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

THE ARCTIC REGIONS. . 41
winters. A longer summer, with 229 heat-units spread over it,
and a shorter winter of 136 heat-units, would naturally produce a
climate, which, according to Hershel, would be ‘an approach to
perpetual spring.’ If the Palæolithic man, therefore, lived in these
regions during the Inter-Glacial period, he must have found it
very pleasant, in spite of the fact that the sun went below his
horizon for a number of days in a year according to the latitude
of the place. The present inclement climate of the Arctic regions
dates from the Post-Glacial period, and we must leave it out of
consideration in dealing with earlier ages.
But supposing that an Arctic continent, with an equable and
pleasant climate, existed during the Inter-Glacial period, and that
the Palæolithic man ranged freely over it, it does not follow that
the ancestors of the Aryan race lived in the Arctic regions during
those days, though it may render such a hypothesis highly pro-
bable. For that purpose, we must either wait until the existence
of the Aryan race, within the Arctic regions in Inter-glacial times,
is proved by new archæological discoveries; or failing them, try
to examine the ancient traditions and beliefs of the race, incor-
porated in such admittedly oldest Aryan books, as the Vedas and
the Avesta, and see if they justify us in predicating the inter-
glacial existence of the Aryan people. It is admitted that many
of the present explanations of these traditions and legends are
unsatisfactory, and as our knowledge of the ancient man is increa-
sed, or becomes more definite, by new discoveries in archæology,
geology or anthropology, these explanations will have to be
revised from time to time, and any defects in them, due to
our imperfect understanding of the sentiments, the habits and
even the surroundings of the ancient man, corrected. That
human races have preserved their ancient traditions is un-
doubted, though some or many of them may have become

42 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
distorted in course of time; and it is for us to see if they do or do
not accord with what we know of the ancient man from latest
scientific researches. In the case of the Vedic traditions, myths
and beliefs, we have the further advantage that they were collect-
ed thousands of years ago, and handed down unchanged from that
remote time. It is, therefore, not unlikely that we may find traces
of the primeval Polar home in these oldest books, if the Aryan man
did live within the Arctic circle in early times, especially as a por-
tion of the Ṛig-Veda is still admittedly unintelligible on any of the
existing methods of interpretation, although the words and expres-
sions are plain and simple in many places. Dr. Warren has quoted
some Vedic traditions, along with those of other nations, in support
of his theory that the Arctic regions were the birth-place of the
human race. But the attempt, so far as the Vedic texts are
concerned, is desultory, as it was bound to be, inasmuch as these
Vedic legends and texts have, as yet, never been examined by any
Vedic scholar from the new standpoint furnished by the latest
scientific researches, and as Dr. Warren had to depend entirely
on the existing translations. It is proposed, therefore, to examine
the Vedas from this new point of view; but before doing so it is
necessary to ascertain such peculiar characteristics, or what in
logic are called differentiæ, of the Polar or the Arctic regions, as
are not found elsewhere on the surface of the globe, so that if we
meet with them in the Vedic traditions, the Polar origin of the
latter would be indubitably established. We have seen that the
inclemency of climate, which now characterises the Polar regions,
was not a feature of the Polar climate in early times; and we must,
therefore, turn to astronomy to find out the characteristics requir-
ed for our purpose.
It has been a fashion to speak of the Polar regions as
characterised by light and darkness of 6 months each, for it

THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 43
is well-known that the sun shines at the North Pole continuously
for 6 months, and then sinks down below the horizon, producing
a night of 6 months' duration. But a closer examination of the
subject will show that the statement is only roughly true, and
requires to be modified in several particulars before it can be
accepted as scientifically accurate. In the first place we must
distinguish between the Pole and the Polar regions. The Pole is
merely a point, and all the inhabitants of the original ancient
home, if there was one near the North Pole, could not have lived
precisely at this single point. The Polar or the Arctic regions,
on the other hand, mean the tracts of land included between the
North Pole and the Arctic circle. But the duration of day and
night, as well as the seasons, at different places within the Arctic
regions cannot be, and are not, the same as at the point called the
North Pole. The characteristics of the circum-polar region may
indeed be derived from the strictly Polar characteristics; but still
they are so unlike each other that it is absolutely necessary to bear
this distinction in mind in collecting evidence of a circum-polar
Aryan home in ancient times. Men living round about the Pole,
or, more accurately speaking, in regions between the North Pole
and the Arctic circle, when these regions were habitable, were
sure to know of a day and night of 6 months, but living a little
southward from the Pole, their own calendar must have been
different from the strictly Polar calendar; and it is, therefore,
necessary to examine the Polar and the circum-polar charac-
teristics separately, in order that the distinction may be clearly
understood.
The terrestrial Poles are the termini of the axis of the
earth, and we have seen that there is no evidence to show
that this axis ever changed its position, relatively to the
earth, even in the earliest geological eras. The terrestrial
poles and the circum-polar regions were, therefore, the same

44* THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
in early ages as they are at present, though the past and present
climatic conditions of these places may be totally different. But
the axis of the earth has a small motion round the pole of the
ecliptic, giving rise to what is known as the precession of the
equinoxes, and causing a change only in the celestial, and not in
the terrestrial, poles. Thus the polar star 7,000 years ago was
different from what it is at present, but the terrestrial pole has
always remained the same. This motion of the earth's axis,
producing the precession of the equinoxes, is important from an
antiquarian point of view, inasmuch as it causes a change in the
times when different seasons of the year begin; and it was mainly
by utilising this chronometer that I showed in my Orion or Re-
searches in the Antiquity of the Vedas that the vernal equinox was
in Orion when some of the Ṛig-Vedic traditions were formed, and
that the Vedic literature contained enough clear evidence of the
successive changes of the position of the vernal equinox upto the
present time. Thus the vernal equinox was in the Kṛittikâs in the
time of the Taittirîya Saṁhitâ and Brâhmaṇa, and the express text
stating that "The Kṛittikâs never swerve from the due east; all
other Nakṣhatras do.", (Shat. Brâ. II, 1, 2, 3.), recently published
by the late Mr. S. B. Dixit, serves to remove whatever
doubts there might be regarding the interpretation of other
passages.* This record of the early position of the Kṛittikâs,
or the Pleiades, is as important for the determination of the
Vedic chronology as the orientation of pyramids and tem-
ples has been shown to be in the case of the Egyptian,
by Sir Norman Lockyer in his Dawn of Ancient Astro-
nomy. But the chronometer, which I now mean to employ,
is a different one. The. North Pole and the Arctic regions

• See The Indian Antiquary, Vol. XXIV, (August, 1895), p. 245.
  The text is:—एता (कृत्तिकाः) ह वै प्राच्यै दिशो न च्यवंते सर्वाणि ह वा अन्यानि
  `नक्षत्राणि प्राच्यै दिशश्च्यवंते । शत. ब्रा. ।

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

46 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
North Pole, the northern celestial hemisphere will alone be
visible spinning round and round over his head, and the southern
half, with all the stars in it, will always remain invisible, while
the celestial equator, dividing the two, will be his celestial
horizon. To such a man the sun going into the northern
hemisphere in his annual course will appear as coming up from
the south, and he will express the idea by saying that "the sun
has risen in the south," howsoever strange the expression may
seem to us. After the sun has risen in this way in the south,—
and the sun will rise there only once a year,—he will be
constantly visible for 6 months, during which time he will attain
a height of about 23½° above the horizon, and then begin to lower
down until he drops into the south below the horizon. It will be
a long and continuous sunshine of 6 months, but, as the celes-
tial dome over the head of the observer will complete one
revolution in 24 hours, the sun also will make one horizontal
circuit round the observer in every 24 hours; and to the observer
at the North Pole the completion of one such circuit, whether
of the sun or of the stars, will serve as a measure of ordinary
days, or periods of 24 hours, during the long sunshine or night of
six months. When about 180 such rounds, (the exact number will
depend upon the difference in the durations of summer and winter
noticed in the last chapter), are completed, the sun will again
go down below the horizon, and the stars in the northern
hemisphere, which had disappeared in his light, will become
visible all at once, and not rise one after the other as with us.
The light of the sun had, so to say, eclipsed them, though they
were over the head of the observer; but as soon as this obstruction
is removed the whole northern starry hemisphere will again appear
to spin round the observer for the remaining period of six months.
The horizontal motion of the celestial hemisphere, only one long

THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 47
continuous morning and evening in the year, and one day and
one night of six months each, are thus the chief special features
of the calendar at the North Pole.
We have stated that to an observer at the North Pole,
there will be a night of 6 months, and one is likely to infer
therefrom that there will be total darkness at the Pole for one
half the portion of the year. Indeed one is likely to contem-
plate with horror, the perils and difficulties of a long night of six
months, during which not only the light but the warmth of
the sun has to be artificially supplied. As a matter of fact,
such a supposition is found to be erroneous. First of all, there
will be the electric discharges, known as Aurora Borealis, filling
the polar night with their charming glories, and relieving its
darkness to a great extent. Then we have the moon, which,
in her monthly revolution, will be above the polar horizon
for a continuous fortnight, displaying her changing phases,
without intermission, to the polar observer. But the chief
cause, which alleviates the darkness of the polar night, is
the twilight before the rising and after the setting of the
sun. With us in the tropical or the temperates zone, this
twilight, whether of morning or evening, lasts only for an hour
or two; but at the Pole this state of things is completely
altered, and the twilight of the annual morning and evening is
each visible for several days. The exact duration of this morning
or evening twilight is, however, still a matter of uncertainty.
Some authorities fix the period at 45 days, while others make
it last for full two months. In the tropical zone, we see the
first beams of the dawn, when the sun is about 16° below the
horizon. But it is said that in higher latitudes the light of the
sun is discernible when he is from 18° to 20° below the horizon.
Probably this latter limit may prove to be the correct one for
the North Pole, and in that case the dawn there will last

48. THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
    continuously for two months. Captain Pim, quoted by Dr.
    Warren, thus describes the Polar year:—
    "On the 16th of March the sun rises, preceded by a long
    dawn of forty-seven days, namely, from the 29th January, when
    the first glimmer of light appears. On the 25th of September
    the sun sets, and after a twilight of forty-eight days, namely, on
    the 13th November, darkness reigns supreme, so far as the sun
    is concerned, for seventy-six days, followed by one long period
    of light, the sun remaining above the horizon one hundred and
    ninety-four days. The year, therefore, is thus divided at the Pole:—
    194 days sun; 76 darkness; 47 days dawn; 48 twilight."*
    But other authorities assign a longer duration to the morning
    and evening twilight, and reduce the period of total darkness
    from 76 to 60 days, or only to two months. Which of these
    calculations is correct can be settled only by actual observation
    at the North Pole. It has been ascertained that this duration
    depends upon the powers of refraction and reflection of the
    atmosphere, and these are found to vary according to the tem-
    perature and other circumstances of the place. The Polar
    climate is at present extremely cold; but in the Inter-glacial
    epoch it was different, and this, by itself, would alter the dura-
    tion of the Polar dawn in inter-glacial times. But whatever the
    cause may be, so much is beyond doubt that at the Pole the
    twilight of the yearly morning and evening lingers on for
    several days. For even taking the lowest limit of 16°, the sun,
    in his course through the ecliptic, would take more than a
    month to reach the horizon from this point; and during
    all this time a perpetual twilight will prevail at the Pole. Long
    dawn and long evening twilight are, therefore, the principal
    factors in shortening the darkness of the Polar night and if we

• See Paradise Found, 10th Ed., p. 64.

THE ARCTIC REGIONS. · 49
deduct these days from the duration of the night, the period of
darkness is reduced from six to two, or at the most, to two-and-
half-months. It is, therefore, erroneous to suppose that the half
yearly Polar night is such a continuous period of darkness as
will make the Polar regions uncomfortable. On the contrary,
it will be the peculiar privilege of the Polar man to witness the
splendid spectacle of a long continuous dawn with its charming
lights, revolving, like the stars at the place, every day in hori-
zontal planes, round and round him, as long as the dawn may
last.
The dawn in the the tropical or the temperate zone is but
brief and evanescent, and it recurs after every 24 hours. But
still it has formed the subject of poetical descriptions in different
countries. If so, how much more the spectacle of a splendid
long dawn, after a darkness of two months, would delight the
heart of a Polar observer, and how he will yearn for the first
appearance of the light on the horizon, can be better imagined
than described. I quote the following description of this long
Polar dawn from Dr. Warren's Paradise Found, and invite
special attention to it, inasmuch as it forms one of the princi-
pal characteristics of the North Pole. Premising that the splen-
dours of the Polar dawn are indescribable, Dr. Warren pro-
ceeds :—
“First of all appears low in the horizon of the night-sky a
scarcely visible-flush of light. At first it only makes a few
stars' light seem a trifle fainter, but after a little it is seen to
be increasing, and to be moving laterally along the yet dark hori-
zon. Twenty-four hours later it has made a complete circuit
around the observer, and is causing a larger number of stars to
pale. Soon the widening light glows with the lustre of 'Orient
pearl.' Onward it moves in its stately rounds, until the pearly
7

