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

VEDIC MYTHS—THE MATUTINAL DEITIES. 301
onwards to liberate the flood of milk; while in VIII, 26, 17,
we read that they abide in the sea of heaven (divo arṇave).
Taking all these facts together, we can easily see that the
Ashvins were the helpers of Indra in his struggle for waters
and light; and we now know what that struggle means. It is
the struggle between the powers of light and darkness, and
the Ashvins, in their character as divine physicians, were
naturally the first to help the gods in this distress or afflic-
tion. It is true that Indra was the principal actor or hero in
this fight; but the Ashvins appear to have stood by him,
rendering help whenever necessary, and leading the van in the
march of the matutinal deities after the conquest. This cha-
racter of the Ashvins is hardly explained by the Vernal theory;
nor can it be accounted for on the theory of a daily
struggle between light and darkness, for we have seen that the
dawn, during which the Âshvina-shastra is recited, is not the
evanescent dawn of the tropics. The Arctic theory alone can
satisfactorily interpret the facts stated above; and when they
are interpreted in this way, it is easy to perceive how the
Ashvins are described as having rejuvenated, cured, or rescued
a number of decrepit, blind, lame or distressed proteges of theirs
in the various legends ascribed to them.
The important achievements of the Ashvins have been
summed up by Macdonell in his Vedic Mythology (§ 21) as
follows:—
“The sage Chyavâna, grown old and deserted, they re-
leased from his decrepit body; they prolonged his life, restored
him to youth, rendered him desirable to his wife and made
him the husband of maidens (I, 116, 10 &c). They also re-
newed the youth of the aged Kali, and befriended him when
he had taken a wife (X, 39, 8; I, 112, 15). They brought, on a
car, to the youthful Vimada wives or a wife named Kamadyû
(X, 65, 12), who seems to have been the beautiful spouse of
Purumitra (I, 117, 20). They restored Vishṇâpû, like a lost

302 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
animal, to the sight of their worshipper Vishvaka, son of Kṛi-
shṇa (I, 116, 23; X, 65, 12). But the story most often refer-
red to is that of the rescue of Bhujyu, son of Tugra, who was
abandoned in the midst of ocean (samudre), or in the water-
clouds (udameghe), and who, tossed about in darkness, invoked
the aid of the youthful heroes. In the ocean which is
without support (anârambhaṇe), they took him home in a
hundred-oared (shatâritrâm) ship (I, 116, 5). They rescued
him with animated water-tight ships, which traversed the air
(antariksha), with four ships, with an animated winged boat,
with three flying cars having a hundred feet and six horses.
In one passage Bhujyu is described as clinging to a log in the
midst of water (arṇaso madhye, I, 182, 7). The sage Rebha
stabbed, bound, hidden by the malignant, overwhelmed in
waters for ten nights and nine days, abandoned as dead, was
by the Ashvins revived and drawn out, as Soma juice is raised
with a ladle (I, 116, 24; I, 112, 5). They delivered Vandana
from his calamity and restored him to the light of the sun. In
I, 117, 5, they are also said to have dug up for Vandana some
bright buried gold of new splendour 'like one asleep in the lap
of Nir-ṛiti,' or like 'the sun dwelling in darkness.' They suc-
coured the sage Atri Sapta-Vadhri, who was plunged in a
burning pit by the wiles of a demon, and delivered him from
darkness (I, 116, 8; VI, 50, 10). They rescued from the jaws
of a wolf a quail (vartikâ), who invoked their aid (I, 112, 8).
To Ṛijrâshva, who had been blinded by his cruel father for
killing one hundred and one sheep and giving them to a she-
wolf to devour, they restored his eyesight at the prayer of the
she-wolf (I, 116, 16; 117, 17); and cured Parâvṛij of blind-
ness and lameness (I, 112, 8). When Vishpalâ's leg had been
cut off in the battle like the wing of a bird, the Ashvins gave
her an iron one instead (I, 116, 15). They befriended Gho-
shâ when she was growing old in her father's house by giving
her a husband (I, 117, 7; X, 39, 3). To the wife of a eunuch

