The Arctic Home in the Vedas c13.11

c13.11

The third point, left unexplained by the Vernal theory, is the place of distress or suffering from which the proteges are said to have been rescued by the Ashvins. Bhujyu was saved not on land, but in the watery region (apsu) without support (anârambhaṇe) and unillumined (tamasi) by the rays of the sun (I, 182, 6). If we compare this description with that of the ocean said to have been encompassed by Vṛitra, or of the dark ocean which Bṛihaspati is said to have hurled down in II, 23, 18, we can at once recognize them as identical. Both represent the nether world which we have seen is the home of aerial waters, and which has to be crossed in boats by the drowned sun in the Ṛig-Veda or by Hêlios in the Greek mythology. It can not, therefore, be the place where the sun goes in winter; and unless we adopt the Arctic theory, we can not explain how the proteges of the Ashvins are said to have been saved from being drowned in a dark and bottomless ocean. In VIII, 40, 5, Indra is said to have uncovered the seven-bottomed ocean having a side-opening (jimha-bâram), evidently referring to the fight for waters in the nether world. The same expression (jimha-bâram) is used again in I, 116, 9, where the Ashvins are described as having lifted up a well "with bottom up and opening in the side or downwards ;"