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

THE VEDIC DAWNS. 95
they could not, therefore, understand how ‘many dawns’ could be
described as “not-fully-flashed-forth.” An explanation was thus
felt to be a necessity, and this was obtained by converting, in
sense, the past passive participle avyushṭa into a future participle;
and the expression in question was translated as meaning, “during
the dawns (or days) that have not yet dawned,” or, in other words,
“ in days to come.” But the interpretation is on the face of it
strained and artificial. If future days were intended, the idea
could have been more easily and briefly expressed. The poet is
evidently speaking of things present, and, taking vi-ushṭa to
denote what it literally signifies, we can easily and naturally
interpret the expression to mean that though many dawns, mean-
ing many day-long portions of time during which the dawn last-
ed, have passed, yet it is not vyushṭa, that is the sun's orb has
not yet emerged from below the horizon, and that Varuṇa should
protect the worshipper under the circumstances.
There are many other expressions in the Ṛig-Veda which
further strengthen the same view. Thus corresponding to bhūy-
asīḥ in the above passage, we have the adjective pūrvīḥ (many)
used in IV, 19, 8 and VI, 28, 1, to denote the number of the
dawns, evidently shewing that numerically more than one dawn
is intended. The dawns are again not unfrequently addressed
in the plural number in the Ṛig-Veda, and the fact is well-known
to all Vedic scholars. Thus in I, 92, which is a dawn-hymn,
the bard opens his song with the characteristically emphatic
exclamation, “these (etāḥ) are those (tyāḥ) dawns (ushasaḥ), which
have made their appearance on the horizon,” and the same ex-
pression again occurs in VII, 78, 3. Yâska explains the plural
number ushasaḥ by considering it to be used only honori-
fically (Nirukta XII, 7); while Sâyaṇa interprets it as re-
ferring to the number of divinities that preside over the.

96 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
morn. The Western scholars have not made any improve-
ment on these explanations; and Prof. Max Muller is simply
content with observing that the Vedic bards, when speaking of
the dawn, did sometimes use the plural just as we would use the
singular number! But a little reflection will show that neither
of these explanations is satisfactory. If the plural is honorific
why is it changed into singular only a few lines after in the
same hymn? Surely the poet does not mean to address the Dawn
respectfully only at the outset, and then change his manner of
address and assume a familiar tone. This is not, however, the
only objection to Yâska's explanation. Various similes are used
by the Vedic poets to describe the appearance of the Dawns on
the horizon, and an examination of these similes will convince
any one that the plural number, used in reference to the Dawn,
cannot be merely honorific. Thus in the second line of I, 92, 1,
the Dawns are compared to a number of 'warriors' (dhṛishṇavah),
and in the third verse of the same hymn they are likened to
'women (nārīḥ) active in their occupations.' They are said to
appear on the horizon like 'waves of waters' (apām na urmayha) in
VI, 64, 1; or like 'pillars planted at a sacrifice' (adhvareshu
svaravaḥ) in IV, 51, 2. We are again told that they work like
'men arrayed' (visho na yuktāḥ), or advance like 'troops of cattle'
(gavām na sargāḥ), in VII, 79, 2, and IV, 51, 8, respectively.
They are described as all 'alike' (sadṛiśhīḥ); and are said to be
of 'one mind' (sañjānanāse), or 'acting harmoniously' in IV, 51, 6,
and VII, 76, 5. In the last verse the poet again informs us that
they 'do not strive against each other' (mithah na yatante), though
they live jointly in the 'same enclosure' (samāne urve). Finally
in X, 88, 18, the poet distinctly asks the question, "How
many fires, how many suns and how many dawns (ushāsaḥ)
are there?" If the Dawn were addressed in plural simply