VEDIC MYTHS—THE MATUTINAL DEITIES. 303
(Vadhrimati) they gave a son called Hiraṇya-hasta (I, 116, 13;
VI, 62, 7). The cow of Shayu which had left off bearing they
caused to give milk (I, 116, 22); and to Pedu they gave a
strong swift dragon-slaying steed impelled by Indra which
won him unbounded spoils (I, 116, 6)."
Besides these there are many other exploits mentioned in I,
112, 116-119; and the Ashvins are described as having saved,
helped, or cured a number of other persons. But the above
summary is sufficient for our purpose. It will be seen from it
that the Ashvins bear the general character of helping the
lame, the blind, the distressed, or the afflicted; and in some
places a reference to the decayed powers of the sun is discern-
ible on the face of the legends. Taking their clue from this
indication, many scholars, and among them Prof. Max Muller,
have interpreted all the above legends as referring to the sun
in winter and the restoration of his power in spring or summer.
Thus Prof. Max Muller tells us that Chyavâna is nothing but
the falling sun (chyu, to fall), of which it might well be said
that he had sunk in the fiery or dark abyss from which the
Ashvins are themselves said to come up in III, 39, 3. The
Vedic Ṛishis are again said to have betrayed the secret of the
myth of Vandana by comparing the treasure dug for him by
the Ashvins to the sun 'dwelling in darkness.' Kali is simi-
larly taken to represent the waning moon, and Vishpalâ's iron
leg, we are told, is the first quarter or pâda of the new moon,
called 'iron' on account of his darkness as compared with the
golden colour of the full moon. The blindness of Ṛijrâshva is
explained on this theory as meaning the blindness of night or
winter; and the blind and the lame Parâvṛij is taken to be the
sun after sunset or near the winter solstice. The setting sun
thrown out of a boat into waters is similarly understood to
be the basis of the legend Bhujyu or Rebha. Vadhrimati,
the wife of the eunuch, to whom Hiraṇya-hasta or the gold-
hand is said to be restored, is, we are further told, nothing

304 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
but the dawn under a different name. She is called the wife
of the eunuch because she was separated from the sun during
the night. The cow of Shayu, (derived from shî, to lie down)
is again said to be the light of the morning sun, who may
well be described as sleeping in the darkness from which he
was brought forth by the Ashvins for the sake of Vandana.
In short, each and every legend is said to be a story of the
sun or the moon in distress. The Ashvins were the saviours
of the morning-light, or of the annual sun in his exile and dis-
tress at the time of the winter solstice; and when the sun
becomes bright and brisk in the morning every day, or vigor-
ous and triumphant in the spring, the miracle, we are told,
was naturally attributed to the physicians of the gods.
This explanation of the different legends connected with
the Ashvins is no doubt an advance on that of Yâska, who has
explained only one of these legends, viz., that of the quail, on
the Dawn theory. But still I do not think that all the facts
and incidents in these legends are explained by the Vernal
theory as it is at present understood. Thus we cannot ex-
plain why the proteges of the Ashvins are described as being
delivered from darkness on the theory that every affliction or
distress mentioned in the legend refers to mere decrease of
the power of the sun in winter. Darkness is distinctly referred
to when the treasure dug up for Vandana is compared to
the "sun dwelling in darkness" (I, 117, 5), or when Bhu-
jyu is said to have been plunged in waters and sunk in bottom-
less darkness (anârambhaṇe tamasi), or when Atri is said to
have been delivered from darkness (tamas) in VI, 50, 10.
The powers of the sun are no doubt decayed in winter, and
one can easily understand why the sun in winter should
be called lame, old, or distressed. But blindness naturally
means darkness or tamas (I, 117, 17); and when express
references to darkness (tamas) are found in several pass-
-ages, we cannot legitimately hold that the story of curing

VEDIC MYTHS—THE MATUTINAL DEITIES. 305
the blind refers to the restoration of the decayed powers of the
winter sun. The darkness referred to is obviously the real
darkness of the night ; and on the theory of the daily strug-
gle between light and darkness we shall have to suppose that
these wonders were achieved every day. But as a matter of
fact they are not said to be performed every day, and Vedic
scholars have, therefore, tried to explain the legends on the
theory of the yearly exile of the sun in winter. But we now
see that in the latter case references to blindness or darkness
remain unintelligible ; and as the darkness is often said to be
of several days' duration, we are obliged to infer that the legends
refer to the long yearly darkness, or, in other words, they have
for their physical basis the disappearance of the sun below the
horizon during the long night of the Arctic region.
The Vernal theory cannot again explain the different periods
of time during which the distress experienced by the Ashvins'
proteges is said to have lasted. Thus Rebha, who was overwhelm-
ed in waters, is said to have remained there for ten nights and
nine days (I, 116, 24); while Bhujyu, another worshipper of theirs,
is described as having been saved from being drowned in the
bottomless sea or darkness, where he lay for three days and
three nights (I, 116, 4). In VIII, 5, 8, the Ashvins are again
described as having been in the parāvat or distant region for three
days and three nights. Prof. Max Muller, agreeing with Benfey,
takes this period, whether of ten or three days, as representing
the time when the sun at the winter solstice seems bound and to
stand still (hence called solstice), till he jumps up and turns
back. But ten days is too long a period for the sun to stand still
at the winter solstice, and even Prof. Max Muller seems to have
felt the difficulty, for immediately after the above explanation
he remarks that "whether this time lasted for ten or twelve
nights would have been difficult to settle even for more experien-
ced astronomers than the Vedic Ṛiṣhis." But even supposing
20

