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

VEDIC MYTHS—THE CAPTIVE WATERS. 269
It is impossible to grasp the real meaning of the Vṛitra
legend, without first realising the true nature and importance of
the movements of the aerial waters as conceived by the ances-
tors of the Indo-Iranian people. As observed by Dramesteter,
celestial waters and light were believed to flow from the same
spring or source, and they both ran a parallel course. It was
these aerial waters that made the heavenly bodies move in the
sky, just as a boat or any other object is carried down by the
current of a stream or river. If the waters, therefore, ceased
to flow, the consequences were serious; for the sun, the moon,
the stars, would then all cease to rise, and the world would be
plunged in darkness. We can now fully understand the magni-
tude of the mischief worked by Vṛitra by stopping the flow of
these waters. In his hidden home, at the bottom of rajas, that
is, in the lower hemisphere, he encompassed the waters in such
a way as to stop their flow upwards through the mountain, and
Indra’s victory over Vṛitra meant that he released these waters
from the clutches of Vṛitra and made them flow up again.
When the waters were thus released, they naturally brought
with them, the dawn, the sun and the cows, i.e., either days or
the rays of the morning; and the victory was thus naturally
described as four-fold in character. Now we can also understand
the part played by parvatas, or mountains, in the legend. It was
the mountain Albûrz, or Hara Berezaiti; and as Vṛitra, by
stretching his body across, closed all the apertures in his moun-
tainous range, through which the sun and the waters came up,
Indra had to uncover or open these passages by killing Vṛitra.
Thus the Bundahish (V, 5) mentions 180 apertures in the east
and 180 in the west through Albûrz; and the sun is said to
come and go through them every day, and all the movements
of the moon, the constellations and the planets are also said to
be closely connected with these apertures. The same idea is
also expressed in the later Sanskrit literature when the sun is

270 . THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
said to rise above the mountain in the east and set below the
mountain in the west. The mountain on which Indra is said to
have found Shambara (II, 12, 11), and the rock of Vala wherein
the cows were said to have been imprisoned by the demon (IV,
3, 11 ; I, 71, 2) and which was burst open by Aṅgirases, also re-
present the same mountainous range, which separated the upper
from the lower celestial hemisphere, or the bright from the
dark ocean. This explanation of the Vṛitra legend may sound
strange to many scholars, but it should be borne in mind that
the co-relation between the flow of water and the rising of the
dawn and the sun, here described, is not speculative. If the
Vedic works do not express it in unambiguous terms, the defi-
ciency is fully made up by the Parsi scriptures. Thus in Khor-
shed Yasht (VI, 2 and 3,) we are told that "When the sun rises
up, then the earth becomes clean, the running waters become
clean. ... ... ...Should the sun not rise up, then the Daevas would
destroy all the things that are in the seven Karshvares." The
passages in the Farvardîn Yasht are still more explicit. This
Yasht is devoted to the praise of the Fravashis, which corres-
pond to the Pitṛis of the Ṛig-Veda. These ancient fathers are often
described, even in the Ṛig-Veda, as taking part, along with the
gods, in the production of the cosmical phenomena. Thus the
Pitṛis are said to have adorned the sky with stars, and placed
darkness in the night and light in the day (X, 68, 11), or to have
found the hidden light and generated the dawn (VII, 76, 4 ; X,
107, 1). The Fravashis in the Parsi scriptures are said to have
achieved the same or similar exploits. They are described (Yt.
XIII, 53 and 54) as having "shown the beautiful paths to the
waters, which had stood before for a long time in the same
place, without flowing"; and the waters are then said to have
commenced to flow "along the path made by Mazda, along the
way made by the gods, the watery way appointed to them."
Immediately after (Yt. XIII, 57), the Fravashis are said to

VEDIC MYTHS—THE CAPTIVE WATERS. 271
have similarly showed " the paths to the stars, the moon, the sun
and the endless lights, that had stood before, for a long time, in
the same place, without moving forward, through the oppression
of the Daevas and the assaults of the Daevas." Here we have
the co-relation between the flowing of waters and the moving
forward of the sun distinctly enunciated. It was the Fravashis,
who caused to move onwards the waters and the sun, both of
which " had stood still for a long time in the same place." Prof.
Darmesteter adds a note saying that it was 'in winter' that
this cessation of motion occurred, (Cf. Vend. V, 10-12; VIII,
4-10, cited and discussed infra). The Fravashis are further
described (Yt. XIII, 78) as "destroying the malice of the fiend
Angra Mainyu (the Avestic representative of Vṛitra), so that the
waters did not stop flowing, nor did the plants stop growing." In
Yasna LXV (Sp. LXIV), 6, the Fravashis, who had "borne the
waters up stream from the nearest ones," are invoked to come
to the worshipper; and a little further on the waters are asked
to "rest still within their places while the Zaota (Sans. Hotâ)
shall offer," evidently meaning that it is the sacrifice offered by
the invoking priest that eventually secures the release or the flow
of waters. There are other references to the flowing of waters
(Yt. X, 61) in the Parsi scriptures, but those cited above are
sufficient to prove our point. The main difficulty in the rational
explanation of the Vṛitra legend was to connect the flow of waters
with the rising of the dawn, and the passages from the Farvardin
Yasht quoted above furnish us with a clue by which this connec-
tion can be satisfactorily established.
There are two passages in the Vendidad, which give us the
period during which these aerial waters ceased to flow, and it
is necessary to quote them here, inasmuch as they throw
further light on the circulation of aerial waters. It has been
stated above that according to Prof. Darmesteter these waters
ceased to flow during winter; but the point is made perfectly