50 . THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
whiteness burns into ruddy rose-light, fringed with purple and gold.
Day after day, as we measure days, this splendid panorama circles
on, and, according as atmospheric conditions and clouds present
more or less favourable conditions of reflection, kindles and fades,
kindles and fades,—fades only to kindle next time yet more
brightly as the still hidden sun comes nearer and nearer his
point of emergence. At length, when for two long months such
prophetic displays have been filling the whole heavens with
these increscent and revolving splendours, the sun begins to
emerge from his long retirement, and to display himself once
more to human vision. After one or two circuits, during which
his dazzling upper limb grows to a full-orbed disk, he clears all
hill-tops of the distant horizon, and for six full months circles
around and around the world's great axis in full view, suffering no
night to fall upon his favoured home-land at the Pole. Even when
at last he sinks again from view he covers his retreat with a
repetition of the deepening and fading splendours which filled his
long dawnings, as if in these pulses of more and more distant
light he were signalling back to the forsaken world the promises
and prophecies of an early return."*
A phenomenon like this cannot fail to be permanently im-
pressed on the memory of a Polar observer, and it will be found
later on that the oldest traditions of the Aryan race have pre-
served the recollection of a period, when its ancestors witnessed
such wonderful phenomenon,—a long and continuous dawn of
several days, with its lights laterally revolving on the horizon, in
their original home.
Such are the distinguishing characteristics of the North
Pole, that is, the point where the axis of the earth
terminates in the north. But as a Polar home means

• See Paradise Found, 10th Ed., p. 69.

THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 51
practically a home in the regions round about the North Pole,
and not merely the Polar point, we must now see what modi-
fications are necessary to be made in the above characteristics
owing to the observer being stationed a little to the south of the
North Pole. We have seen that at the Pole the northern
hemisphere is seen spinning round the observer, and all the stars
move with it in horizontal planes without rising or setting; while
the other celestial hemisphere is always invisible. But when the
observer is shifted downwards, his zenith will no longer corres-
pond with the Pole Star, nor his horizon with the celestial
equator. For instance let Z, in the annexed figure, be the zenith
of the observer, and P the celestial North Pole. When the ob-
server was stationed at the terrestrial North Pole, his zenith
coincided with P, and his horizon with the celestial equator,
with the result that all the stars in the dome Q'PQ revolved
round him in horizontal planes. But when the zenith is shifted
to Z, this state of things
is at once altered, as the
heavens will revolve, as be-
fore, round the line POP',
and not round the zenith-
line ZOZ'. When the ob-
server was stationed at the
North Pole these two lines
coincided, and hence the
circles of revolution des-
cribed by the stars round
the celestial Pole were
also described round the
zenith-line. But when the zenith Z is different from P, as in
the figure, the celestial horizon of the observer will be H'H,

52 • THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
and the stars will now appear to move in circles inclined to
his horizon, as shown in the figure by the black lines AA', BH'
and CC'. Some of the stars, viz., those that are situated in the
part of the celestial dome represented by H'PB, will be visible
throughout the night, as their circles of revolution will be above
the horizon H'C'D'H. But all the stars, whose Polar distance
is greater than PB or PH', will, in their daily revolution, be partly
above and partly below the horizon. For instance, the stars at
C and D will describe circles, some portions of which will be
below the horizon H'H. In other words, the appearance of the
visible celestial hemisphere to a person, whose zenith is at
Z, will be different from the appearance presented by the
heavens to an observer at the North Pole. The stars will not
now revolve in horizontal planes, but obliquely. A great number
of them would be circumpolar and visible during the whole
night, but the remaining will rise and set as with us in the
tropics, moving in oblique circles. When Z is very near P, only
a few stars will rise and set in this way, and the difference will
not be a marked one ; but as Z is removed further south, the
change will become more and more apparent.
Similar modifications will be introduced in the duration of
day and night, when the observer's position is shifted to the
south of the terrestrial North Pole. This will be clear by a
reference to the figure on the next page. Let P be the celestial
North Pole, and Q'Q the celestial equator. Then since the
sun moves in the ecliptic E'E, which is inclined at an angle
of about 23½° (23° 28' ) to the equator, the circles T'E and E'T
will correspond with the terrestrial circles of latitude, called the
Tropics, and the circle AC with the Arctic Circle on the terres-
trial globe. Now as the sun moves in the ecliptic E'E, in his
annual course he will always be twice over-head for an observer

THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 53
stationed at a place within the terrestrial tropical zone, once in
his course from E' to E, and again in his return, from E to E'.
The sun will also appear for some time to the north of the ob-
server's zenith, and for the rest of the year to the south. But
as the altitude of the sun above the equator is never greater
than 23½° or EQ, an observer whose zenith lies to the north of
the circle T'E, will always see the sun to the south of his
zenith, and the zenith distance of the sun will be greater and
greater as the observer advances towards the North Pole. But
still the sun will be above the horizon every day, for some hours
at least, to an observer whose zenith lies between T'E and AC.
To take a concrete in-
stance, let the observer
be so stationed that his
zenith will be at C, that is,
on the extreme northern
latitude of the temperate
zone. Then his celestial
horizon will extend 90° on
each side, and will be re-
presented by T''CT, and
the sun moving along the
ecliptic E'E will be above his horizon, at least for some portion
of day, during the whole year. But as the observer passes into
the Frigid zone, the sun during his annual course will be alto-
gether below the horizon for some days, and the maximum
limit is reached at the North Pole, where the sun is below the
horizon for six months. We may, therefore, state that the dura-
tion of the night, which is six months at the Pole is gradually di-
minished as we come down from the Pole, until, in the temperate

54 . THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
zone, the sun is above the horizon, at least, for some time out
of twenty-four hours every day. In the foregoing figure let Z
represent the zenith of an observer within the Arctic regions,
then H'H will represent his horizon, and the sun in his annual
course will, for some time, be altogether below this horizon.
For instance, suppose the sun to be at n. Then his diurnal
circle of rotation will be represented by nH, the whole of which
is below the horizon H'H of the observer whose zenith is Z.
Therefore, the sun, during his annual course along the ecliptic
from E' to n, and back from n to E', will be invisible to an
observer whose zenith is Z. Corresponding to this total disap-
pearance of the sun for some time, the luminary will be perpe-
tually above the horizon for the same period during his northern
course. For instance, let the sun be at d, then his diurnal circle
of rotation, dH', will be entirely above the horizon H'H, and so
it will continue to be for all the time that the sun moves from
d to E, and back again from E to d, in his annual course.
During this time the sun will neither rise nor set, but will move,
like the circumpolar stars, in oblique circles, round and round
the observer like a wheel. For all positions between n and d,
and the corresponding portion of the ecliptic on the other side,
the sun, in his diurnal course of twenty-four hours, would be
partially above and partially below the horizon, producing ordi-
nary days and nights, as with us, the day being longer than
the night when the sun is in the northern, and the night longer
than the day when the sun is in the southern hemisphere.
Instead of a single day and a single night of six months, the
year, to a person living in the Arctic regions, but not exactly
at the North Pole, will, therefore, be divided into three parts,
one of which will be a long night, one a long day, and
one made up of a succession of days and nights, a single day

THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 55
and night of which will together never exceed twenty-four hours.
The long night will always be shorter than six months and longer
than 24 hours, and the same will be the case with the long day.
The long night and the long day will mark the two opposite
extremities of the year, the middle of the long day occurring
when the sun is at the summer solstice, and the middle of the
long night when he is at the winter solstice. This triple division
of the year is very important for our purpose, and I shall, there-
fore, illustrate it by a concrete example. Suppose, for instance,
that the observer is so far below the North Pole that instead of a
night of six months, he has a night of 2 months, or, in other words,
the sun goes below his horizon only for two months. As the
winter solstice will fall in the middle of this long continuous
night, we may say that the night will extend a month before
and a month after December 21, when the sun is at the winter
solstice. Corresponding to this long night, there will be a
continuous day of two months, a month before and a month
after June 21, when the sun is at the summer solstice. If these
four months are deducted from the year, there will remain
eight months, and during all these months there will be days and
nights, as in the temperate zone, a nycthemeron, or a day and
a night together, never exceeding, as with us, the ordinary
period of twenty-four hours. This alternation of ordinary days
and nights will commence after the close of the long night in
January, and in the beginning, the night will be longer than
the day; but as the sun passes from the southern into the
northern hemisphere, the day will gain over the night, and,
eventually, after four months, terminate into a continuous day
for two months. At the close of this long day in July, the
alternation of ordinary days and nights will again commence,
the day in the beginning being longer than the night, but