306 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
that the period of ten days may be thus accounted for, the
explanation entirely fails in the case of the legend of Dîrghatamas
who is said to have grown old in the tenth yuga and rescued by
the Ashvins from the torment to which he was subjected by his
enemies. I have shown previously that yuga here means a
month; and if this is correct, we shall have to suppose that
Dîrghatamas, representing the annual course of the sun, stood
still at the winter solstice for two months ! The whole difficulty,
however, vanishes when we explain the legends on the Arctic
theory, for the sun may then be supposed to be below the horizon
for any period varying from one to a hundred nights, or even for
six months.
The third point, left unexplained by the Vernal theory, is
the place of distress or suffering from which the proteges are
said to have been rescued by the Ashvins. Bhujyu was saved
not on land, but in the watery region (apsu) without support
(anârambhaṇe) and unillumined (tamasi) by the rays of the sun
(I, 182, 6). If we compare this description with that of the
ocean said to have been encompassed by Vṛitra, or of the dark
ocean which Bṛihaspati is said to have hurled down in II, 23, 18,
we can at once recognize them as identical. Both represent the
nether world which we have seen is the home of aerial waters,
and which has to be crossed in boats by the drowned sun in the
Ṛig-Veda or by Hêlios in the Greek mythology. It cannot, there-
fore, be the place where the sun goes in winter ; and unless we
adopt the Arctic theory, we cannot explain how the proteges of
the Ashvins are said to have been saved from being drowned in a
dark and bottomless ocean. In VIII, 40, 5, Indra is said to have
uncovered the seven-bottomed ocean having a side-opening
(jimha-bâram), evidently referring to the fight for waters in the
nether world. The same expression (jimha-bâram) is used again in
I, 116, 9, where the Ashvins are described as having lifted up a
well "with bottom up and opening in the side or downwards;"

VEDIC MYTHS—THE MATUTINAL DEITIES. 307
and in I, 85, 11, a well lying obliquely (jimha) is said to
have been pushed up by the Ashvins for satisfying the thirst
of Gotama. These words and phrases are not properly
explained by the commentators, most of whom take them as
referring to the clouds. But it seems to me that these phrases
more appropriately describe the antepodal region, where every
thing is believed to be upside down in relation to the things
of this world. Dr. Warren tells us that the Greeks and the Egypt-
ians conceived their Hades, or things therein, as turned upside
down, and he has even tried to show that the Vedic conception
of the nether world corresponds exactly with that of the
Greeks and the Egyptians.* The same idea is also found
underlying the Hades conception of many other races, and
I think Dr. Warren has correctly represented the ancient
idea of the antepodal under-world. It was conceived by the
ancients as an inverted tub or hemisphere of darkness, full
of waters, and the Ashvins had to make an opening in its
side and push the waters up so that after ascending the sky
they may eventually come down in the form of rain to satisfy
the thirst of Gotama. The same feat is attributed to the Ma-
ruts in I, 85, 10 and 11, and there too we must interpret it in the
same way. The epithets uchchá-budhna (with the bottom up)
and jimha-bâra (with its mouth downwards or sidewards), as
applied to a well (avata), completely show that something
extraordinary, or the reverse of what we usually see, is here
intended; and we cannot take them as referring to the clouds,
for the well is said to be pushed up (ûrdhvam nunudre) in order
to make the waters flow from it hitherward. It may also be
observed that in I, 24, 7, the king Varuṇa of hallowed might is
said to sustain "erect the Tree's stem, in the bottomless
(abudhna) region," and "its rays which are hidden from us
have," we are told, "their bottom up and flow downwards
(nîchînaḥ)." This description of the region of Varuṇa exactly

• See Paradise Found, pp. 481-82.

308 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
corresponds with the conception of the Hades in which every
thing is turned upside down. Being regarded as an inverted
hemisphere, it is rightly described, from the point of view of
persons in this world, as a supportless region with bottom up and
mouth downwards; and it was this bottomless darkness.
(I, 182, 6), or the bottomless and supportless ocean, in which
Bhujyu was plunged, and which he crossed without distress by
means of the boats graciously provided by the Ashvins. In the
Atharva Veda X, 8, 9, a bowl with mouth inclined or downwards
(tiryag-bilaḥ), and bottom upwards (ūrdhva-budhnaḥ) is said to hold
within it every form of glory; and there seven Ṛiṣhis, who have
been this Mighty One's protectors, are described as sitting to-
gether.* The verse occurs also in the Bṛih. Arṇ. Up. II, 3, 3, with
the variant arvāg-bilaḥ (with its mouth downwards) for tiryag-
bilaḥ, with its mouth inclined) of the Atharva Veda. Yâska (Nir.
XII, 38) quotes the verse and gives two interpretations of the
same, in one of which the seven Ṛiṣhis are taken to represent the
seven rays of the sun, and the bowl the vault above; while in the
second the bowl is said to represent the human head with its
concave cup-like palate in the mouth. But it seems to me more
probable that the description refers to the nether world rather
than to the vault above or to the concave human palate. The
glory referred to is the same as the Hvarenô of the Parsi
scriptures. In the Zamyâd Yasht, this Hvarenô or Glory is said
to have thrice departed from Yima and was restored to him
once by Mithra, once by Thraêtaona who smote Azi Dahâka,
and finally by Keresâspa and Atar, who defeated Azi Dahâka.
The fight took place in the sea Vouru-Kasha in the bottom
of the deep river, and we have seen that this must be taken to
mean the world-surrounding Okeanos. The Hvarenô (Sans. svar)
or Glory is properly the light, and one who possessed it reigned

