The Arctic Home in the Vedas c10.38

c10.38

Apart from the legend of Dîrghatamas, we have, therefore, sufficient evidence in the Rig-Veda to hold that the word *yuga* was used to denote a period of time, shorter than the year, and that the phrase *mânushâ yugâ* meant ‘human ages,’ or ‘the period of time between the first and the last dawn of year,’ and not ‘human generations.’ The statement that “Dîrghatamas grew old in the tenth *yuga*” is now not only easy to understand, but it enables us to determine, still more definitely, the meaning of *yuga* in the days of the Rig-Veda. For, if *yuga* was a part of *mânushâ yugâ*, that is, of the period between the first and the last dawn of the year, and the legend of Dîrghatamas a solar legend, the statement that “Dîrghatamas grew old in the tenth *yuga*” can only mean that ‘the sun grew old in the tenth month.’ In other words, ten *yugas* were supposed to intervene between the first and the last dawn, or the two termini, of the year; and as ten days or ten fortnights would be too short, and ten seasons too long a period of time to lie between these limits, the word *yuga*, in the phrase *dashame yuge*, must be interpreted to mean ‘a month’ and nothing else. In short, Dîrghatamas was the sun that grew old in the tenth month, and riding on the aerial waters was borne by them to their goal, that is, to the ocean (VII, 49, 2) below the horizon. The waters here referred to are, in fact, the same over which the king Varuṇa is said to rule, or which flow by his commands, or for which he is said to have dug out a channel (VII, 49, 1-4; II, 28, 4; VII, 87, 1) and so cut out a path for Sûrya, and which, being released by Indra from the grasp of Vṛitra, bring on the sun (I, 51, 4). Prof. Max Muller, in his *Contributions to the Science of Mythology* (Vol. II, pp. 583-598), has shown that most of the achievements of the Ashvins can be rationally explained by taking them as referring to the decaying sun. The legend of Dîrghatamas is thus only a mythical representation of the Arctic sun, who ascends above the ‘bright ocean’ (VII, 60, 4), becomes visible for *mânuṣhâ yugâ*, or ten months, and then drops again into the nether waters. What these waters are and how their nature has been long misunderstood will be further explained in a subsequent chapter, when we come to the discussion of Vedic myths. Suffice it to say for the present that the legend of Dîrghatamas, interpreted as above, is in full accord with the legend of the Dashagvas, who are described as holding their sacrificial session only for ten months.