The Orion, or Researches into the Antiquity of the Vedas c11.98

c11.98

I would therefore translate the verse thus, “O Vrishākapi! go to the house—the celestial sphere which is cut off and which contains some (unknown) *yojanas* or stages. From your *nether* house come to our house. Indra is in the upper (portion) of the universe.” *Nediyas* is thus contrasted with *uttara* in the burden of the song. Both are comparative forms. Indra is in the *uttara* (upper) regions, while Vrishākapi is going to the *nediyas* (lower) world; and Indra expects or rather requests Vrishākapi to come back again to his (Indra’s) house. That is the gist of the whole verse. The idea that the sun falls down from the autumnal equinox is an old one. In Ait. Br. iii. 18 and in Taitt. Br. i. 5 12. 1 the ceremonies on on the Viṣuvān or the equinoctial day in a *satra* are described, and there we are told that “gods were afraid of the sun *falling down* from the sky and so supported him,” and being thus supported he “became *uttara* to all.” The Ait. Br. iii. 18 has thus the same word *uttara* that we have in this verse, and it is natural to suppose that both relate to the same subject. I have also quoted a passage from the Aitareya Brāhmaṇa where *nediyas* is contrasted with *upariṣṭāt*. From these I infer that the verse, we are now considering, describes the descent of the sun into the southern or the lower hemisphere, and that Indra asks him to come back again to the house of Gods, *i.e.*, the northern hemisphere. I have already given in full my reasons for understanding *nediyas* in a differeh sense. But I may remark that, even accepting the common meaning of the word, the verse may still be interpreted in the way I have suggested.