• See Atharva Veda, X, 8, 9, — तिर्यग्बिलश्चमस ऊर्ध्वबुध्नस्तस्मिन्यशो
  निहितं विश्वरूपम् । तदासते ऋषयः सप्त साकं ये अस्य गोपा महतो बभूवुः ॥

VEDIC MYTHS—THE MATUTINAL DEITIES. 309
supreme and one who lost it fell down. Thus "when Yima
lost his Glory he perished and Azi Dahâka reigned; as when
light disappears, the fiend rules supreme."* It may also be
noticed that amongst the persons to whom the glory belonged
in ancient days are mentioned the seven Amesha Spentas, all
of one thought, one speech and one deed. We have thus a
very close resemblance between the glory said to have been
placed in a bowl with bottom up and guarded by the seven
Ṛiṣhis in the Vedas, and the Hvarenô or the glory mentioned
in the Avesta, which once belonged to the seven Amesha
Spentas, and which thrice went away from Yima and had
to be restored to him by fighting with Azi Dahâka, the
Avestic representative of the Ahi Vṛitra, in the sea Vouru-
Kasha; and this strengthens our view that the bowl with the
bottom up and the mouth downwards is the inverted hemi-
sphere of the nether world, the seat of darkness and the home
of aerial waters. It was this region wherein Bhujyu
was plunged and had to be saved by the intervention of the
Ashvins.
Now if Bhujyu was plunged in this bottomless darkness
and ocean for three nights and three days (I, 116, 4), or
Rebha was there for ten nights and nine days (I, 116, 24),
it is clear that the period represents a continuous darkness
of so many days and nights as stated above; and I think,
the story of Ṛijrâshva, or the Red-horse, also refers to
the same incident, viz., the continuous darkness of the
Arctic region. Ṛijrâshva, that is, the Red-horse, is said to have
slaughtered 100 or 101 sheep and gave them to the Vṛiki, or
the she-wolf, and his own father being angry on that account
is said to have deprived him of his sight. But the Ashvins
at the prayer of the she-wolf restored to Ṛijrâshva his eye-
sight and thus cured him of his blindness. Prof. Max Muller
thinks that the sheep may here mean the stars, which may be
said to have been slaughtered by the rising sun. But we have

• See S. B. E. Series, Vol. IV, Introd, p. lxiii.

310 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
seen that the 350 sheep of Hêlios are taken to represent 350
nights, while the corresponding 350 days are said to be re-
presented by his 350 oxen. In short, the Greek legend refers to
a year of 350 days and a continuous night of ten days ; and
the period of 10 nights mentioned in the legend of Rebha well
accords with this conception of the ancient Aryan year, infer-
red from the story of Hêlios. This resemblance between the
two stories naturally leads us to inquire if any clue cannot
be found to the interpretation of the legend of Ṛijrâshva in
the story of Hêlios ; and when we examine the subject from
this point of view, it is not difficult to discover the similarity be-
tween the slaughter of sheep by Ṛijrâshva and the consuming
of the oxen of Hêlios by the companion of Odysseus. The
wolf, as observed by Prof. Max Muller, is generally understood
in the Vedic literature to be a representative of darkness and
mischief rather than of light, and therefore the slaughter
of 100 sheep for him naturally means the conversion of
hundred days into nights, producing thereby a continuous
darkness for a hundred nights, of 24 hours each. Ṛijrâshva or
the Red-sun may well be spoken of as becoming blind during
these hundred continuous nights, and eventually cured of his
blindness by the Ashvins, the harbingers of light and dawn.
The only objection that may be urged against this interpreta-
tion is that hundred days should have been described as
oxen or cows and not as sheep. But I think, that such nice
distinctions cannot be looked for in every myth, and that if
hundred days were really converted into so many nights we can
well speak of them as "sheep." The slaughter of 100 or 101
sheep can thus be easily and naturally explained on the theory
of long continuous darkness, the maximum length of which,
as stated in the previous chapter, was one hundred days, or a
hundred periods of 24 hours. In short, the legends of the
Ashvins furnish us with evidence of three, ten, or a hundred
continuous nights in ancient times; and the incidents which