THE VEDIC DAWNS. 97
out of respect for the deity, where was the necessity of informing
us that they do not quarrel though collected in the same place ?
The expresssions 'waves of waters', or 'men arrayed' &c., are
again too definite to be explained away as honorific. Sâyaṇa
seems to have perceived this difficulty, and has, probably for the
same reason, proposed an explanation slightly different from that
of Yâska But, unfortunately, Sâyaṇa's explanation does not solve
the difficulty, as the question still remains, why the deities pre-
siding over the dawn should be more than one in number. The
only other explanation put forward, so far as I know, is that the
plural number refers to the dawns on successive days during the
year, as we perceive them in the temperate or the tropical zone.
On this theory there would be 360 dawns in a year, each followed
by the rising of the sun every day. This explanation may appear
plausible at the first sight. But on a closer examination it will
be found that the expressions used in the hymns cannot be made
to reconcile with this theory. For, if 360 dawns, all separated
by intervals of 24 hours, were intended by the plural number used
in the Vedic verses, no poet, with any propriety, would speak of
them as he does in I, 92, 1, by using the double pronoun etâḥ and
tyâḥ, as if he was pointing out to a physical phenomenon
before him; nor can we understand how 360 dawns, spread
over the whole year, can be described as advancing like 'men
arrayed' for battle. It is again absurd to describe the 360
dawns of the year as being collected in the 'same enclosure'
and 'not striving against or quarrelling with each other.' We
are thus forced to the conclusion that the Ṛig-Veda speaks
of a team or a group of dawns, unbroken or uninterrupted
by sunlight, so that if we be so minded, we can regard
them as constituting a single long continuous dawn. This
is in perfect accord with the statement discussed above, viz.,
13

98 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
that many days passed between the first appearance of light on
the horizon and the uprising of the sun (VII, 76, 3). We cannot,
therefore, accept the explanation of consecutive dawns, nor that of
Yâska, nor of Sâyaṇa regarding the use of the plural number in
this case. The fact is that the Vedic dawn represents one long
physical phenomenon which can be spoken of in plural by suppo-
sing it to be split up into smaller day-long portions. It is thus
that we find Uṣhas addressed sometimes in the plural, and some-
times in the singular number. There is no other explanation on
which we can account for and explain the various descriptions of
the dawn found in the different hymns.
But to clinch the matter, the Taittirîya Saṁhitâ, IV, 3, 11,
expressly states that the dawns are thirty sisters, or, in other
words, they are thirty in number, and that they go round and round
in five groups, reaching the same appointed place and having the
same banner for all. The whole of this Anuvâka may be said to
be practically a dawn-hymn of 15 verses, which are used as Man-
tras for the laying down of certain emblematical bricks called the
'dawn-bricks' on the sacrificial altar. There are sixteen such
bricks to be placed on the altar, and the Anuvâka in question
gives 15 Mantras, or verses, to be used on the occasion, the 16th
being recorded elsewhere. These 15 verses, together with their
Brâhmaṇa (T. S., V, 3, 4, 7), are so important for our purpose
that I have appended to this chapter the original passages, with
their translation, comparing the version in the Taittirîya Saṁhitâ
with that of the Atharva-Veda, in the case of those verses which
are found in the latter. The first verse of the section or the
Anuvâka, is used for laying down the first dawn-brick, and
it speaks only of a single dawn first appearing on the
horizon. In the second verse we have, however, a couple

THE VEDIC DAWNS. 99
of dawns mentioned as ‘dwelling in the same abode.’ A third
dawn is spoken in the third verse, followed by the fourth and the
fifth dawn. The five dawns are then said to have five sisters each,
exclusive of themselves, thus raising the total number of dawns
to thirty. These ‘thirty sisters’ (triṁshat svasâraḥ) are then
described as ‘going round’ (parî yanti) in groups of six each, keep-
ing up to the same goal (nishkṛitam). Two verses later on, the
worshipper asks that he and his follower should be blessed with
the same concord as is observed amongst these dawns. We are
then told that one of these five principal dawns is the child of
Ṛita, the second upholds the greatness of Waters, the third
moves in the region of Sûrya, the fourth in that of Fire or
Gharma, and the fifth is ruled by Savitṛi, evidently showing
that the dawns are not the dawns of consecutive days. The last
verse of the Anuvâka sums up the description by stating that the
dawn, though it shines forth in various forms, is but one in reality.
Throughout the whole Anuvâka there is no mention of the rising
of the sun or the appearance of sun-light, and the Brâhmaṇa
makes the point clear by stating “There was a time, when all
this was neither day nor night, being in an undistinguishable state.
It was then that the Gods perceived these dawns and laid them
down, then there was light ; therefore, it brightens to him and
destroys his darkness for whom these (dawn-bricks) are placed. ”
The object of this passage is to explain how and why the dawn-
bricks came to be laid down with these Mantras, and it gives the
ancient story of thirty dawns being perceived by the Gods, not
on consecutive days, but during the period of time when it was
neither night nor day. This, joined with the express statement
at the end of the Anuvâka that in reality it is but one dawn,
is sufficient to prove that the thirty dawns mentioned in
the Anuvâka were continuous and not consecutive. But, if