272 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
clear in Fargards V and VIII of the Vendidad, where Ahura
Mazda declares how the corpse of a person dying during winter
is to be dealt with, until it is finally disposed of according to the
usual rites at the end of the season. Thus in Fargard V, 10 (34),
Ahura Mazda is asked, "If the summer is passed and the winter
has come, what shall the worshipper of Mazda do?" To which
Ahura Mazda answers, "In every house, in every borough they
shall raise three Katas for the dead, large enough not to strike
the skull, or the feet or the hands of the man; ... and they shall
let the lifeless body lie there for two nights, three nights or a month
long, until the birds begin to fly, the plants to grow, the floods
to flow, and the wind to dry up the waters from off the earth.
And as soon as the birds begin to fly, and the plants to grow,
and the floods to flow, and the wind to dry up the waters from
off the earth, then the worshipper of Mazda shall lay down the
dead (on the Dakhma), his eyes towards the sun." I have
referred to this passage previously, but as the theory of the circu-
lation of aerial waters was not then explained, the discussion of
the passage had to be postponed. We now clearly see what is
meant by the phrases like 'floods to flow' and 'plants to grow.'
They are the same phrases, which are used in the Farvardin Yasht
and are there connected with the moving forward of the sun and
the moon, that had stood still, or without moving, in the same
place for a long time. In other words, the waters, as well as the
sun, ceased to move during winter; and the worshipper of Mazda
is ordered not to dispose of the corpse until the floods began to
flow and the sun to move, be it for two nights, three nights, or a month
long. The Mazda-worshippers believed that the corpse was cleansed
by its exposure to the sun, and dead bodies could not, therefore,
be disposed of during night. The passage from the Vendidad, above
referred to, therefore, clearly indicates that the season of winter
was once marked by long darkness extending over two nights,

VEDIC MYTHS—THE CAPTIVE WATERS. 273
three nights, or a month; and that during the period, the
floods ceased to flow and the plants to grow. It was during such
a winter that the difficulty of disposing the corpse arose, and
Ahura Mazda is asked what the faithful should do in such cases.
The question has no meaning otherwise, for, if in the ancient
home of the Mazdayasnians the sun shone every day during winter,
as he does with us in the tropical regions, there would have
been no difficulty in the disposal of the corpse by exposing it to
the sun the next morning; and it would be absurd to ask the
faithful to keep the uncleanly dead body in his house for two
nights, three nights, or a month long, until the winter passed
away. The passage from Fargard V quoted above makes no
mention of darkness, though it can be easily inferred from the
statement that the body is, at last, to be taken out and laid
down on the Dakhma with its eyes towards the sun, evidently
meaning that this ceremony was impossible to be performed
during the time the dead body was kept up in the house. But
Fargard VIII, 4 (11), where the same subject is again taken up,
mentions darkness distinctly. Thus Ahura Mazda is asked "If
in the house of the worshipper of Mazda a dog or a man happens
to die, and it is raining, or snowing, or blowing, or the darkness
is coming on, when the flocks and the men lose their way,
what shall the worshipper of Mazda do?" To this Ahura Mazda
gives the same reply as in Fargard V. The faithful is directed,
VIII, 9, (21), to dig a grave in the house, and there "let the life-
less body lie for two nights, three nights, or a month long, until
the birds begin to fly, the plants to grow, the floods to flow,
and the wind to dry up the waters from off the earth." Here
in the question asked to Ahura Mazda darkness is distinctly
mentioned along with snowing and blowing; and in the Far-
vardin Yasht we have seen that the flowing of waters and the
moving of the sun are described as taking place at the same
time. The passage from Tir Yasht, where the appointed time
18