VEDIC MYTHS—THE MATUTINAL DEITIES. 311
lead us to this inference, are, at best, but feebly explain-
ed by the Vernal or the Dawn theory as at present under-
stood.
But the most important of the Ashvins' legends, for our
purpose, is the story of Atri Saptavadhri. He is described as
having been thrown into a burning abyss and extricated from
this perilous position by the Ashvins, who are also said to have
delivered him from darkness (tamasah) in VI, 50, 10. In I,
117,24, the Ashvins are represented as giving a son called
Hirayṇa-hasta, or the Gold-hand, to Vadhrimatī or the wife of
a eunuch; while in V, 78, a hymn, whose seer is Saptavadhri
himself, the latter is represented as being shut up in a wooden
case, from which he was delivered by the Ashvins. Upon
this Prof. Max Muller observes, "If this tree or this wooden
case is meant for the night, then, by being kept shut up
in it he (Saptavadhri) was separated from his wife, he was
to her like a Vadhri (eunuch), and in the morning only when
delivered by the Ashvins he became once more the husband
of the dawn." But the learned Professor is at a loss to ex-
plain why Atri, in his character of the nocturnal sun, should be
called not only a Vadhri but Ṣaptavadhri, or a seven-eunuch.
Vadhri, as a feminine word, denotes a leather strap, and,
as pointed out by Prof. Max Muller, Sâyaṇa is of opinion
that the word can be used also in the masculine gender (X, 102,
12). The word Saptavadhri may, therefore, denote the sun
caught in a net of seven leather straps. But the different
incidents in the legend clearly point out that a seven-
eunuch, and not a person caught in seven leather straps, is
meant by the epithet Saptavadhri as applied to Atri in
this legend.
It is stated above that a whole hymn (78) of nine verses
in the 5th Maṇḍala of the Ṛig-Veda is ascribed to Atri Sapta-
vadhri. The deities addressed in this hymn are the Ashvins
whom the poet invokes for assistance in his miserable plight.
The first six verses of the hymn are simple and intelligible.
In the first three, the Ashvins are invoked to come to the

312 THE ARCTIC HOME IN. THE VEDAS.
sacrifice like two swans; and in the fourth, Atri, thrown into a
pit, is said to have called on them, like a wailing woman, for
assistance. The 5th and the 6th verses narrate the story of
Saptavadhri, shut up in a tree or a wooden case, whose sides
are asked to tear asunder like the side of her who bringeth forth
a child. After these six verses come the last three (the
hymn containing only nine verses), which describe the delivery
of a child that was in the womb for 10 months; and Vedic
scholars have not as yet been able to explain what rational
connection these three verses could possibly have with the
preceding six verses of the hymn.* According to Sâyaṇa, these
three verses constitute what is called the Garbhasrâviṇî-
upaniṣhad or the liturgy of child-birth; while Ludwig tries to ex-
plain the concluding stanzas as referring to the delivery of a child,
a subject suggested by the simile of a wailing woman
in the 4th verse, or by the comparison of the side of the
tree with the side of a parturient woman. It seems, how-
ever, extraordinary, if not worse, that a subject, not relevant
except as a simile or by way of comparison, should be described
at such length at the close of the hymn. We must, therefore,
try to find some other explanation, or hold with Sâyaṇa that an
irrelevant matter, viz., the liturgy of child-birth, is here
inserted with no other object but to make up the number
of verses in the hymn. These verses may be literally translated
as follows:—
“7. Just as the wind shakes a pool of lotuses on all
sides, so may your embryo (garbha) move (in your womb),
and come out after being developed for ten months (dasha-
mâsyah).”

• The last five verses of the hymn are as follows:— वि जिहीष्व
  वनस्पते योनिः सूषन्त्या इव। श्रुतं मे अश्विना हवं सप्तवध्रिं च मुंचतम् ॥ ५॥
  भीताय नाधमानाय ऋषये सप्तवध्रये। मायाभिरश्विना युवं वृक्षं सं च वि चाच-
  थः ॥ ६ ॥ यथा वातः पुष्करिणीं समिंगयति सर्वतः। एवा ते गर्भ एजतु निरैतु
  दशमास्यः ॥ ७ ॥ यथा वातो यथा वनं यथा समुद्र एजति । एवा त्वं दशमास्य
  सहावेहि जरायुणा ॥ ८ ॥ दश मासाञ्छशयानः कुमारो अधि मातरि । निरैतु
  जीवो अक्षतो जीवो जीवंत्या अधि ॥ ९ ॥