100 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
a still more explicit authority be needed it will be found in the
Taittirîya Brâhmaṇa, II, 5, 6, 5. This is an old Mantra, and
not a portion of the explanatory Brâhmaṇa, and is, therefore, as
good an authority as any of the verses quoted above. It is address-
ed to the dawns and means "These very Dawns are those that
first shone forth, the Goddesses make five forms ; eternal
(shashvatîḥ), (they) are not separated (na avapṛijyanti), nor do
(they) terminate (na gamanti antam)." * The 'five forms' here
referred to correspond with the division of 30 dawns into 5 groups
of 6 each, made in the Taittirîya Saṁhitâ, after the manner of
sacrificial shaḷ-ahas, or groups of six days ; and we are expressly
told that the dawns, which make these 5 forms, are continuous,
unseparated, or uninterrupted. In the Ṛig-Veda I, 152, 4, the
garment of the lover of the dawns (lit. the maidens, kanînâṁ
jâram) is described as 'inseparable' and 'wide' (an-avapṛigṇa and
vitata), and reading this in the light of the aforesaid Mantra from
the Taittirîya Brâhmaṇa we are led to conclude that in the
Ṛig-Veda itself the dawny garment of the sun, or the garment,
which the dawns, as mothers, weave for him (cf. V, 47, 6), is
considered as 'wide' and 'continuous.' Translated into common
language this means that the dawn described in the Ṛig-Veda
was a long and continuous phenomenon. In the Atharva-Veda
(VII, 22, 2) the dawns are described as sachetasaḥ and samîchîḥ,
which means that they are 'harmonious' and 'walk together' and
not separately. The first expression is found in the Ṛig-Veda,
but not the second, though it could be easily inferred, from the
fact that the dawns are there described as "collected in the same
enclosure." Griffith renders samîchîḥ by 'a closely gathered
band' and translates the verse thus :—"The Bright one hath

• Taitt. Br. II, 5, 6, 5,—इमा एव ता उषसो या प्रथमा व्यौच्छन् ।
  ता देव्यः कुर्वते पंच रूपा । शश्वतीर्नावपृज्यंति न गमन्त्यन्तम् ॥

THE VEDIC DAWNS. 101
sent forth the Dawns, a closely gathered band, immaculate,
unanimous, brightly refulgent in their homes." * Here all the
adjectives of the dawns clearly indicate a group of undivided
dawns acting harmoniously; and yet, strange to say, Griffith,
who translates correctly, misses the spirit altogether. We have
thus sufficient direct authority for holding that it is a 'team,' or
in Griffith's words, 'a closely gathered band' of thirty continuous
dawns that is described in the Vedic hymns, and not the evane-
scent dawn of the temperate or the tropical zone, either single or
as a series of consecutive dawns.
It is interesting to examine how Sâyaṇa explains the
existence of as many as thirty dawns, before we proceed to
other authorities. In his commentary on the Taittirîya Saṁhitâ
IV, 3, 11, he tells us that the first dawn spoken of in the first
verse in the Anuvâka, is the dawn at the beginning of the creation,
when every thing was undistinguishable according to the Brâh-
maṇa. The second dawn in the second verse is said to be the
ordinary dawn that we see every day. So far it was all right ;
but the number of dawns soon outgrew the number of the kinds
of dawn known to Sâyaṇa. The third, fourth and fifth verses of the
Anuvâka describe three more dawns, and Sâyaṇa was at last
forced to explain that though the dawn was one yet by its Yogic
or occult powers it assumed these various shapes ! But the five
dawns multiplied into thirty sisters in the next verse, and Sâyaṇa
finally adopted the explanation that thirty separate dawns repre-
sented the thirty consecutive dawns of one month. But, why
only thirty dawns of one month out of 360 dawns of a year
should thus be selected in these Mantras is nowhere explained.
The explanations, besides being mutually inconsistent,