274 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
for the appearance of Tishtrya after conquering Apaosha in the
watery regions is described as one night, two nights, fifty, or
one hundred nights, has already been referred to in the last
chapter. From all these passages taken together, it inevitably
follows that it was during winter that the water ceased to
flow, and the sun to move, and that the period of stagnation
lasted from one night to a hundred nights. It was a period of
long darkness, when the sun was not seen above the horizon ;
and if a man died during the period, his corpse had to be kept in
the house until the waters again commenced to flow, and the
sun appeared on the horizon along with them. I have pointed
out previously how the Hindu belief that it is inauspicious to die
in the Dakshiṇâyana must be traced to this primeval practice
of keeping the dead body undisposed of during the long Arctic
night. The word Kata which is used for 'grave' in the Parsi
scriptures occurs once in the Ṛig-Veda, I, 106, 6, where the sage
Kutsa, lying in Kâṭa is described as invoking the Vṛitra-slaying
Indra for his protection; and I think that we have here, at least,
an indirect reference to the practice of keeping dead bodies in a
Kâṭa, until Vṛitra was killed, and the waters and the sun made
free to run their usual course. We are, however, concerned here
only with the circulation of the celestial waters ; and from the
Avestic passages quoted above, it is clear that the aerial waters
ceased to flow during winter for several days or rather nights,
and that, since light sprang from the same source as waters, the
sun also ceased to move during the period and stood still in the
watery regions, until the Fravashis, who helped the gods in
their struggle for waters or in their conflict with powers of
darkness, made the waters and the sun move onwards to take
their usual course in the upper celestial hemisphere. We can
now understand why Indra is described as moving by his
might the stream upwards (udañcha) in II, 15, 6, and how the
rivers are said to be set free to move on (sartave) by killing

VEDIC MYTHS—THE CAPTIVE WATERS. 275
Vṛitra (I, 32, 12), or how in I, 80, 5, Indra is said to have made
the lights of heaven shine forth without obstruction and set the
waters (apaḥ) free to flow (sarmaṇa). There are many other
passages in the Ṛig-Veda, where the flowing of waters and the
appearance of the sun or the dawn are spoken of as taking place
simultaneously, as may be seen from the quotations from
Macdonell's Vedic Mythology given above. All these passages
become intelligible only when interpreted on the theory of the
cosmic circulation of aerial waters through the upper and the
lower celestial hemispheres. But as the theory was little understood
or studied in this connection, the Vedic scholars, ancient and
modern, have hitherto failed to interpret the Vṛitra legend in a
rational and intelligible way, especially the four simultaneous
effects of the conquest of Indra over Vṛitra mentioned therein.
The cosmic circulation of aerial waters described above,
is not peculiar to the Indo-Iranian mythology. Dr. Warren, in
his Paradise Found, states that a similar circulation of aerial
waters is mentioned in the works of Homer. Homer describes
the sun as returning to the flowing of the ocean, or sinking into
it, and again rising from it and mounting the sky. All rivers
and every sea and all fountains and even deep wells are again
said to arise from the deep flowing ocean, which was believed
to encircle the earth.* Hêlios or the sun is further described
as sailing from west to east in a golden boat or cup, evidently
meaning that the underworld was supposed to be full of waters.
But Homeric scholars seem to have raised unnecessary
difficulties in the proper interpretation of these passages
by assuming that Homer conceived the earth to be flat and
that as the Hades was a region of complete darkness, the sun
could not be said to go there even after his setting. Dr. Warren
has, however, shown that the assumption is entirely groundless,

• See Dr. Warren's Paradise Found, 10th Edition (1893), Part
  V, Chap. V, pp. 250-260.

276 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
and that Homer's earth was really a sphere and that the
underworld was full of aerial waters. We have seen above, how
some Vedic scholars have raised similar difficulties in the inter-
pretation of the Vṛitra myth by supposing that the lower
celestial hemisphere was unknown to the Vedic bards. This
is probably a reflection of the Homeric controversy, but as
pointed out by Dr. Warren,* these baseless assumptions are due
mainly to a prejudice with which many scholars approach the
question of the interpretation of ancient myths. It is assumed
that the early man could not possibly have known anything
about the world, beyond what the rudest savages know at pre-
sent; and plain and explicit statements are sometimes put aside,
distorted, or ignored by scholars, who, had they not been
blinded by prejudice, would certainly have interpreted them in
a different way. It is impossible to do justice to the subject in this
place, and I would refer the reader for further details to
Dr. Warren's instructive work on the subject. Dr. Warren also
states that Euripides, like Homer, held the view that there was
one fountain of all the world's water, and that the same concep-
tion is expressed by Hesiod in his Theogony, where all rivers as
sons, and all fountains and brooks as daughters, are traced back
to Okeanos. Then we have the constant descending movement
of all waters until they reach the world-surrounding Ocean-river
at the equator, beyond which is the underworld, similar to the
movements of aerial waters described in the Avesta. Aristotle,
in his Meteors, is said also to have mentioned "a river in the
air constantly flowing betwixt the heaven and the earth and
made by the ascending and the descending vapours."† It is
again pointed by Grill that the ancient Germans had a similar
world-river, and the descending Ukko's stream and the ascend-
ing Amma's stream in the Finnish mythology are similar-
ly believed to be the traces of a like cosmic water-circulation.

• Paradise Found, p. 333f. † Paradise Found, p. 51, and 256, notes.

