The Arctic Home in the Vedas c7.7

c7.7

The spinning round of the heavenly dome over the head is one of the special characteristics of the North Pole, and the phenomenon is so peculiar that one may expect to find traces of it in the early traditions of a people, if they, or their ancestors ever lived near the North Pole. Applying this test to the Vedic literature, we do find passages which compare the motion of the heavens to that of a wheel, and state that the celestial vault is supported as if on an axis. Thus in Rig. X, 89, 4, Indra is said “to separately uphold by his power heaven and earth as the two wheels of a chariot are held by the axle.”¹ Prof. Ludwig thinks that this refers to the axis of the earth, and the explanation is very probable. The same idea occurs in other places, and sometimes the sky is described as being supported even without a pole, testifying thereby to the great power or might of Indra (II, 15, 2; IV, 56, 3).² In X, 89, 2, Indra is identified with Sûrya and he is described as “turning the widest expanse like the wheels of a chariot.”³ The word for ‘expanse’ is varâmsi, which Sâyaṇa understands to mean ‘lights’, or ‘stars.’ But whichever meaning we adopt, it is clear that the verse in question refers to the revolution of the sky, and compares it to the motion of a chariot wheel. Now the heavens in the temperate and the tropical regions may be described as moving like a wheel from east to west and then back again to the east, though the latter half of this circuit is not visible to the observer. But we can not certainly speak of the tropical sky as being supported on a pole, for the simple reason that the North Pole, which must be the point of support in such a case, will not be sufficiently near the zenith in the tropical or the temperate zone. If we, therefore, combine the two statements, that the heavens are supported as on a pole, and that they move like a wheel, we may safely infer that the motion referred to is such a motion of the celestial hemisphere as can be witnessed only by an observer at the North Pole. In the Rig-Veda I, 24, 10, the constellation of Ursa Major (*Rikshaḥ*) is described as being placed ‘high’ (*uchchāḥ*), and, as this can refer only to the altitude of the constellation, it follows that it must then have been over the head of the observer, which is possible only in the Circum-Polar regions. Unfortunately there are few other passages in the Rig-Veda which describe the motion of the celestial hemisphere or of the stars therein, and we must, therefore, take up another characteristic of the Polar regions, namely, ‘a day and a night of six months each,’ and see if the Vedic literature contains any references to this singular feature of the Polar regions.