• Ath. Veda, VII, 22, 2,—प्रत्नः समीचीरुषसः समैरयन् । अरेपसः
  सचेतसः स्वसरे मन्दुमत्तमाश्रिते गोः ॥

102 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
again conflict with the last verse in the Anuvâka, with the
Brâhmaṇa or the explanation given in the Saṁhitâ itself, and
with the passage from the Taittirîya Brâhmaṇa quoted above.
But Sâyaṇa was writing under a firm belief that the Vedic
dawn was the same as he and other Vedic scholars like Yâska
perceived it in the tropical zone; and the wonder is, not that he
has given us so many contradictory explanations, but that he
has been able to suggest so many apparently plausible explana-
tions as the exigencies of the different Mantras required. In the
light of advancing knowledge about the nature of the dawn at
the North Pole, and the existence of man on earth before the
last Glacial epoch, we should, therefore, have no hesitation in
accepting more intelligible and rationalistic view of the different
passages descriptive of the dawns in the Vedic literature. We
are sure Sâyaṇa himself would have welcomed a theory more
comprehensive and reasonable than any advanced by him, if the
same could have been suggested to him in his own day. Jyotish
or astronomy has always been considered to be the ‘eye of the
Veda,’ * and as with the aid of the telescope this eye now com-
mands a wider range than previously it will be our own fault if
we fail to utilise the knowledge so gained to elucidate those
portions of our sacred books which are still unintelligible.
But to proceed with the subject, it may be urged that
it is only the Taittirîya Saṁhitâ that gives us the number
of the dawns, and that it would not be proper to mix up
these statements with the statements contained in the
hymns of the Ṛig-Veda, and draw a conclusion from both
taken together. The Taittirîya Saṁhitâ treats of sacrificial

• Cf. Shikshâ, 41-42,—छंदः पादौ तु वेदस्य हस्तौ कल्पोऽथ पठ्यते ।
  ज्योतिषामयनं चक्षुर्निंरुक्तं श्रोत्रमुच्यते ॥ शिक्षा घ्राणं तु वेदस्य मुखं व्याकरणं
  स्मृतम् । तस्मात् सांगमधीत्यैव ब्रह्मलोके महीयते ॥

THE VEDIC DAWNS. 103
rites, and the Mantras relating to the dawn-bricks may not be
regarded as being originally connected. The fact that only some
of these are found in the Atharva-Veda Saṁhitâ, might lend
some support to this view. But a critical study of the Anuvâka,
will remove all these doubts. The ‘thirty sisters’ are not mention-
ed one by one, leaving it to the hearer, or the reader, to make
up the total, and ascertain the final number for himself. The sixth
verse in the Anuvâka expressly mentions ‘the thirty sisters’, and
is, by itself, sufficient to prove that in ancient days the number
of dawns was considered to be thirty. But if an authority from
the Ṛig-Veda be still needed, we have it in VI, 59, 6, where
Dawn is described as having traversed ‘thirty steps’ (triṁshat
padâni akramît).* This statement has, as yet, remained unex-
plained. ‘A single dawn traversing thirty steps’ is but a para-
phrase of the statement that ‘dawns are thirty sisters, keeping to
the same goal in their circuits.’ Another verse which has not
yet been satisfactorily explained is the Ṛig-Veda, I, 123, 8. It
says “The dawns, alike to-day and alike to-morrow, dwell long
in the abode of Varuṇa. Blameless, they forthwith go round
(pari yanti) thirty yojanas; each its destined course (kratum).” †
The first half of the verse presents no difficulty. In the second
we are told that the dawns go round thirty yojanas, each follow-
ing its own ‘plan,’ which is the meaning of kratu, according to
the Petersberg Lexicon. But the phrase ‘thirty yojanas’ has
not been as yet satisfactorily explained. Griffith following
M. Bergaigne understands it to mean thirty regions or spaces,