VEDIC MYTHS—THE CAPTIVE WATERS. 277
We read of a golden boat also in the Lettish mythology; and
Prof. Max Muller, referring to it, says, "What the golden boat
is that sinks into the sea and is mourned for by the daughter of
the sky, however, doubtful it may be elsewhere, is not to be mis-
taken in the mythology of the Lets. It is the setting sun, which
in the Veda has to be saved by the Ashvins; it is the golden boat
in which Hêlios and Hêracles sail from west to east. Some-
times it is the Sun-daughter herself that is drowned like
Chyavâna in the Veda, and as Chyavâna and similar heroes
had to be saved in the Veda by the Ashvins, the Lets also call
upon the God-sons to row in a boat and save the Sun-daughter."*
In connection with this, it may be here observed that the Ashvins
are described in the Ṛig-Veda as saving their proteges in boats
(I, 116, 3; I, 182, 6), and that though Ashvins' boats are not
described as golden, their chariot is said to be hiraṇyayî or golden
in VIII, 5, 29; while the boats of Pûṣhan, in which he crosses the
aerial ocean (samudra), are actually said to be golden in VI, 58, 3.
In I, 46, 7, the Ashvins are again spoken of as having both a
chariot and a boat, as a sort of double equipment; and their
chariot is said to be samâna yojana, or traversing, without dis-
tinction, both the heaven and the watery regions in I, 30, 18.
The word samâna is meaningless unless there is some difficulty in
traversing over one part of the celestial sphere as distinguished
from the other. The Vedic gods used these boats especially
in crossing the lower world, the home and seat of aerial waters;
and when they appeared above the horizon, they are described
as traversing the upper sphere by means of their chariots.
But sometimes the waters are said to carry them even across
the sky above, just as the chariot is described as going over
the lower world. For instance in the legend of Dîrghatamas,
discussed previously, he is said to be borne on waters for ten

• See Max Muller's Contributions to the Science of Mythology,
  Vol. II, p. 433.

278 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
months and then growing old was about to die or reach the-
ocean, to which the waters were speeding. In other words, this-
means that the sun, who was borne on waters for ten months,
was about to go into the lower watery regions as explained in
the chapter VI. But to proceed with the subject in hand, the-
idea of the cosmic circulation of aerial waters, is not confined to-
the Indian, the Iranian or the Greek mythology. In the Egyp-
tian mythology, Nu-t, the goddess of the sky, is sometimes "re-
presented by a figure in which the band of stars is accompanied
by a band of water"; and Sir Norman Lockyer tells us that "not
only the Sun-gods, but the stars, were also supposed to travel in
boats across the firmament from one horizon to the other." The-
Jewish idea of the firmament in the midst of waters, the waters-
above being afterwards separated from the waters below the-
firmament, is already referred to above. There is, therefore,
nothing strange or surprising if we find in the Vedas and in the-
Avesta more or less clear references to the circulation of aerial
waters through the upper and the lower celestial hemispheres of
the universe. It is an idea which is found in the ancient mythology
of every other nation, and nothing but false prejudice can deter-
us from interpreting the simultaneous movements or the libera-
tion of waters and light, described in the Vedic hymns, on the-
theory of the cosmic circulation of aerial waters.
But even after accepting the theory of the cosmic cir-
culation of celestial waters and the simultaneous release of
waters and dawn, it may be asked how the Arctic theory
comes in, or is in any way required, to explain the Vṛitra-
legend. We may admit that the waters imprisoned by Vṛitra,
by shutting up the passages through the rocky walls that
surround them, may be taken to mean the celestial waters
in the world below the three earths; but still, the struggle
between Indra and Vṛitra may, for aught we know, represent

• See Lockyer's Dawn of Astronomy, p. 35.

VEDIC MYTHS—THE CAPTIVE WATERS. 279
the daily fight between light and darkness, and it may be urged,
that there is no necessity whatever, for bringing in the Arctic
theory to explain the legend. A little reflection will, however, show
that all the incidents in the legend cannot be explained on the theory
of a daily struggle between light and darkness. In X, 62, 2, the
Aṅgirases, who are the assistants of Indra in his conquest of
cows, are said to have defeated Vala at the end of the year
(parivatsare). This shows that the struggle was annual and did
not take place every day. Then we have the passage (VIII, 32,
26), where Arbuda, the watery demon, is said to have been
killed by Indra with ice (hima), and not with a thunderbolt as
usual. In addition to the fact that the struggle was an yearly
one, we must, therefore, hold that the conflict took place
during winter, the season of ice and snow; and this is corrobo-
rated by the statement in the Avesta, that it was during winter
that the waters, and with them the sun, ceased to move on-
wards. Vṛitra's forts are again described as autumnal or shâradîḥ,
showing that the fight must have commenced at the end of
Sharad (autumn) and continued during winter. We have further
seen that there are a hundred night-sacrifices, and the duration
of Tishtrya's fight with Apaosha is described as varying from
one to a hundred nights in the Tîr Yasht. All these incidents can
be explained only by the Arctic theory, or by the theory of the
long autumnal night, and not on the hypothesis of a daily
struggle between light and darkness.
We have come to the conclusion that Indra's fight with
Vṛitra must have commenced in Sharad, and lasted till the
end of Shishira in the watery regions of the nether world.
Fortunately for us this conclusion is remarkably borne out by
an important passage preserved in the Ṛig-Veda, which gives
us, what may be called, the very date of the commencement
of Indra's conflict with Vṛitra, though the true bearing of the
passage has yet remained unexplained owing to the absence

