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

THE ARCTIC REGIONS. ·45
possess certain astronomical characteristics which are peculiar to
them, and if a reference to these can be discovered in the Vedas,
it follows, in the light of modern researches, that the ancestors
of the Vedic Rishis must have become acquainted with these
characteristics, when they lived in those regions, which was
possible only in the inter-glacial times. We shall, therefore, now
examine these characteristics, dividing them in the two-fold way
stated above.
If an observer is stationed at the North Pole, the first thing
that will strike him is the motion of the celestial sphere above
his head. Living in the temperate and tropical zones, we see all
heavenly objects rise in the east and set in the west, some passing
over our head, other travelling obliquely. But to the man at the
Pole, the heavenly dome above will seem to revolve round him,
from left to right, somewhat like the motion of a hat or umbrella
turned over one's head. The stars will not rise and set, but will
move round and round, in horizontal planes, turning like a potter's
wheel, and starting on a second round when the first is finished,
and so on, during the long night of six months. The sun, when
he is above the horizon for 6 months, would also appear to revolve
in the same way. The centre of the celestial dome over the
head of the observer will be the celestial North Pole, and naturally
enough his north will be over-head, while the invisible regions
below the horizon would be in the south. As regards the eastern
and western points of the compass, the daily rotation of the
earth round its axis will make them revolve round the observer
from right to left, thereby causing the celestial objects in the
east to daily revolve round and round along the horizon from
left to right, and not rise in the east, pass over-head, and
set every day in the west, as with us, in the temperate or
the tropical zone. In fact, to an observer stationed at the