• Ṛig. VI, 59, 6,—इंद्राग्नी अपादियं पूर्वागात्पदतीभ्यः । हित्वी शिरो
  जिह्वया वावदच्चरत्त्रिंशत्पदान्यक्रमीत् ॥ Ṛig. X, 189, 3, which speaks of
  thirty realms (triṁshat dhâma), refers very probably to the same fact.
  † Ṛig. I, 123, 8,—सदृशीरद्य सदृशीरिदु श्वो दीर्घं सचंते वरुणस्य
  धाम १ अनवद्यास्त्रिंशतं योजनान्येकैका क्रतुं परि यंति सद्यः ॥

104 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
indicating the whole universe ; but there is no authority for this
meaning. Sâyaṇa, whom Wilson follows, gives an elaborate
astronomical explanation. He says that the sun's rays precede
his rising and are visible when the sun is below the horizon by
thirty yojanas, or, in other words, the dawn is in advance of the
sun by that distance. When dawns are, therefore, said to
traverse thirty yojanas, Sâyaṇa understands by it the astrono-
mical phenomenon of the dawn illumining a space of thirty yojanas
in advance of the sun, and, that when the dawn, at one
place, is over, it is to be found in another place, occupying
a space of thirty yojanas in that place. The explanation
is very ingenious ; and Sâyaṇa also adds that the dawns are
spoken of in the plural number in the verse under consideration,
because the dawns at different places on the surface of the earth,
brought on by the daily motion of the sun, are intended. But
unfortunately the explanation cannot stand scientific scrutiny.
Sâyaṇa says that the sun travels 5,059 yojanas round the Meru
in 24 hours ; and as Meru means the earth and the circumference
of the earth is now known to be about 24,877 miles, a yojana
would be about 4.9, or in round number, about 5 miles. Thirty
such yojanas will, therefore, be 150 miles ; while the first beams
of the dawn greet us on the horizon when the sun is not less than
16° below the horizon. Taking one degree equal to 60 miles,
16° would mean 960 miles, a distance far in excess of the thirty
yojanas of Sâyaṇa. Another objection to Sâyaṇa's explanation
is that the Vedic bard is evidently speaking of a phenomenon pre-
sent before him, and not mentally following the astronomical
dawns at different places produced by the daily rotation of the
earth on its axis. The explanation is again inapplicable to
"thirty steps (padâni)' of the dawn expressly mentioned
in VI, 59, 6. Therefore, the only alternative left is to take

the phrases 'thirty yojanas,' 'thirty sisters,' and 'thirty steps' as
different versions of one and the same fact, viz., the circuits of
the dawn along the Polar horizon. The phrase 'each its destined
course' also becomes intelligible in this case, for though thirty
dawns complete thirty rounds, each may well be described as
following its own definite course. The words pari yanti in the
text literally apply to a circular (pari) motion, (cf. the words
pari-ukshaņam, pari-staraņam, &c.); and the same term is used
in the Taittirîya Samhitâ with reference to 'thirty sisters'. The
word yojana primarily means 'a chariot' (VIII, 72, 6), and then
it came to denote 'distance to be accomplished without unharnes-
sing the horses', or what we, in the vernacular, call a 'ṭappâ.'
Now this ṭappâ, or 'the journey to be accomplished without
unharnessing the horses', may be a day's journey, and Prof.
Max Muller has in one place interpreted the yojana in this way.*
In V, 54, 5, the Maruts are said "to have extended their
greatness as far as the sun extends his daily course," and the
word in the original for 'daily course' is yojanum. Accepting
this meaning, we can interpret the expression 'the dawns
forthwith go round (pari yanti) thirty yojanas' to mean that
the dawns complete thirty daily rounds as at the North Pole.
That circular motion is here intended is further evident from
III, 61, 3, which says, in distinct terms, "Wending towards the
same goal (samânam artham), O Newly-born (Dawn)! turn on
like a wheel (chakramiva â vavṛitsva)."† Although the word
navyasi (newly-born) is here in the vocative case, yet the
meaning is that the dawn, ever anew or becoming new every
day, revolves like a wheel. Now a wheel may either move in

