The Orion, or Researches into the Antiquity of the Vedas c9.38.2

c9.38.2

the adjective is applied to a dog; and the same animal is evidently intended in both places. In the Parsi scriptures the dogs at the Chinvat Bridge are sometimes spoken of in singular (Ved. viii. 16) and sometimes, as in Rig. x. 14. 11, in dual (Ved. xiii. 9). This shows that we might disregard gender and number in the description of these dogs ; and we are thus led to suppose that Saramâ in the Rigveda is again to be identified with the dogs that watch the gates of heaven. Whether Saramâ* in primitive days was or was not connected with the dawn, I do not undertake to say. But there is an incident in her story which confirms the identification I have proposed. The Paṇis tried to coax Saramâ by offering her milk which she drank. On her return she denied having seen the cows of Indra, who thereupon kicked her and she vomited the milk. Now the mention of milk at once suggests the idea that it must be the milk in the galaxy on each side of which the two dogs are stationed. In Rig. iv. 57. 5 Shunâsîrau are invoked in order that they may pour down upon the earth the “milk,” which they “make in heaven.” Prof. Max Müller records a suggestion that Shunâsirau, here spoken of, may be a very old name for the Dog-star, and with its derivative Sairya would give us the etymon of Seirios!* In Rig. vii. 55.