280 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
of the real key to its meaning. In II, 12, 11, we read, "Indra
found Shambara dwelling on the mountains (in) chatvâriṅshyâm
sharadi.'"* Now chatvâriṅshyâm is an ordinal numeral in the
feminine gender and in the locative case, and similarly sharadi
is the locative of sharad (autumn), which also is a word of
feminine gender in Sanskrit. The phrase chatvâriṅshyâm sharadi
is, therefore, capable of two interpretations or constructions,
though the words are simple in themselves. Chatvâriṅshyâm
literally means 'in the fortieth,' and sharadi 'in autumn.' If we
now take chatvâriṅshyâm (in the fortieth) as an adjective qualify-
ing sharadi (in autumn), the meaning of the phrase would be "in
the fortieth autumn" ; while if the two words are taken separa-
tely the meaning would be "on the fortieth, in autumn." Sâyaṇa
and Western scholars have adopted the first construction,
and understand the passage to mean, "Indra found Shambara
dwelling on the mountains in the fortieth autumn, that is, in the
fortieth year"; for the words indicating seasons, like Vasanta
(spring), Sharad (autumn), or Hemanta (winter), are understood
to denote a year, especially when used with a numeral adjective
meaning more than one. This construction is grammatically
correct, for chatvâriṅshyâm and sharadi being both in the feminine
gender and in the locative case, the two words can be taken
together, and understood to mean "in the fortieth autumn
or year." But what are we to understand by the statement,
that Shambara was found in the fortieth year by Indra?
Are we to suppose that Indra was engaged in searching out
the demon for 40 years, and it was only at the end of this
long period that the enemy was, at last, found dwelling
on the mountains? If so, Indra's conflict with Shambara
cannot be daily or yearly, but must be supposed to have
taken place only once in 40 years, an inference, which is

• Ṛig. II, 12, 11,— यः शंबरं पर्वतेषु क्षियंतं चत्वारिंश्यां शरदन्वविं-
  दत् । ओजायमानं यो अहिं जघान दानुं शयानं स जनास इंद्रः ॥

VEDIC MYTHS—THE CAPTIVE WATERS. 281
directly opposed to the statement (X, 62, 2) that "Vala was
killed at the end of the year (parivatsare)." Some scholars try
to get out of the difficulty by suggesting that the passage may be
taken as referring to a famine or drought that occurred after
40 years, or that it may represent a forty years' war between the
Aryans protected by Indra, and Shambara, the chief of the
aboriginal races dwelling on the mountains! But both these
explanations are too far-fetched and imaginary to deserve any
serious attention or refutation. The story of Shambara is men-
tioned in a number of places in the Ṛig-Veda, and everywhere it
represents Indra's conflict with Vṛitra.* It is, therefore, prepos-
terous to hold that a forty years' war with the aboriginies. is
referred to in this single passage, especially when the
passage is capable of being interpreted differently without
straining the words used. It is the most ordinary Sanskrit
idiom to use the locative case in mentioning the month,
the day, the season or the year, when a particular incident
is said to have taken place. Thus, even now, we say,
"Kârttike, shukla-pakshe, trayodashyâm," meaning "in the
month of Kârttika, in the bright half, on the thirteenth (tithi
or day)." The feminine ordinal numerals, like chaturthî, ekâ-
dashî, trayodashî, are always used, without any noun, to de-
note the tithi or the day of the month, or the fortnight, as the
case may be. Thus in the Taittirîya Brâhmaṇa (I, 1, 9, 10),
we have the expression "yadi saṁvatsare na âdadhyât dvâ-
dashyâm purastât âdadhyât," meaning that "if the sacrificial
fire is not consecrated at the end of the year (saṁvatsare), it
should be consecrated on the twelfth (dvâdashyâm) afterwards."
Here dvâdashyâm is a feminine ordinal in the locative case
used by itself, and means "on the twelfth tithi or day" after
the end of the year mentioned in the preceding sentence.