VEDIC MYTHS—THE MATUTINAL DEITIES. 313
"8. Just as the wind, just as the forest, just as the sea
moves, so O ten-monthed (embryo)! come out with the outer
cover (jarâyu)."
"9. May the child (kumâra), lying in the mother's (womb)
for ten months, come out alive and unhurt, alive for the living
mother."
These three verses, as observed above, immediately follow
the verses where the wooden case is said to be shut and open-
ed for Saptavadhri, and naturally they must be taken to refer
to, or rather as forming a part of the same legend. But nei-
ther the Vernal nor the Dawn theory supplies us with any clue
whatsoever to the right interpretation of these verses. The
words used present no difficulty. A child full-grown in the womb
for ten months is evidently intended, and its safe delivery is
prayed for. But what could this child be ? The wife of the
eunuch Vadhrimatî is already said to have got a child Hiranya-
hasta through the favour of the Ashvins. We cannot, therefore,
suppose that she prayed for the safe delivery of a child, nor can
Saptavadhri be said to have prayed for the safe delivery of his
wife, who never bore a child to him. The verses, or rather
their connection with the story of Saptavadhri told in the first
six verses of the hymn, have, therefore, remained unexplained up
to the present day, the only explanations hitherto offered being,
as observed above, either utterly unsatisfactory or rather no
explanations at all.
The whole mystery is, however, cleared up by the light
thrown upon the legend by the Arctic theory. The dawn is
sometimes spoken of in the Ṛig-Veda as producing the sun
(I, 113, 1; VII. 78, 3). But this dawn cannot be said to have
borne the child for ten months; nor can we suppose that
the word dasha-mâsyaḥ (of ten months), which is found in the
7th and the 8th, and the phrase dasha mâsân found in the 9th
verse of the hymn were used without any specific meaning
or intention. We must, therefore, look for some other

314 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
explanation, and this is supplied by the fact that the sun is said
to be pre-eminently the son of Dyāvā-pṛithivī, or simply of Dyu
in the Ṛig-Veda. Thus in X, 37, 1, the sun is called divas-putra
or the son of Dyu, and in I, 164, 33, we read, " Dyu is the father,
who begot us, our origin is there ; this great Earth is our parent
mother. The father laid the daughter's embryo (garbham) within
the womb of the two wide bowls (uttānayoḥ chamvoḥ)''. In the
preceding verse, we have, " He (the sun) yet enveloped in his
mother's womb, having various off springs, has gone into the
(region of) Nir-ṛiti"; and further that "he, who had made him,
does not know of him ; surely is he hidden from those who saw
him." In I, 160, 1, we similarly find that "These Heaven and
Earth, bestowers of prosperity and all, the wide sustainers of the
regions, the two bowls of noble birth, the holy ones: between
these two goddesses, the refulgent sun-god travels by fixed
decrees." These passages clearly show (1) that the sun was
conceived as a child of the two bowls, Heaven and Earth, (2)
that the sun moved like an embryo in the womb, i. e., the
interior of heaven and earth, and (3) that after moving in this
way in the womb of the mother for some time, and producing
various offsprings, the sun sank into the land of desolation (Nir-
ṛiti), and became hidden to those that saw him before. Once
the annual course of the sun was conceived in this way, it did not
require any great stretch of imagination to represent the drop-
ping of the sun into Nir-ṛiti as an exit from the womb of his
mother. But what are we to understand by the phrase that
'he moved in the womb for ten months'? The Arctic theory
explains this point satisfactorily. We have seen that Dīr-
ghatamas was borne on waters for ten months, and the Da-
shagvas are said to have completed their sacrificial session
during the same period. The sun can, therefore, be very well
described, while above the horizon for ten months, as mov-
ing in the womb of his mother, or between heaven and earth.

VEDIC MYTHS—THE MATUTINAL DEITIES. 315
for ten months. After this period, the sun was lost, or went out
of the womb into the land of desolation, there to be shut up as
in a wooden case for two months. The sage Atri, therefore,
rightly invokes the Ashvins for his deliverance from the box
and also for the safe delivery of the child, i. e., himself, from the
womb of his mother after ten months. In the Atharva Veda XI,
5, 1, the sun, as a Brahmachârin, is said to move between heaven
and earth, and in the 12th verse of the same hymn we are told
that "Shouting forth, thundering, red, white he carries a great
penis (bṛihach-chhepas) along the earth." If the sun moving
between heaven and earth is called bṛihach-chhepas he may well
be called Vadhri (eunuch), when sunk into the land of Nir-ṛiti.
But Prof. Max Muller asks us, why he should be called Sapta-
vadhri or a seven-eunuch ? The explanation is simple enough.
The heaven, the earth and the lower regions are all conceived
as divided seven-fold in the Ṛig-Veda, and, when the ocean or
the waters are described as seven-fold (sapta-budhnam arṇavam,
VIII, 40, 5; sapta âpaḥ X, 104, 8), or when we have seven Dânus or
demons, mentioned in X, 120, 6, or when Indra is called saptâ-
han or the seven-slayer (X, 49, 8), or Vritra is said to have
seven forts (I, 63, 7), or when the cowstead (vraja), which the
two Ashvins are said to have opened in X, 40, 8, is described
as saptâsya, the sun, who is bṛihach-chhepas and seven-rayed or
seven-horsed (V, 45, 9) while moving between heaven and earth,
may very well be described as Saptavadhri or seven-eunuch when
sunk into the land of Nir-ṛiti or the nether world of bottomless
darkness from which he is eventually released by the Ashvins. The
last three verses of V, 78, can thus be logically connected with the
story of Saptavadhri mentioned in the immediately preceding
verses, if the period of ten months, during which the child moves in
the mother's womb, is taken to represent the period of ten months'
sunshine followed by the long night of two months; the existence

