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The Arctic Home in the Vedas c13.s3: Trita Âptya

The Arctic Home in the Vedas c13.s3

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Trita Âptya

c13.s3.1.1

It has been stated above that the year divided into three parts of 4 months each represents the three steps of Viṣṇu; and that the first two parts were said to be visible as contrasted with the third which was hidden, because in the ancient home of the Aryan people the sun was above the horizon only for about 8 months. If we personify these three parts of the year, we get a legend of three brothers, the first two of whom may be described as arranging to throw the third into a pit of darkness. This is exactly the story of Trita Âptya in the Ṛig-Veda or of Thrâetaona in the Avesta. Thus Sâyaṇa, in his commentary on I, 105, quotes a passage from the Taittirîya Brâhmaṇa (III, 2, 8, 10-11) and also a story of the Shâtyâyanins giving the legend of three brothers called Ekata, Dvita and Trita, or the first, the second and the third, the former two of whom threw the last or Trita into a well from which he was taken out by Bṛihaspati. But in the Ṛig-Veda Ekata is not mentioned anywhere; while Dvita, which grammatically means the second, is met with in two places (V, 18, 2; VIII, 47, 16). Dvita is the seer of the 18th hymn in the fifth Maṇḍala, and in the second verse of the hymn he is said to receive maimed offerings; while in VIII, 47, 16, the dawn is asked to bear away the evil dream to Dvita and Trita.

c13.s3.1.2

Grammatical analogy points out that Trita must mean the third, and in VI, 44, 23, the word triteṣhu is used as a numeral adjective to rochaneṣhu meaning "in the third region." As a Vedic deity Trita is called Âptya, meaning "born of or residing in waters" (Sây. on VIII, 47, 15); and he is referred to in several places, being associated with the Maruts and Indra in slaying the demon or the powers of darkness like Vṛitra. Thus in X, 8, 8, Trita, urged by Indra, is said to have fought against and slew the three-headed (tri-shiras) son of Tvaṣṭṛi and released the cows; while in X, 99, 6, we read that Indra subdued the loud-roaring six-eyed demon, and Trita, strengthened by the same draught, slew the boar (varâha) with his iron-pointed bolt. But the most important incident in the story of Trita is mentioned in I, 105. In this hymn Trita is described as having fallen into a kûpa or well, which is also called vavra or a pit in X, 8, 7. Trita then invoked the gods for help and Bṛihaspati hearing his prayers released him from his distress (I, 105, 17). Some of the verses in the hymn are very suggestive; for instance in verse 9, Trita tells us about his “kinship with the seven rays in the heaven. Trita Âptya knows it and he speaks for kinship.” The ruddy Vṛika, or the wolf of darkness, is again described in verse 18 as having perceived Trita going by the way. These references show that Trita was related to the powers of light, but had the misfortune of being thrown into darkness.

c13.s3.1.3

In IX, 102, 2, Trita’s abode is said to be hidden or secret, a description similar to that of the third step of Viṣhṇu. The same story is found in the Avesta. There Thrâetaona, who bears the patronymic epithet Âthwya (Sans. Âptya), is described as slaying the fiendish serpent Azi Dahâka, who is said to be three-mouthed and six-eyed (Yt. XIX, 36-37; V, 33-34). But what is still more remarkable in the Avestic legend is that Thrâetaona in his expedition against the demon is said to have been accompanied by his two brothers who sought to slay him on the way.¹ The Avestic legend thus fully corroborates the story of the Shâtyâyanins quoted by Sâyaṇa, and when the two accounts agree so well we cannot lightly set aside the story in the Brâhmaṇa, or hold that it was woven out of stray references in the Rig-Veda. But in the absence of the Arctic theory, or the theory of long darkness extending over nearly four months or a third part of the year, European Scholars have been at a loss to understand why the deity should have been named ‘the Third’; and various ingenious theories have been started to explain how Trita, which ordinarily means the third, came to denote the deity that was thrown into a pit or well in a distant land. Thus Prof. Max Muller thinks that the name of the deity was originally Trita (तृत) and not Trita (त्रित); and he derives the former from the root *trî* (तृ) to cross.

c13.s3.1.4

Trita (तृत), which, by-the-by, is not a regular grammatical form though found in the Atharva Veda VI, 113, 1 and 3, would thus mean “the sun crossing the ocean,” being in this respect comparable to *taraṇi* which means “the sun” in the later Sanskrit literature. In short, according to Prof. Max Muller, Trita (तृत) means the ‘set sun’; and the story of Trita (त्रित) is, therefore, only a different version of the daily struggle between light and darkness. But Prof. Max Muller’s theory requires us to assume that this misconception or the corruption of Trita (तृत) into Trita (त्रित) took place before the Aryan separation, inasmuch as in Old Irish we have the word *triath* which means the sea, and which is phonetically equivalent to Greek *triton*, Sanskrit *trita* and Zend *thrita*. Prof. Max Muller himself admits the validity of this objection, and points out that the Old Norse *Thridi*, a name of Odin, as the mate of Har and Jasnhar, can be accounted for only on the supposition that *trita* (तृत) was changed by a misapprehension into *trita* (त्रित) long before the Aryan separation. This shows to what straits scholars are reduced in explaining certain myths in the absence of the true key to their meaning. We assume, without the slightest authority, that a misapprehension must have taken place before the Aryan separation, because we cannot explain why a deity was called ‘the Third,’ and why *triath* in Old Irish was used to denote the sea.

c13.s3.1.5

But the whole legend can be now very easily and naturally explained by the Arctic theory. The personified third part of the year, called Trita or the Third, is naturally described as going into darkness, or a well or pit, or into the waters of the nether world, for the sun went below the horizon during that period in the home of the ancestors of the Vedic people. The connection of Trita with darkness and waters, or his part in the Vritra fight, or the use of the word *triath* to denote the sea in Old Irish now become perfectly plain and intelligible. The nether world is the home of aerial waters, and Brihaspati, who is said to have released the cows from their place of confinement in a cave in the nether world, is naturally spoken of as rescuing Trita, when he was sunk in the well of waters. Speaking of the abode of Trita, Prof. Max Muller observes that “the hiding place of Trita, the *vavra*, is really the same *anârambhaṇam tamas*, the endless darkness, from which light and some of its legendary representatives, such as Atri, Vandana and others, emerged every day.” I subscribe to every word of this sentence except the last two. It shows how the learned Professor saw, but narrowly missed grasping the truth, having nothing else to guide him except the Dawn and the Vernal theory. He had perceived that Trita’s hiding place was in the endless darkness and that the sun rose out of the same dark region; and from this to the Arctic theory was but a small step.

c13.s3.1.6

But whatever the reason may be, the Professor did not venture to go further, and the result is that an otherwise correct conception of the mythological incidents in Trita’s legend is marred by two ominous words, *viz.*, “every day,” at the end of the sentence quoted above. Strike off the last two words, put a full point after ‘emerged,’ and in the light of the Arctic theory we have a correct explanation of the legend of Trita as well as of the origin of the name, Trita or the Third.

c13.s3.2

¹ See Spiegel, Die Arische Periode, p. 271, quoted by Macdonell in his Vedic Mythology, § 23. Also compare S. B. E. Series, Vol. XXXIII p. 222, note 2.