• See S. B. E. Series, Vol. XXXII, pp. 177 and 325.
  † Ṛig. III, 61, 3,—उषः प्रतीची भुवनानि विश्वोध्वा॑ तिष्ठस्य॒मृत॑स्य
  केतुः। स॒मानमर्थं॑ चरणीयमाना च॒क्रमिव॒ नव्य॒स्या व॑वृत्स्व ॥

106 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
a perpendicular plane, like the wheel of a chariot, or in a
horizontal plane like the potter’s wheel. But the first of these
two motions cannot be predicated of the dawn anywhere on the
surface of the earth. The light of the morning is, everywhere,
confined to the horizon, as described in the Ṛig-Veda, VII, 80, 1,
which speaks of the dawn as “unrolling the two rajasî, which
• border on each other (samante), and revealing all things.” * No
dawn, whether in the frigid, the temperate, or the tropical zone
can, therefore, be seen travelling, like the sun, from east to west,
over the head of the observer in a perpendicular plane. The only
possible wheel-like motion is, therefore, along the horizon, and
this can be witnessed only in regions near the Pole. A dawn in
the temperate or the tropical zone is visible only for a short time
on the eastern horizon, and is swallowed up, in the same place, by
the rays of the rising sun. It is only in the Polar regions that we
see the morning lights revolving along the horizon for some day-
long periods of time, and if the wheel-like motion of the dawn,
mentioned in III, 61, 3, has any meaning at all, we must take it to
refer to the revolving splendours of the dawn in the Arctic re-
gions previously described. The expressions “reaching the ap-
pointed place (niṣh-kṛitam) day by day” (I, 123, 9), and “wending
ever and ever to the same goal” (III, 61, 3) are also ill-suited
to describe the dawn in latitudes below the Arctic circle ;:
but if we take these expressions to refer to the Polar
dawn they become not only intelligible, but peculiarly
appropriate, as such a dawn in its daily circuits must come
to the point from which it started every twenty-four hours.
All these passages taken together, therefore, point only to
one conclusion, and that is that both the Ṛig-Veda and the

• Ṛig. VII, 80, 1,—विवर्तयंती रजसी समंते अविष्कृण्वती भुवनानि
  विश्वा । See Wallis’ Cosmology of the Ṛig-Veda, p. 116.

THE VEDIC DAWNS. 107
Taittirîya Saṁhitâ describe a long aud continuous dawn divided
into thiry dawn-days, or periods of twenty-four hours each, a char-
acteristic found only in the Polar dawn.
There are a number of other passages where the dawn is
spoken of in the plural, especially in the case of matutinal deities,
who are said to follow or come after not a single dawn, but dawns in
the plural, (I, 6, 3; I, 180, 1; V, 76, 1; VII, 9, 1; VII, 63, 3). These
passages have been hitherto understood as describing the ap-
pearance of these deities after the consecutive dawns of the year.
But now a new light is thrown upon them by the conclusion esta-
blished above from the examination of the different passages about
the dawn in the Ṛig-Veda, the Taittirîya and the Atharva Veda
Saṁhitâ. It may, however, be mentioned that I do not mean to
say that in the whole of the Ṛig-Veda not a single reference can
be found to the dawn of the tropical or the temperate zone. The
Veda which mentions a year of 360 days is sure to mention the
evanescent dawn which accompanies these days in regions to the
south of the Arctic circle. A greater part of the description of
the dawn is again of such a character that we can apply it either
to the long Polar dawn, or to the short-lived dawn of the tropics.
Thus both may be said to awaken every living being (I, 92, 9), or
disclose the treasures concealed by darkness (I, 123, 4). Similarly
when dawns of different days are said to depart and come, a new
sister succeeding each day to the sister previously vanished (I, 124, 9),
we my either suppose that the consecutive dawns of different days
are intended, or that a number of day-long dawns, which succeed
one another after every 24 hours at the Pole, were in the mind
of the poet. These passages do not, therefore, in any way affect the
conclusion we have arrived at above, by the consideration of the
special characteristics of the dawns mentioned in the hymns. What