• See the Nivids, quoted supra (p. 246). Shambara-hatya or the
  fight with Shambara, and go-ishṭi or the struggle for cows are declared
  to be the one and the same in these nivids

282 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
Chatvâriṁshyâm, in the Vedic passage under discussion, may
be similarly taken to denote the fortieth tithi or day, and
sharadi the season at the time, the two words being taken as
independent locatives. The passage would then mean “In-
dra found Shambara dwelling on the mountains on the for-
tieth (scil. tithi or day) in autumn.”
Now Sharad is the fourth season of the year, and the forti-
eth day of Sharad would mean seven months and ten days, or
220 days, after the first day of Vasanta or the spring, which
commenced the year in old times. In short, the passage means
that Indra's fight with Shambara, or the annual conflict between
light and darkness, commenced on the tenth day of the eighth
month of the year, or on the 10th of October, if we take the year
to have then commenced with March, the first month in the
old Roman calendar. In I, 155, 6, Vishṇu, like a rounded
wheel, is said to have set in swift motion his ninety racing
steeds together with the four, and the reference is evidently to
a year of four seasons of ninety days each. If we accept this
division, each season would be of three months' duration, and
Sharad being the third (cf. X, 90, 6), the fortieth day of Sha-
rad would still mean the 10th day of the eighth month of the
year. The passage thus gives the very date of Indra's annual
fight with Vṛitra; and if it had been correctly understood,
much useless speculation about the nature of Vṛitra's legend
would have been avoided. We have seen previously that the
seven Âdityas, or monthly Sun-gods, the sons of Aditi, were
presented by her to the gods in a former yuga, and that she
cast away the eighth, the Mârtâṇḍa, because he was born
in an undeveloped state. In other words, the Sun-god of the
eighth month is here said to have died soon after he was born,
evidently meaning, that the Sun went below the horizon in the
beginning of the eighth month; and by fixing the date of the
commencement of Indra's fight with Vṛitra as the fortieth
day in Sharad, or the 10th day of the eighth month, we arrive

VEDIC MYTHS—THE CAPTIVE WATERS. 283
at the same conclusion. The legend of Aditi and the date of
the commencement of Indra's fight with Shambara, as given
in II, 12, 11, thus corroborate each other in a remarkable way;
and as the current interpretation of the passage does not yield
any intelligible sense, there is no course left for us but to accept
the only other possible interpretation.
According to this interpretation Sharad becomes the last
season of sunshine, and it may be here remarked that the ety-
mological meaning of the word further supports the same view..
For Sharad is derived from shṛî, to wither or waste away,
(Uṇâdi 127), and the word thus primarily signifies the 'season of
decay or withering'; and the decay here referred to is evidently
the decay of the power of the sun, and not the withering of
grass, as suggested by Sâyaṇa in his commentary on III, 32, 9.
Thus we find in the Taittirîya Saṁhitâ, II, 1, 2, 5, that "There
are three lustres or powers of the sun ; one in Vasanta, that is,
in the morning ; one in Grîshma or the mid-day ; and one in
Sharad or the evening."* We cannot suppose that the words,
morning, mid-day and evening, are here used in their primary
sense. The three stages of the day represented by them are
predicated of the yearly sun, and Sharad is said to be
the evening, i.e., the time of decline in his yearly course.
It follows, therefore, that after Sharad there was no period of
sunshine in ancient times; and a Vedic passage, † quoted by
Shabara in his commentary on Jaimini Suttras VI, 7, 40, says,
"The sun is all the seasons; when it is morning (uditi), it is
Vasanta; when the milking time (saṅgava), it is Grîshma;.
*Taitt. Saṁ. II, 1, 2, 5,--त्रीणि वा आदित्यस्य तेजांसि वसंतः प्रातः
ग्रीष्मे मध्यंदिने शरद्यपराह्ने । यावंत्येव तेजांसि तान्येवावरुंधे । Also compare
Taitt. Saṁ. II 1, 4, 2.
† Shabara or Jaimini VI, 7, 40, quotes, आदित्यो वा सर्व ऋतवः
स यदैवोदित्यथ वसंतो यदा संगवोऽथ ग्रीष्मो यदा मध्यंदिनोऽथ वर्षा यदाऽपरा-
ह्नोऽथ शरद् यदास्तमेत्यथ हेंमंतशिशिरौ । I have not been able to trace
the passage; but it clearly states that the last two seasons formed the-
night of the yearly sun.

284 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
when mid-day (madhyan-dina), it is Varsha; when evening
(aparâhna), it is Sharad; when it sets (astam eti), it is the dual
season of Hemanta and Shishira." If this passage has any
meaning, it shows that the powers of the sun declined in
Sharad, and the end of Sharad (autumn), therefore, represented
his annual succumbing to the powers of darkness; or, in short,
to dual season of Hemanta and Shishira represented the long
night when the sun went below the horizon. It may also be
mentioned that the word himyâ (lit. wintry) is used in the
Ṛig-Veda for night (I, 34, 1), implying that the wintry season
was the season of special darkness.
But it may be urged that we have no authority for holding
that, in ancient days, time was reckoned simply by seasons and
days; and chatvâriṅshyâm sharadi cannot, therefore, be inter-
preted to mean "On the 40th (day) in Sharad." The objec-
tion is not, however, well-founded; for in ancient inscriptions
we find many instances where dates of events are recorded only
by reference to seasons. Thus in the book on the Inscriptions
from the Cave-Temples of Western India, by Dr. Burgess and
Pandit Bhagwânlâl Indrâji, published by the Government
of Bombay in 1881, the date of inscription No. 14 is given
as follows:—"Of king (raño) Vâsiṭhîputa, the illustrious lord
(sâmi-siri) [Puḷumâyi] in the year seventh (7), of Grîshma the
fifth (5) fortnight, and first (1) day." Upon this Dr. Burgess
remarks that "the mention of the 5th fortnight of Grîshma
shows that the year was not divided into six seasons (ṛitu) but
into three, namely, Grîshma, Varshâ and Hemanta." But what
is important for our purpose in this inscription is the method
of giving the date by seasons, fortnights and days, without
any reference to the month. This inscription is followed
in the same book by others, one of which (No. 20) is thus
dated:—"In the twenty-fourth year (24) of the king Vâsi-
ṭhîputa, the illustrious Puḷimâvi, in the third (3) fort-
night of the winter (hemanta) months, on the second (2)

