The Arctic Home in the Vedas c8.43.2

c8.43.2

It says “The dawns, alike to-day and alike to-morrow, dwell long in the abode of Varuna. Blameless, they forth-with go round (pari yanti) thirty yojanas; each its destined course (kratum).”² The first half of the verse presents no difficulty. In the second we are told that the dawns go round thirty yojanas, each following its own ‘plan,’ which is the meaning of kratu, according to the Petersberg Lexicon. But the phrase ‘thirty yojanas’ has not been as yet satisfactorily explained. Griffith following M. Bergaigne understands it to mean thirty regions or spaces, indicating the whole universe; but there is no authority for this meaning. Sâyaṇa, whom Wilson follows, gives an elaborate astronomical explanation. He says that the sun's rays precede his rising and are visible when the sun is below the horizon by thirty yojanas, or, in other words, the dawn is in advance of the sun by that distance. When dawns are, therefore, said to traverse thirty yojanas, Sâyaṇa understands by it the astronomical phenomenon of the dawn illumining a space of thirty yojanas in advance of the sun, and, that when the dawn, at one place, is over, it is to be found in another place, occupying a space of thirty yojanas in that place. The explanation is very ingenious; and Sâyaṇa also adds that the dawns are spoken of in the plural number in the verse under consideration, because the dawns at different places on the surface of the earth, brought on by the daily motion of the sun, are intended.