108 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
we mean to prove is that Uṣhas, or the Goddess of dawn, the first
appearance of which was so eagerly and anxiously looked to, and
which formed the subject of so many beautiful hymns in the
Vedic literature, is not the evanescent dawn of the tropics, but the
long, continuous and revolving dawn of the pole; and if we have
succeeded in proving this from the passages discussed above, it
matters little if a passage or more are found elsewhere in the
Ṛig-Veda, describing the ordinary tropical dawn. The Vedic
Ṛiṣhis, who sang the present hymns, must have been familiar with
the tropical dawn, if they now and then added a 13th month to
secure the correspondence of the lunar and the solar year. But
the deity of the Dawn was an ancient deity, the attributes of
which had become known to the Ṛiṣhis by orally preserved
traditions, about the primeval home; and the dawn-hymns, as we
now possess them, faithfully describe these characteristics. How
these old characteristics of the Goddess of Dawn were preserved
for centuries is a question to which I shall revert after
examining the whole of the Vedic evidence bearing on the Polar
theory. For the present we may assume that these reminiscences
of the old home were preserved much in the same way as we
have preserved the hymns, accent for accent and letter for letter,
for the last three or four thousand years.
It will be seen from the foregoing discussion that if the dawn-
hymns in the Ṛig-Veda be read and studied in the light of modern
scientific discoveries and with the aid of passages in the Atharva-
Veda and the Taittirîya Saṁhitâ and Brâhmaṇa, they clearly
establish the following results:—
(1) The Ṛig-Vedic dawn was so long that several days
elapsed between the first appearance of light on the
horizon and the sunrise which followed it, (VII, 76, 3,); or,

THE VEDIC DAWNS. 109
as described in II, 28, 9, many dawns appeared one after another
before they ripened into sunrise.
(2) The Dawn was addressed in the plural number not
honorifically, nor as representing the consecutive dawns of the
year, but because it was made up of thirty parts (I, 123, 8;
VI, 59, 6; T. S, IV, 3, 11, 6).
(3) Many dawns lived in the same place, acted harmoniously
and never quarrelled with each other, (IV, 51, 7-9; VII, 76, 5;
A. V. VII, 22, 2).
(4) The thirty parts of the dawn were continuous and insepar-
able, forming 'a closely gathered band,' or 'a group of dawns,'
(I, 152, 4; T. Br. II, 5, 6, 5; A. V. VII, 22, 2).
(5) These thirty dawns, or thirty parts of one dawn
revolved round and round like a wheel, reaching the same goal
every day, each dawn or part following its own destined course,
(I, 123, 8, 9; III, 61, 3; T. S. IV, 3, 11, 6).
These characteristics it is needless to say are possessed only
by the dawn at or near the Pole. The last or the fifth especially
is to be found only in lands very near the North Pole and not
everywhere in the Arctic regions. We may, therefore, safely
conclude that the Vedic Goddess of Dawn is Polar in origin. But
it may be urged that while the Polar dawn lasts from 45 to 60
days, the Vedic dawn is described only as made up of thirty day-
long parts, and that the discrepancy must be accounted for before
we accept the conclusion that the Vedic dawn is Polar in
character. The discrepancy is not, however, a serious one. We
have seen that the duration of the dawn depends upon the powers
of refraction and reflection of the atmosphere; and that these
again vary according to the temperature of the place, or other me-
teorological conditions. It is, therefore, not unlikely that the
duration of the dawn at the Pole, when the climate

