Page:The Life of Lokamanya Tilak.djvu/415

APPENDIX B demonstrated, it astronomically follows that long days and long nights existed in those times. Let us, however, try to find independent evidence of their existence. There are many passages in the Rig- Veda that speak of long and ghastly darkness in one form or other. Thus in I, 32, 10 Vritra, the traditional enemy of Indra, is said to be engulfed in long darkness. In V, 32, 5, Indra is described as having placed Shushna, who was anxious to fight in "the darkness of the pit." The next verse speaks of Sunless (ghastly) darkness. These expressions lose all their propriety, if the darkness, in which the enemies of Indra are said to have flourished, be taken to be ordinary darkness of twelve, or at best, of twenty-four hours' duration. It was in reality a long one.

In the loth Mandala of the Rig-Veda we have a hymn (127) in which Night is invoked to "become easily fordable." In the Parishishta, which follows this hymn the worshipper addresses the Night "May we reach the other side in safety! May we reach the other side in safety." In the Atharva-Veda, XIX, 47, the second verse runs thus "Each moving thing finds rest in her (Night) whose yonder boundary, is not seen, nor that which keeps her separate " In the Taittiriya Samhita I, 5, 5, 4, we have a similar prayer addressed to the Night and a little later I, 5, 7, 5, the Samhita itself explains the prayer thus "In old times the Brahmans were afraid that it (night) would not dawn." What does this signify? If the night was not unusually long, where was the necessity for entertaining any misgivings about the coming dawn?"

Ill, 55, II literally translated means:— "The twin