Page:Durga Puja - With Notes and Illustrations.djvu/30

 mountain on fire. The explanation of this myth is that the rays of the morning sun kiss the mountain tops and tinge them red, giving them the appearance of a body on fire, and that light of the sun descends below from the top of the mountain, the Dawn has been described by the Puranas as the descendant or daughter of Himavat, the prominent range of mountains in the north. Dawn discovers the trees and their fruits by her light, and Durga is therefore worshipped in trees. Trees and plants are the abode of Durga, for Dawn peeps through the windows of their foliage. As Dawn with her solitary ray of light passing through the crevices of the caves pierces as it were the heart of demon Darkness, and sucks out its blood in the redness imparted to the sky by the rising sun, so Durga plunges a spear into the breast of the Asura and draws forth blood from it. Dawn, Durga, predominates and holding the demon Darkness, encircled by eternity (the snake emblem of eternity) by the forelock subdues him by planting her foot on his shoulder. Durga stands with one foot on a lion whose Sanskrit name is Hari, the god of day, the sun, and the other on the demon Darkness, for Dawn may be said to stand on both. The left foot of Durga, with which she crushes the demon, is raised a little in the attitude of employing force, for Dawn virtually makes the demon Darkness bear her weight. As the sun, upon which Dawn may be said to ride, chases away darkness into shadows, so the lion of Durga tarstears [sic] the Asura into pieces.

The Dakshinayana is the night of the gods and the Uttarayana their day. The equinoxes, therefore, are the Dawn and the Gloaming of the gods, the proper moments for