The Orion, or Researches into the Antiquity of the Vedas c11.100

Language: English

c11.100.1

VERSE 22.—This is the most important verse in the whole hymn. It describes the circumstances under which Vṛishâkapi will return to Indra's house. Literally rendered it means, "O mighty Vṛishâkapi!* when you rising upwards (or rather northwards) would come to (our) house, where would that great sinner Mriga be? Where he, who misleads people, would go? Indra, &c." Now Yâska, in whose days all traces of Canis being once a star in the heavens were lost, could not understand what to make of the statement "where would that great sinner Mriga be?" It means that Mriga would not be seen, would not be visible, when Vrishâkapi goes to the house of Indra; but Yâska did not perceive what was intended by such a statement. He could not conceive that the constellation of Mrigashiras would be invisible, when the sun in his upward march would be there at the beginning of the Devayâna, that is, when he comes to the house of Indra, and therefore he proposed to interpret Mriga in the sense of "the sun" (Nirukta 13. 3). Mriga, says he, is derived from mrij to go, and means "going," "one who goes and goes and never stops," in other words, "the sun." Now, says his commentator, when a person goes into a house he cannot be seen by the outsiders. So Vrishâkapi, when he goes to the house, cannot be seen by the people on the earth! I do not think that I need point out the highly artificial and inconsistent character of this explanation.

c11.100.2

The word Mriga, so far as I know, is no where used in the Rigveda in this sense. Again, if the word Mriga in the third verse of this hymn is to be understood as meaning an antelope, is it not natural enough to suppose that the same Mriga is referred to in this verse? Then, again, how can the sun be said to become invisible to the people when he is in the house of gods? Nor can he be invisible to Indra whose house he enters. What can, in such a case, be the propriety of the word udancha or "rising upwards"? If Mriga means the sun according to Yâska, we shall have to suppose that the rising sun was *invisible*, a clear contradiction in terms. I am sure Yâska, here, tried to explain away the difficulty in the same way as he has done in the case of *Vṛika*. But, in the present instance, the solution he has proposed is, on the face of it, highly inconsistent, so much so that even Sâyaṇa, does not follow it. Sâyaṇa, however, has nothing else to propose, and he quietly leaves the word *Mṛiga* as it is and unexplained in his commentary. In short, both Sâyaṇa and Yâska have found the verse too difficult to explain. The meaning I have proposed explains the verse in a natural and a simple manner, and further corroborates the statement in the Rigveda previously referred to *viz.*, "Canis awakened the Ribhus at the end of the year." In the Taittirîya Brâhmaṇa i. 5. 2.

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1, we are told that the Vedic priests, *e g.*, Mâtsoni, observed the position of the sun amongst stars in the morning, and, as the Nakshatras disappear when the sun rises, they determined the position by observing what Nakshatra rose a little before the sun. The present verse records an observation to make which no greater skill is required. It tells us that when Vṛishâkapi went to the house of Indra his *Mṛiga* was not visible anywhere, thus clearly indicating that sun rose with Orion on that day. The word *udancha* is especially remarkable in this case. The sun must be *udancha* when he goes to the house of Indra, which, the burden of the song tells us, is in the northern or the upper part of the universe This verse, therefore, clearly describes not merely the *rising* sun, but the position of the rising sun amongst the constellations when he is at the vernal equinox, the entrance of the house of gods or the house of Indra. Sâyaṇa and Yâska have completely missed this point, and have made Vṛishâkapi represent the rising sun as an unnecessary rival to Savitâ (Nirukta 12. 12). If the meaning I have proposed is correct, we have here a record of the position of the sun at the vernal equinox. I take *pulvaghas* in the original to mean "great sinner;" but it may be translated as Yâska proposes by "omnivorous" or "voracious." But in either case I would take it as referring to the antelope's spoiling the things of Indrânî.

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The point is that the sinning Mriga would not be with Vrishâkapi when he again goes to the house of Indra, and Indrânî would have no cause to complain of the presence of the odious Mriga at the time.