The Arctic Home in the Vedas c8.37.1

c8.37.1

There are many other expressions in the Ṛig-Veda which further strengthen the same view. Thus corresponding to bhūyasiḥ in the above passage, we have the adjective purviḥ (many) used in IV, 19, 8 and VI, 28, 1, to denote the number of the dawns, evidently shewing that numerically more than one dawn is intended. The dawns are again not infrequently addressed in the plural number in the Ṛig-Veda, and the fact is well-known to all Vedic scholars. Thus in I, 92, which is a dawn-hymn, the bard opens his song with the characteristically emphatic exclamation, “these (tāḥ) are those (tyāḥ) dawns (uṣasaḥ), which have made their appearance on the horizon,” and the same expression again occurs in VII, 78, 3. Yāska explains the plural number uṣasaḥ by considering it to be used only honorifically (Nirukta XII, 7); while Sāyaṇa interprets it as referring to the number of divinities that preside over the morn. The Western scholars have not made any improvement on these explanations; and Prof. Max Muller is simply content with observing that the Vedic bards, when speaking of the dawn, did sometimes use the plural just as we would use the singular number! But a little reflection will show that neither of these explanations is satisfactory. If the plural is honorific why is it changed into singular only a few lines after in the same hymn? Surely the poet does not mean to address the Dawn respectfully only at the outset, and then change his manner of address and assume a familiar tone.