The Arctic Home in the Vedas c10.44.1

c10.44.1

An independent corroboration of the conclusion we have drawn from the legends of the Dashagvas and Dîrghatamas is furnished by the number of seasons mentioned in certain Vedic texts. A period of sunshine of ten months followed by a long night of two months can well be described as five seasons of two months each, followed by the sinking of the sun into the waters below the horizon; and as a matter of fact we find the year so described in I, 164,12, a verse, which occurs also in the Atharva Veda (IX, 9, 12) with a slight variation and in the Prashnopanishad, I, 11. It may be literally translated as follows:— "The five-footed (*pañcha-pâdam*) Father of twelve forms, they say, is full of watery vapours (*purîṣiṇam*) in the farther half (*pare ardhe*) of the heaven. These others again say (that) He the far-seeing (*vichakṣaṇam*) is placed on the six-spoked (*ṣaḍ-are*) and seven-wheeled (*car*), in the nearer (*upare*, scil. *ardhe*) half of the heaven." 1 The adjective 'far-seeing' is made to qualify 'seven-wheeled' instead of 'He' in the Atharva Veda, *vichakṣaṇe* being in the locative case; while Śaṅkarâchârya in his commentary on the Prashnopanishad splits *upare* into two words *u* and *pure*, taking *u* as an expletive. But these readings do not materially alter the meaning of the verse. The context everywhere clearly indicates that the year-god of twelve months (*âkṛiti*, X, 85, 5) is here described. The previous verse in the hymn (Rig.