Page:The Life of Lokamanya Tilak.djvu/414

394 But there are many other passages which go to corroborate this statement in a remarkable way.

The long continuous dawn with its revolving splendours is another characterestic of the North Pole. The Vedic poets could not have gone into raptures over the short-lived dawn of the tropical or temperate zone. In the Aitareya Brahmana IV, 7, a long recitation of not less than a thousand verses is to be recited by the Hotri priest "when the darkness of the night is about to be relieved by the light of the dawn." So there must have been in those days, sufficient time between the first appearance of light and the rise of the sun, to recite the long song. Sometimes the recitation ended long before sunrise and in that case other hymns are required to be continued, and Apa Stamb requires all the ten mandalas of the Rigvedas to be recited if necessary. In Rigveda VII. 76 the poet expressly tells us that a period of several days elapsed between the first appearance of the dawn and the actual rising of the sun, and the commentator, Sayana, not understanding how the words "day" can be applied to a period of time anterior to sunrise, twists the meaning of the "Ahan" and translates it by "splendour." Similarly in Rig. II. 28-9 the words bhuyasih ushasah avyushtah which literally mean "many dawns have not dawned or fully flashed forth" have been a riddle to the commentators. These dawns were thirty in number (Taittiriya Samhita IV. 3. 11). Sayana, unable to account for so many dawns explains that though the dawn was one yet by its Yogic powers, it assumed these various shapes!

When the long duration of the Vedic dawn is once