VEDIC MYTHS—THE CAPTIVE WATERS. 285
day"; and another is said to be inscribed "On the tenth day,
in the sixth fortnight of Grîshma, in the eighth year of king
Mâḍhariputta, the lord Sirisena."* Dr. Bhâṇḍârkar, in his
Early History of the Deccan, has ascertained that Mâ-
ḍhariputta reigned in the Mahârâshṭra from about A. D. 190
to 197, and Puḷumâyi was on the throne of the Mahârâshṭra
about 60 years earlier, that is, from A. D. 130 to 154. All
the inscriptions noted above, therefore, belong to the 2nd cen-
tury of the Christian era, that is, a long time before the date
of Ârya Bhaṭṭa or Varâhamihira, whose works seem to have
established, if not introduced, the present system of measuring
time by seasons, months, fortnights and days. It is, therefore,
clear that eighteen hundred years ago, dates of events were
recorded and ascertained by mentioning only the season, the
fortnight and the day of the.fortnight, without any reference to
the month of the year; and we might very well suppose that
several centuries before this period these dates were given by a
still more simple method, namely, by mentioning only the
season and the day of that season. And, as a matter of fact,
we do find this method of measuring time, viz., by seasons
and days, adopted in the Avesta to mark the particular days
of the year. Thus in the Âfrîgân Gâhanbâr (I, 7-12), as
written in some manuscripts mentioned by Westergaard in
his notes on the Âfrîgân, there is a statement of the

• Inscription No. 14 of Kârle inscriptions runs thus :—रञो
  वासिठिपुतस सामिसिरि पुळुमाविस सवछरे सतमे ७ गिम्हपंखे पचमे ५ दिवसे
  पधमे १; (or in Sanskrit — राज्ञो वासिष्ठीपुत्रस्य स्वामिश्री पुळुमाविनः संवत्सरे
  सप्तमे ७, ग्रीष्मपक्षे पंचमे ५, दिवसे प्रथमे १ ).
  Inscription No. 20 of the same section runs thus :—सिधं रञो
  वासिठिपुतस सिरिपुळिमाविस सवछरे चतुविसे २४ हेमतान पंखे ततिये ३
  दिवसे बितिये २; (or in Sanskrit— सिद्धम् । राज्ञो वासिष्ठीपुत्रस्य श्रीपुळिमावेः
  संवत्सरे चतुर्विंशे २४, हेमंतानां पक्षे तृतीये ३, दिवसे द्वितीये २).
  An inscription from the Kânheri cave (p. 60) is as follows :—सिधं
  रञो माढरीपुतस स्वामिसिरिसनेस सवछरे ८ गिप ५ दिव १०; (or in Sanskrit—
  सिद्धम् । राज्ञो माठरिपुत्रस्य स्वामिश्रीसेनस्य संवत्सरे ८, ग्री. प. ५, दिव. १०).

286 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
different rewards which a Mazdayasnian receives in the next
life for what he gives as present in this to the Ratu (re-
ligious head); and we have therein such expressions as
"On the 45th (day) of Maidhyô-Zaremya, i. e., on (the day)
Dae of (the month) Ardibehest;" or "On the 60th (day) of
Maidhyôshma, i. e., on (the day) Dae of (the month) Tîr;" and
so on. Here each date is given in two different ways: first, by
mentioning the Gâhanbâr or the season (the year being
divided into six Gâhanbârs), and the day of that season;
and secondly, by mentioning the month and the day of
that month. Strictly speaking there is no necessity to
adopt this double method of marking the days of the year, for
either of them is enough to accurately define the day required.
It is, therefore, highly probable, as remarked by Mr. Ervad
Jamshedji Dadabhai Nadershah, that the method of counting
by seasons and days is the older of the two, and the phrases
containing the names of months and days are later interpola-
tions, made at a time when the older method was superseded
by the latter.* But even supposing that the double phrases
were used originally, we can, so far as our present purpose is
concerned, safely infer from these passages that the method of
marking the days of the year by mentioning the season and
the day thereof was in vogue at the time when the Âfrigân was
written: and if the method is so old, it fully warrants us in in-
terpreting chatvâriṁshyâm sharadi to mean "On the 40th (day)
in Sharad (autumn)." There can be little doubt that the Vedic
bards have recorded in this passage the exact date of the com-
mencement of Indra's fight with Shambara, but in the absence
of the true key to its meaning the passage has been so long un-
fortunately misunderstood and misinterpreted both by Eastern
and Western scholars. The grammatical possibility of connect-
ing chatvâriṁshyâm, as an adjective, with sharadi helped on