56 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
a nycthemeron never exceeding, as in the previous case, a period
of twenty-four hours. As the sun passes from the northern into
the southern hemisphere, the night will begin to gain over the
day, until, after four months of such succession of ordinary days
and nights, it terminates into the continuous night of two months
mentioned above. The same description applies, mutatis mutandis,
where the long night may last for 3, 4 or 5 months, until we
reach the Polar condition of a day and a night of six months
each, when the intermediate succession of ordinary days and
nights will vanish. *
We have seen that a long dawn of two months is a special
and important characteristic of the North Pole. As we
descend southward, the splendour and the duration of the
dawn will be witnessed on a less and less magnificient
scale. But the dawn, occurring at the end of the long night
of two, three or more months, will still be unusually long,

• Cf. Bhaskarâcharya's Siddhânta Shiromaṇi, Golâdhyâya, Chapter
  VII., verses 6-7, which are as follows:—
  षट्षष्टिभागाभ्यधिकाः पलांशाः यत्राथ तत्रास्त्वपरो विशेषः॥
  लंबाधिका क्रांतियदर्क च यावत्। तावद्दिनं संततमेव तत्र।
  यावच्च वाम्या सततं तमिस्रा। ततश्च मेरौ सततं समार्धम्॥
  "There is a peculiarity at the place, where the latitude is great-
  er than 66° N. Whenever the northern declination of the sun exceeds
  the complement of the latitude, there will be perpetual day, for such
  time as that excess continues. Similarly, when the southern (de-
  clination exceeds), there will be perpetual night. On Meru, therefore,
  there is equal half-yearly perpetual day and night." Thus if the la-
  titude of a place be 70°, its complement will be 90—70=20°; and as
  the sun's height above the celestial equator (that is, his declination)
  is never greater than 23° 28′, there will be a continuous day at the
  place, so long as the declination is greater than 20° and less than
  23° 28′, and there will be a similar continuous night when the sun is in
  the southern hemisphere. Paul Du Chaillu mentions that at Nordkyn or
  North Cape (N. lat. 71° 6′ 50″), the northernmost place on the conti-
  nent of Europe, the long night commences on 18th November, and ends
  on 24th January, lasting, in all, for 67 days of twenty-four hours each.

THE ARCTIC REGIONS. . 57
often of several days' duration. As stated above, at first only
a pale flush of light will appear, and it will continue visible on
the horizon, revolving round and round, if the observer is
sufficiently near the Pole, for some days, when at last the orb of
the sun will emerge, and start the alternation of day and night
described above, to be eventually terminated into a long day.
The splendours of the Aurora Borealis would also be less marked
and conspicuous in the southern latitudes than at the North Pole.
But if the characteristics of the Arctic regions are different
from those of the North Pole, they are no less different from the
features of the year with which we are familiar in the temperate
or the tropical zone. With us the sun is above the horizon, at
least for some time every day, during all the twelve months of
the year ; but to persons within the Arctic circle, he is below
the horizon, and, therefore, continuously invisible for a number
of days. If this period of continuous night be excluded from our
reckoning, we might say that within the Arctic regions the
year, or the period marked by sunshine, only lasts from six to
eleven months. Again the dawn in the temperate and the
tropical zone is necessarily short-lived, for a day and a night
together do not exceed twenty-four hours, and the dawn which
comes between them can last only for a few hours; but the
annual dawn at the Pole, and the dawn at the end of the long
night in the Arctic regions will each be a dawn of several days'
duration. As for the seasons, we have our winters and summers ;
but the winter in the Arctic regions will be marked by
the long continuous night, while the summer will make the
night longer than the day, but within the limit of twenty-
four hours, until the day is developed into a long, conti-
nuous sunshine of several days. The climate of the Polar
regions is now extremely cold and severe, but, as previously

