The Arctic Home in the Vedas c11.53.4

c11.53.4

and the passage, therefore, means (1) that the “ appointed time,” when Tishtrya was to appear before man after fighting with Apaosha, varied from one night to a hundred nights, and (2) that Tishtrya required to be strengthened during the period by Haoma sacrifices in which he was to be invoked by his own name. We have seen above that a hundred nightly Soma sacrifices were offered to Indra by the ancient Vedic sacrificers to enable him to secure a victory over Vritra, and that Indra was the only deity to whom the libations were offered in these sacrifices. The legend of Tishtrya and Apaosha is, therefore, an exact reproduction of Indra’s fight with Vritra or Vala; and with this correspondence before us, we should feel no hesitation in accepting the view stated above regarding the origin of the Shata-râtra sacrifice. Neither Darmesteter nor Spiegel explains why the appointed time for the appearance of Tishtrya is described as “ one night, or two nights, or fifty, or a hundred nights,” though both translate the original in the same way. The legend also forms the subject of chapter VII of the Bundahish, but there, too, we find no explanation as to why the appointed time is described as varying from one to a hundred nights. It is, however, suggested by some that the appointed time may refer to the season of rains.