The Orion, or Researches into the Antiquity of the Vedas c11.89

c11.89

VERSE 20 — In this verse Indra asks Vrishâkapi to go to his house (*astam*) and then return afterwards to the house (*grihas*) of Indra. But the question is where is Vrishâkapi's house and where is that of Indra? The words in the original are *dhanva*, *kṛintatra* and *nedîyas*. Vrishâkapi is asked to go to *dhanva*, which is also *kṛintatra*. Sâyaṇa takes *dhanva* to mean a desert and *kṛintatra* in the sense that "the trees therein are cut off." But this meaning does not quite suit the context. What is meant by saying that Vrishâkapi, who is admittedly the sun in a different form, should go to a forest? Where is that forest, and what does it imply? Dhanva is a word that occurs several times in the Rigveda. In Rig. i. 35. 8 it is said to consist of three yojanas and is contrasted with the earth. Sâyaṇa there understands it to mean "sky or heavens;" and I see no reason why we should not interpret the word in the same way in this verse. Dhanva therefore means "sky" or "heavens." But is it the vault above with three stages? No, the poet qualifies the idea by krintatra, meaning "cut off." It is thus evidently the portion of the heavens which is cut off. In other words, the idea here denoted is the same as that expressed by the phrase avarodhanam divah—"where heavens are closed," or "where the view is obstructed," in Rig. ix. 113. 8. Dhanva, which is krintatra,∗ thus denotes the innermost part of the celestial sphere, the southern hemisphere or the Pitṛiyâna. The poet knows that the vault of the heavens above him has three halts or stages which Vishnu is said to have used as his three steps (Rig. i. 22. 17). But of the nether world the poet has no definite knowledge, and he therefore cannot specify the yojanas or the stages it contains. Thus he simply says that there are some yojanas therein. The first part of the verse may now be translated thus: O Vrishâkapi! go to the house (in) the celestial sphere which is cut off and which contains some yojanas or stages." In short, Indra means that Vrishâkapi should now descend into the southern hemispere.