316 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
of which we have established by independent Vedic evidence.
The point has long remained unexplained, and it is only by the
Arctic theory that it can be now satisfactorily accounted for.
In connection with this subject it is necessary to refer to a
riddle or a paradox, which arises out of it. The sun was
supposed to move in the womb of his mother for ten months
and then to drop into the nether world. In other words, as
soon as he came out of the womb, he was invisible; while in
ordinary cases a child becomes visible as soon as it is brought
into the world after ten months of gestation. Here was an
idea, or rather an apparent contradiction between two ideas,
which the Vedic poets were not slow to seize upon, and evolve
a riddle out of it. Thus we have seen above (I, 164, 32) that
the sun is described as being invisible to one who made him,
evidently meaning his mother. In V, 2, 1, we again meet
with the same riddle; for it says, "Young mother carries in
secret the boy confined; she does not yield him to the father.
People do not see before them his fading face, laid down with the
Arâti."* In I, 72, 2, we further read, "All the clever immortals
did not find the calf though sojourning round about
us. The attentive (gods), wearying themselves, following his
foot-steps, stood at the highest beautiful standing p'ace of
Agni;" and the same idea is expressed in I, 95, 4, which says,
"Who amongst you has understood this secret? The calf has
by itself given birth to its mother. The germ of many, the great
seer moving by his own strength comes forward from the lap of
the active one (apasâm)." It is the story of the hidden Agni,
who is described in X, 124, 1, as having long (jyok) resided in
*See Oldenberg's Vedic Hymns, S. B. E. Series, Vol. XLVI, pp.
366-68. The first two verses of the hymn are:—कुमारं माता युवतिः समु-
ब्धं गुहा बिभर्ति न ददाति पित्रे। अनीकमस्य न मिनज्जनासः पुरः पश्यंति नि-
हितमरतौ ॥ १ ॥ कमेतं त्वं युवते कुमारं पेषी बिभर्षि महिषी जजान । पूर्वीर्हि
गर्भः शरदो ववर्धापश्यं जातं यदसूत माता ॥ २ ॥

VEDIC MYTHS—THE MATUTINAL DEITIES. 317
the long darkness (dîrgham tamaḥ), and who eventually comes-
out as the child of waters (apâm napât, I, 143, 1). The epithet
apâm napât as applied to Agni is usually explained as referring
to the lightening produced from the clouds, but this explanation
does not account for the fact of his long residence in darkness.
The puzzle or the riddle is, however, satisfactorily solved by the
Arctic theory, combined with the cosmic circulation of aerial
waters. The sun, who moves in the interior of heaven and
earth for ten months, as in the womb of his mother, naturally
suggested to the Vedic poets the parallel idea of the period of
ten months' gestation; but the wonder was that while a child
is visible to all as soon as it is born, the sun became invisible
just at the time when he came out of the womb. Where did
he go? Was he locked up in a wooden chest or bound down
with leather straps in the region of waters? Why did the
mother not present him to the father after he was safely de-
livered? Was he safely delivered? These questions natural-
ly arise out of the story, and the Vedic poets appear to
take delight in reverting again and again to the same paradox
in different places. And what applies to Sûrya or the sun ap-
plies to Agni as well; for there are many passages in the Ṛig-
Veda where Agni is identified with the sun. Thus Agni is
said to be the light of heaven in the bright sky, waking at
dawn, the head of heaven (III, 2, 14), and he is described as
having been born on the other side of the air in X, 187, 5. In
the Aitareya Brâhmaṇa (VIII, 28), we are further told that
the sun, when setting, enters into Agni and is reproduced from
the latter; and the same identification appears to be alluded
to in the passages from the Ṛig-Veda, where Agni is said to
unite with the light of the sun or to shine in heaven (VIII, 44,
29). The story of concealing the child after ten months of
gestation whether applied to Agni or to Sûrya is thus only
a different version of the story of the disappearance of the
sun from the upper hemisphere after ten months of sunshine.

318 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
But what became of the child (Kumâra) which disappeared
in this way? Was he lost for ever or again restored to his
parents? How did the father or even the mother obtain the
child so lost? Some one must bring the child to them, and
this task seems to have been entrusted to the Ṛibhus or the
Ashvins in the Ṛig-Veda. Thus in I, 110, 8, the Ṛibhus are
said to have united the mother with the calf, and in I, 116,
13, the Ashvins are described as giving to Vadhrimati a
child called Hiraṇya-hasta. The story of restoring Vishṇâpu
to Vishvaka (I, 117, 7) and of giving milk to Shayu's cow
probably refer to the same phenomenon of bringing back the
morning sun to the parents; and from this it is but a small
step to the story of Kumâra (lit., a child), one of the names of
Kârttikeya in the Purâṇas. It was this Kumâra, or the once
hidden (guha), or dropped (skanda) Child, rising along with the
seven rivers or mothers (VIII, 96, 1) in the morning, that led
the army of gods or light and walked victoriously along the
Devayâna path. He was the leader of days, or the army of
gods; and as Maruts were the allies of Indra in his conflict
with Vṛitra, Kumâra or the Child, meaning the morning sun,
may, by a turn of the mythological kaleidoscope, be very well
called a son of Rudra, the later representative of the Maruts;
or said to be born of Agni, who dwelt in waters; or described as
the son of seven or six Kṛittikâs. As the morning sun has to
pierce his way up through the apertures of Albûrz, tempo-
rarily closed by Vṛitra, this Kumâra can again be well termed
Krauñcha-dâraṇa, or the piercer of the Krauñcha mountain, an
epithet applied to him in the Purâṇas.* But we are not here
concerned with the growth which Kumâra, or the child of the

