The Arctic Home in the Vedas c11.8

c11.8

idea of the sun dropping from heaven is very common in the sacrificial literature. Thus in the Aitareya Brâhmaṇa (IV, 18) we read, “The gods, being afraid of his (sun’s) falling beyond them, being turned upside down, supported him by placing above him the highest worlds”;¹ and the same idea is met with in the Tâṇḍya Brâhmaṇa (IV, 5, 9-11). The words “falling beyond” (*parâchas atipâtât*) are very important, inasmuch as they show that the sun dropped into regions that were on the yonder side. One of the Ashvin’s protege is also called Chyavâna, which word Prof. Max Muller derives from *chyu* to drop. The Ashvins are said to have restored him to youth, which, being divested of its legendary form, means the rehabilitation of the sun that had dropped into the nether world. The Pravargya ceremony, which preserves the seed of the sacrifice, is, therefore, only one phase of the story of the dropping sun in the sacrificial literature, and the verses employed in this ceremony, if interpreted in the spirit of that ceremony, appear, as stated above, to indicate an older year of five seasons and ten months.