58 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
stated, different climatic conditions prevailed in early times,
and we cannot, therefore, include climate amongst the points
of contrast under consideration.
It will be seen from the foregoing discussion that we have
two distinct sets of characteristics, or differentia; one for an
observer stationed exactly at the terrestrial North Pole, and the
other for an observer located in the Circum-Polar regions, or
tracts of land between the North Pole and the Arctic circle.
For brevity's sake, we shall designate these two sets of differentia
as Polar and Circum-Polar, and sum them up as follows:—
I. The Polar Characteristics.
(1) The sun rises in the south.
(2) The stars do not rise and set ; but revolve, or spin round
and round, in horizontal planes, completing one round in 24 hours.
The northern celestial hemisphere is alone over-head and visible
during the whole year; and the southern or the lower celestial
world is always invisible.
(3) The year consists only of one long day and one long
night of six months each.
(4) There is only one morning and one evening, or the sun
rises and sets only once a year. But the twilight, whether of
the morning or of the evening, lasts continuously for about two
months, or 60 periods of 24 hours each. The ruddy light of the
morn, or the evening twilight, is not again confined to a particular
part of the horizon (eastern or western) as with us ; but moves,
like the stars at the place, round and round along the horizon,
like a potter's wheel, completing one round in every 24 hours.
These rounds of the morning light continue to take place, until
the orb of the sun comes above the horizon; and then the sun
follows the same course for six months, that is, moves, without
setting, round and round the observer, completing one round every
24 hours.

THE ARCTIC REGIONS. • 59
II. The Circum-Polar Characteristics.
(1) The sun will always be to the south of the zenith of the
observer; but as this. happens even in the case of an observer
stationed in the temperate zone, it cannot be regarded as a
special characteristic.
(2) A large number of stars are circum-polar, that is, they are
above the horizon during the entire period of their revolution and
hence always visible. The remaining stars rise and set, as in
the temperate zone, but revolve in more oblique circles.
(3) The year is made up of three parts:—(i) one long
continuous night, occurring at the time of the winter solstice, and
lasting for a period, greater than 24 hours and less than six months,
according to the latitude of the place; (ii) one long continuous day
to match, occurring at the time of the summer solstice; and (iii)
a succession of ordinary days and nights during the rest of the year,
a nycthemeron, or a day and a night together, never exceeding a
period of 24 hours. The day, after the long continuous night, is
at first shorter than the night, but it goes on increasing until it de-
velopes into the long continuous day. At the end of the long day,
the night is, at first, shorter than the day, but, in its turn, it begins
to gain over the day, until the commencement of the long
continuous night, with which the year ends.
(4) The dawn, at the close of the long continuous night, lasts
for several days, but its duration and magnificence is proportional-
ly less than at the North Pole, according to the latitude of the
place. For places, within a few degrees of the North Pole, the
phenomenon of revolving morning light will still be observable
during the greater part of the duration of the dawn. The other
dawns, viz., those between ordinary days and nights, will, like the
dawns in the temperate zone, only last for a few hours. The
sun, when he is above the horizon during the continuous day,

60. THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
    will be seen revolving, without setting, round the observer, as
    at the Pole, but in oblique and not horizontal circles, and during
    the long night he will be entirely below the horizon; while during
    the rest of the year he will rise and set, remaining above the
    horizon for a part of 24 hours, varying according to the position
    of the sun in the ecliptic.
    Here we have two distinct sets of differentiæ, or special
    characteristics, of the Polar and Circum-Polar regions,—charac-
    teristics which are not found anywhere else on the surface of the
    globe. Again as the Poles of the earth are the same to-day as they
    were millions of years ago, the above astronomical character-
    istics will hold good for all times, though the Polar climate may
    have undergone violent changes in the Pleistocene period. In
    short, we can take these differentiæ as our unerring guides in the
    examination of the Vedic evidence bearing on the point at issue.
    If a Vedic description or tradition discloses any of the character-
    istics mentioned above, we may safely infer that the tradition is
    Polar or Circum-Polar in origin, and the phenomenon, if not
    actually witnessed by the poet, was at least known to him by
    tradition faithfully handed down from generation to generation.
    Fortunately there are many such passages or references in the
    Vedic literature, and, for convenience, these may be divided into
    two parts: the first comprising those passages which directly
    describe or refer to the long night, or the long dawn; and the
    second consisting of myths and legends which corroborate and
    indirectly support the first. The evidence in the first part
    being direct, is, of course, more convincing; and we shall,
    therefore, begin with it in the next chapter, reserving the con-
    sideration of the Vedic myths and legends to the latter part of
    the book.