtic Heathendom.
Following the order adopted in the discussion of the
Vedic evidence, we shall first take up the question of the
ancient calendar, and see if the traditions preserved by the
western Aryan races about the ancient year point out to any
Arctic characteristics, such as the long dawn, the long day,
the long night, or an annual period of sunshine of less than
twelve months' duration. We have seen that the Dawn is
very often spoken of in the plural in the Ṛig-Veda and that a
group of thirty Dawn-Sisters is actually described as moving
round and round with one mind and in the same enclosure
without being separated from each other, a phenomenon which
is peculiar only to the Arctic regions. This Vedic account of
the Dawn does not stand by itself. Thus in the Lettish my-
thology, the Dawn is called diewo dukte, or the sky-daughter
or 'the god-daughter, much in the same way as the Uṣhas is
called divo duhitā in the Ṛig-Veda; "and the poets of the
Lets speak likewise of many beautiful sky-daughters, or god-
daughters diewo dukruzeles."* Prof. Max Muller further
informs us that in the Greek mythology we can "easily find
among the wives of Hêrakles, significant names, such as
Auge (sun-light), Xanthis (yellow), Chrysêis (golden), Iole
(violet), Aglaia (resplendent), and Eône, which cannot be
separated from Eos, dawn." † The same story appears again
in the Celtic mythology where Cuchulainn, the Sun-hero, is
described as having a wife, who is variously named as Emer,
Ethne Ingubai. Upon this Prof. Rhys observes that "it may
be that the myth pictured the dawn not as one but as many to
all of whom the Sun-god made love in the course of the three
*Max Muller's Contributions to the Science of Mythology, p. 432.
† Id. p. 722.