Page:The Life of Lokamanya Tilak.djvu/416

 pair (females) make many forms; of the two one shines and the other is dark. Two sisters are they, the dark and the bright." We have here a two-fold description of the couple (Day and Night). It is called the shining and the dark and also is described as possessed of many forms. Say ana interprets these forms as different colours like black, white etc. This is evidently wrong. Are we to suppose that we may have sometimes green, violet, yellow or blue days and nights? Again though rupa may lend itself to this interpretation, the word used in the above verse, Vapumshi cannot be so understood. It can only denote the extent, duration and length of days and nights, in addition to their colour, which can be only twofold, dark or bright. The first half of the verse, therefore, means, "The twin pair assume various (nana) lengths (Vapumshi); of the two one shines and the other is dark. The third quarter of the verse "Two sisters are they, the dark (Shyavi) and the bright (arushi)" has puzzled the commentators but they have solved the riddle by regarding the twins (yamya) and the sisters (svasaran) as identical. But this is wrong. The only possible explanation is that the year spoken of in the passage is a circum-Polar year made up of one long day and one long night, forming one pair and a number of ordinary days and nights of various lengths which can be described as "bright, dark and of varying lengths."

In X, 138, 3, the third verse begins with "The Sun unyoked his car in the midst of heaven," not at sunset or on the horizon but in the midst of heaven. The words are quite clear. Mr. Griffith tries to explain this