110 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
there was mild and genial, might be somewhat shorter than what
we may expect it to be at present when the climate is severely
cold. It is more probable, however, that the dawn described
in the Ṛig-Veda is not exactly such a dawn as may be seen by an
observer stationed precisely at the North Pole. As observed pre-
viously, the North Pole is a point, and if men lived near the Pole
in early days, they must have lived somewhat to the south of this
point. Within this tract it is quite possible to have 30 day-long
dawns revolving like a wheel, after the long Arctic night of four
or five months; and, so far as astronomy is concerned, there
is, therefore, nothing improbable in the description of the
dawn found in the Vedic literature. We must also bear in mind
that the Vedic Dawn often tarried longer on the horizon,
and the worshippers asked her not to delay lest the
sun might scorch her like an enemy (V, 79, 9). This shows
that though 30 days was the usual duration of the Dawn it
was sometimes exceeded, and people grew impatient to see the
light of the sun. It was in cases like these, that Indra, the God
who created the dawns and was their friend, was obliged to break
the car of the dawn and bring the sun above the horizon (II, 15, 6;
X, 73, 6).* There are other places in which the same legend
is referred to (IV, 30, 8), and the obscuration of the Dawn by a
thunderstorm is, at present, supposed to be the basis of this myth.
But the explanation, like others of its kind, is on the face of it
unsatisfactory. That a thunderstorm should occur just at the
time of the dawn would be a mere accident, and it is
improbable that it could have been made the basis of a legend.
Again, it is not the obscuration, but the delaying of the Dawn,

• Ṛig. II, 15, 6,—वज्रेणान उषसः सं पिपेष । Ṛig. IV, 30, 8,—
  एतद् घेदुत वीर्य॑मिंद्र चकर्थ पौंस्यम् । स्त्रियं यद्दुह॑णायुवं वधीर्दु हितरं दिवः॥

THE VEDIC DAWNS. III
or its tarrying longer on the horizon than usual, that is referred
to in the legend, and we can better account for it on the Polar
theory, because the duration of dawn, though usually of 30 days,
might have varied at different places according to latitude and
climatic conditions, and Indra's bolt was thus needed to check
these freaks of the Dawn and make way for the rising sun. There
are other legends connected with the Dawn and the matutinal
deities on which the Polar theory throws quite a new light; but
these will be taken up in the chapter on Vedic myths, after the
whole direct evidence in support of the theory is examined.
But if the Vedic dawn is Polar in origin, the ancestors of
the Vedic bards must have witnessed it, not in the Post-Glacial,
but in the Pre-Glacial era; and it may be finally asked why a
reference to this early age is not found in the hymns before us ?
Fortuately the hymns do preserve a few indications of the time
when these long dawns appeared. Thus, in I, 113, 13, we are
told that the Goddess Dawn shone perpetually in former days (purâ)
and here the word purâ does not mean the foregone days of this
kalpa, but rather refers to a by-gone age, or purâ kalpa as in the
passage from the Taittirîya Saṁhita (I, 5, 7, 5), quoted and discussed
in the next chapter. The word prathamâ, in the Taittirîya Saṁhitâ,
IV, 3, 11, 1 and the Taittirîya Brâhmaṇa, II, 5, 6, 5, does not
again mean simply ‘first in order,’ but refers to ‘ancient times,’ as
when Indra’s ‘first’ or ‘oldest’ exploits are mentioned in I, 32, 1, or
when certain practices are said to be ‘first’ or ‘old’ in X, 90, 16.
It is probable that it was this import of the word prathamâ that
led Sâyaṇa to propose that the first dawn, mentioned in the Tait-
tirîya, Saṁhita IV, 3, 11, represented the dawn at the beginning
of the creation. The Vedic poets could not but have been conscious

112 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
that the Mantras they used to lay down the dawn-bricks were
inapplicable to the dawn as they saw it, and the Taittirîya
Saṁhitâ (V, 3, 4, 7), which explains the Mantras, clearly states
that this story or the description of the dawns is a tradition of old
times when the Gods perceived the thirty dawns. It is not,
therefore, correct to say that there are no references in the Vedic
hymns to the time when these long dawns were visible. We
shall revert to the point later on, when further evidence on the
subject will be noticed and discussed. The object of the present
chapter was to examine the duration of the Vedic dawn, the
Goddess of the morning, the subject of so many beautiful hymns
in the Rig-Veda, and to show that the deity is invested
with Polar characteristics. The evidence in support of this
view has been fully discussed; and we shall, therefore,
now take up the other Polar and Circum-Polar tests previously
mentioned, and see whether we can find out further evidence
from the Ṛig-Veda to strengthen our conclusions.

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