The Arctic Home in the Vedas c11.47.2

c11.47.2

and just at the time when Indra most needed the help of invigorating songs and Soma libations, are we to suppose that these sacrificers sat idle, gave up the sacrifices and left Indra to fight with Vala alone and single-handed as best as he could? The whole theory of sacrifices negatives such a supposition. Therefore, if the Arctic theory is true, and if the ancestor of the Vedic Rishis ever lived in a region where the darkness of the night lasted for several days, (a day being taken as a measure of time equal to 24 hours), we naturally expect to find a series of nightly Soma sacrifices performed during the period, to help the gods in their struggle with the demons of darkness; and, as a matter of fact, there are in the Vedic sacrificial literature, a number of sacrifices which, if we include the *Ati-râtra* in it, extend from one to a hundred nights. The *Mîmâmsakas* and even the authors of the *Brâhmanas*, who knew little about the ancient Arctic home, have converted these night-sacrifices into day-sacrifices; but the explanation evidently appears to be invented at a time when the true nature of the *Râtri-kratus* or *Râtri-sattras* was forgotten, and it does not, therefore, preclude us from interpreting these facts in a different way. I have already stated above that if we accept the explanation of the Mîmâmsakas, we cannot explain why the series of the night-sacrifices should abruptly end with the Shata-râtra or a hundred nights' sacrifice;