The Arctic Home in the Vedas c8.43.1

c8.43.1

But to proceed with the subject, it may be urged that it is only the Taittirîya Saṃhitâ that gives us the number of the dawns, and that it would not be proper to mix up these statements with the statements contained in the hymns of the Ṛig-Veda, and draw a conclusion from both taken together. The Taittirîya Saṃhitâ treats of sacrificial tes, and the Mantras relating to the dawn-bricks may not be regarded as being originally connected. The fact that only some of these are found in the Atharva-Veda Samhita, might lend some support to this view. But a critical study of the Anuvâka, will remove all these doubts. The ‘thirty sisters’ are not mentioned one by one, leaving it to the hearer, or the reader, to make up the total, and ascertain the final number for himself. The sixth verse in the Anuvâka expressly mentions ‘the thirty sisters’, and is, by itself, sufficient to prove that in ancient days the number of dawns was considered to be thirty. But if an authority from the Rig-Veda be still needed, we have it in VI, 59, 6, where Dawn is described as having traversed ‘thirty steps’ (trimshat padâni akramît).¹ This statement has, as yet, remained unexplained. ‘A single dawn traversing thirty steps’ is but a paraphrase of the statement that ‘dawns are thirty sisters, keeping to the same goal in their circuits.’ Another verse which has not yet been satisfactorily explained is the Rig-Veda, I, 123, 8.