The Arctic Home in the Vedas c13.8

c13.8

Besides these there are many other exploits mentioned in I, 112, 116-119; and the Ashvins are described as having saved, helped, or cured a number of other persons. But the above summary is sufficient for our purpose. It will be seen from it that the Ashvins bear the general character of helping the lame, the blind, the distressed, or the afflicted; and in some places a reference to the decayed powers of the sun is discernible on the face of the legends. Taking their clue from this indication, many scholars, and among them Prof. Max Muller, have interpreted all the above legends as referring to the sun in winter and the restoration of his power in spring or summer. Thus Prof. Max Muller tells us that Chyavâna is nothing but the falling sun (chyu, to fall), of which it might well be said that he had sunk in the fiery or dark abyss from which the Ashvins are themselves said to come up in III, 39, 3. The Vedic Ṛiṣhis are again said to have betrayed the secret of the myth of Vandana by comparing the treasure dug for him by the Ashvins to the sun ‘dwelling in darkness.’ Kali is similarly taken to represent the waning moon, and Vishpalâ’s iron leg, we are told, is the first quarter or pâda of the new moon, called ‘iron’ on account of his darkness as compared with the golden colour of the full moon. The blindness of Rijrâshva is explained on this theory as meaning the blindness of night or winter; and the blind and the lame Parâvrij is taken to be the sun after sunset or near the winter solstice. The setting sun thrown out of a boat into waters is similarly understood to be the basis of the legend Bhujyu or Rebha. Vadhrimati, the wife of the eunuch, to whom Hiraṇya-hasta or the gold-hand is said to be restored, is, we are further told, nothing but the dawn under a different name. She is called the wife of the eunuch because she was separated from the sun during the night. The cow of Shayu, (derived from *shî*, to lie down) is again said to be the light of the morning sun, who may well be described as sleeping in the darkness from which he was brought forth by the Ashvins for the sake of Vandana. In short, each and every legend is said to be a story of the sun or the moon in distress. The Ashvins were the saviours of the morning-light, or of the annual sun in his exile and distress at the time of the winter solstice; and when the sun becomes bright and brisk in the morning every day, or vigorous and triumphant in the spring, the miracle, we are told, was naturally attributed to the physicians of the gods.