The Arctic Home in the Vedas c13.s6.3.2

c13.s6.3.2

Rhys, in his Hibbert Lectures, quotes Plutarch to the effect that the Paphlagonians regarded their gods as shut up in a prison during winter and let loose in summer, and interprets the legend as indicating the temporary ascendancy of the powers of darkness over those of light during the continuous night of the Arctic region. If we adopt this view, we can easily explain how all the gods were said to be thrown into prison by Râvaṇa until they were released by Râma. Another fact in the Râmâyaṇa which is supposed to require explanation is the conception of the monkey-god Hanûmân. The Ṛig-Veda mentions a monkey (kapi), who, as Vṛiṣhâkapi, has been elsewhere shown to represent the sun at the autumnal equinox, or according to the Arctic theory discussed in this book, at the time of going down below the horizon into the long darkness of the nether world. It is Dr. Pischel, who first threw out the hint that this Vṛiṣhâkapi may probably be the ancestor of the Purâṇic Hanûmân; and the fact that Hanûmân was born at a time when the sun was said to be eclipsed goes to corroborate the view to a certain extent. Mr. Nârâyaṇ Aiyangâr, in his Essays on Indo-Aryan mythology, further points out that Sîtâ, the wife of Râma, may be traced to the Ṛig-Vedic Sîtâ, meaning "a ploughed furrow" which is invoked to bestow wealth upon the worshiper in IV, 57, 6 and 7; and so far as the birth of Sîtâ from the earth and her final disappearance into it are concerned the explanation appears very probable.