The Arctic Home in the Vedas c10.8.1

c10.8.1

A dawn of thirty days, as we measure days, implies a position so near the North Pole, that the period of sunshine at the place could not have been longer than about seven months, comprising, of course, a long day of four or five months, and a succession of regular days and nights during the remaining period; and we find that the Rig-Veda does preserve for us the memory of such months of sunshine. We refer first to the legend of Aditi, or the seven Âdityas (suns), which is obviously based on some natural phenomenon. This legend expressly tells us that the oldest number of Âdityas or suns was seven, and the same idea is independently found in many other places in the Rig-Veda. Thus in IX, 114, 3, seven Âdityas and seven priests are mentioned together, though the names of the different suns are not given therein. In II, 27, 1, Mitra, Aryaman, Bhaga, Varuṇa, Dakṣa and Amśa are mentioned by name as so many different Âdityas, but the seventh is not named. This omission does not, however, mean much, as the septenary character of the sun is quite patent from the fact that he is called saptâ-shva (seven-horsed) in V, 45, 9, and his ‘seven-wheeled’ chariot is said to be drawn by ‘seven bay steeds’ (I, 50, 8), or by a single horse ‘with seven names’ in I, 164, 2. The Atharva Veda also speaks of “the seven bright rays of the sun” (VII, 107, 1); and the epithet Âditya, as applied to the sun in the Rig-Veda, is rendered more clearly by Aditeḥ putraḥ (Aditi’s son) in A. V. XIII, 2, 9.