1. For a further devlopment of the idea see Mr. Nârâyan Aiyan-
   gâr's Essays on Indo-Aryan Mythology, Part II, pp.57–80. In the light
   of the Arctic theory we may have to modify some of Mr. Aiyangâr's
   views. Thus out of the seven rivers or mothers, which bring on the light
   of the sun, one may be regarded as his real mother and the other six as
   stepmothers.

VEDIC MYTHS—THE MATUTINAL DEITIES. 319
morning, attained in later mythology. We took up the legends
of the Ashvins with a view to see if there were any incidents in
them which became intelligible only on the Arctic theory, and
the foregoing examination of the legends shows that we have
not searched in vain. The expression dasha-mâsya in the leg-
end of Sapta-vadhri and dashame yuge in that of Dîrgha-
tamas directly indicate a period of ten months' sunshine, and
we have seen that three, ten, or a hundred continuous nights
are also referred to directly or metaphorically in some of these
legends. We have again such expressions as "the sun sleep-
ing in darkness or in the lap of Nir-ṛiti," which show that
actual and not metaphorical darkness was intended. In short,
the sun, sunk in the nether world of waters and darkness, and
not merely a winter sun, is the burden of all these legends,
and the achievements of the Ashvins refer to the rescue of the
sun from the dark pit of the nether world or from the bottom-
less ocean or darkness. The Vernal and Arctic theories are
both solar in character, and in either case the legends are
interpreted on the supposition that they represent some solar
phenomenon. But the Arctic theory does not stop with the
decay of the sun's power in winter, but goes a step further in
making the long darkness of the circum-polar region, the
natural basis of many important Vedic legends; and the fore-
going discussion of the myths of the Ashvins clearly shows
that a wider basis, like the one supplied by the Arctic theory,
was not only desirable but necessary for a proper explanation
of these legends—a fact, which, in its turn, further corro-
borates and establishes the new theory.

The Sûrya's Wheel.

We have already discussed the legends of the seven Âdi-
tyas with their still-born brother, and shewn that it represents
seven months of sunshine in the ancient Aryan home. But
this is not the only period of sunshine in the Arctic region,

320 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
where, according to latitude, the sun is above the horizon from
6 to 12 months. The sacrificial session of the Navagvas and the
Dashagvas thus lasted for nine or ten months, and amongst the
Ashvins' legends, that of Saptavadhri is just shown to have been
based on the phenomenon of ten months' sunshine. Is there
any legend of Sûrya in the Ṛig-Veda, which refers to this
phenomenon?—is the question we have now to consider. The
statement that ten horses are yoked to the carriage of the sun
has been shewn to point out to a period of ten months'
sunshine; but the legend of Indra's stealing the wheel of the
sun is still more explicit. To understand it properly we must,
however, first see in what relation Indra generally stands to
Sûrya. It has been shown in the last chapter, that Indra is
the chief hero in the fight between the powers of light and
darkness. It is he, who causes the sun to rise with the dawn,
or makes the sun to shine (VIII, 3, 6; VIII, 98, 2) and
mount the sky (I, 7, 3). The sun, it is further stated, (III, 39,
5), was dwelling in darkness, where Indra, accompanied by the
Dashagvas found him and brought him up for man. It is
Indra again who makes a path for the sun (X, III, 3), and
fights with the demons of darkness in order to gain back the
light of the morning. In short, Indra is everywhere described
as a friend and helper of Sûrya, and yet the Ṛig-Veda men-
tions a legend in which Indra is said to have taken away or
stolen the wheel of Sûrya and thus vanquished him (I, 175, 4;
IV, 30, 4; V, 31, 11; X, 43, 5). It has been supposed that the
legend may refer either to the obscuration of the sun by a
storm-cloud, or to his diurnal setting; but the former is too un-
certain an event to be made the basis of a legend like the pre-
sent, nor can a cloud be said to be brought on by Indra, while
we have no authority to assume, as presupposed in the latter
case, that the legend refers to the daily setting of the sun.
We must, therefore, examine the legend a little more closely,
and see if we can explain it in a more intelligible way. Now