• See his essay on "The Zoroastrian months and years with their
  divisions in the Avestic age" in the Cama Memorial Volume, pp. 251–

VEDIC MYTHS—THE CAPTIVE WATERS. 287
this misconception ; and though Vedic scholars were unable to
explain why Shambara, according to their interpretation, should
be described as having been found in the 40th year, yet they
seemed to have accepted the interpretation because no other
meaning appeared possible to them. The alternative construction
proposed by me above is very simple. Instead of taking chatvâriṁ-
shyâm as an adjective qualifying sharadi, I take the two
words as independent locatives, but the change in the meaning
caused thereby is very striking and important ; and so long as
the Arctic theory was unknown, the attention of scholars was not
likely to be drawn to this alternative construction.* But now we
can very well understand why Indra is said to have found Sham-
bara on the 40th (day) of Sharad, and why the forts, which gave
shelter to the demon, are described as shâradîḥ, as well as why
Arbuda or the watery demon is said to be killed by ice (hima). I have
stated before that the forts (puraḥ) of Shambara must be understood
to mean 'days,' and the adjective shâradîḥ only serves to

• A similar phrase is found also in the Atharva Veda (XII, 3, 34
  and 41). The hymn describes the preparation of Brahmaudana, or the
  porridge given as a fee to the Brâhmans, and in the 34th verse it is
  stated that "The treasurer shall fetch it in sixty autumns, (shashṭyâm
  sharatsu nidhîyâ abhîchhât)." But, as remarked by Prof. Bloomfield
  (vide his translation of A.V. with notes in S. B. E. Series, Vol. XLII,
  p. 651), the meaning of the phrase "sixty autumns" is obscure; and
  the only other alternative possible is to take shashṭyâm as the loca-
  tive of shashṭî (feminine form, in long î, of shashṭa) meaning "the
  60th"; and interpret the original phrase to mean "On the 60th (tithi)
  in autumns". "The word shashṭa cannot be used in classical Sanskrit
  as an ordinal numeral according to Pâṇini (V, 2, 58); but the rule does
  not seem to hold strictly in Vedic Sanskrit (See Whitney's Grammar,
  § 487). Even in the post-Vedic literature we meet with such ordinal forms
  as shashṭa ashîta, &c. Thus the colophon of the 60th chapter of the
  Sabhâ and the Udyoga-parvan of the Mahâbhârata (Roy's Cal. Ed.)
  reads thus:--Iti...shashṭaḥ.adhyâyaḥ, shewing that shashṭa was used at
  the time as an ordinal numeral, (See Pet Lex. s. v. shashṭa). The
  Brahmaudana is, according to this interpretation, to be cooked on the
  60th day in autumns, i. e., at the end of Sharad every year.

288 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
strengthen the same view. The disappearance of the sun below
the horizon in the-beginning of the 8th month in autumn, follow-
ed by a long twilight, a continuous dark night of about 100 days,
and a long dawn of 30 days in the Arctic regions, is the basis of
the legend, and every incident therein can be naturally and
intelligibly explained only on this theory.
There is one more incident in the Vṛitra legend which re-
quires to be considered before we close its examination. We have
seen that water and light are described as having been simultane-
ously liberated by Indra after slaughtering Vṛitra. These waters
are sometimes spoken of as streams or rivers (II, 15, 3 ; II, 2),
which flow upwards or udañcha (II, 15, 6), and are said to be seven
in number (I, 32, 12; II, 12, 12). ‘The theory of the cosmic cir-
culation of aerial waters explains why these waters are described
as flowing upwards simultaneously with the dawn, for as the sun
was believed to be carried in the sky by aerial currents, the light
of the sun appeared above the horizon when the aerial rivers
began to flow up from the nether world where they had been
blocked before by Vṛitra. The waters or the rivers were, therefore,
aptly described as flowing upwards and bringing the light of the
sun with them. But we have still to answer the question why the
rivers or waters are described as seven in number, and it is alleged
that the Storm theory supplies us with a satisfactory reply to this
question. Thus it has been suggested by Western scholars that the
seven rivers, here referred to, are the seven rivers of the Panjaub
which are flooded during the rainy season by waters released by
Indra from the clutches of the demon who confines them in the
storm-cloud. The rivers of the Panjaub may therefore, it is urged,
be well described as being set free to flow (sartave) by
Indra himself, and in support of this explanation we are refer-
red to the Ṛig-Veda X, 75, and to the phrase hapta-hindu oc-
curring in Fargard I of the Vendidad, where it is said to denote