The Arctic Home in the Vedas c8.43.3

c8.43.3

But unfortunately the explanation cannot stand scientific scrutiny. Sâyaṇa says that the sun travels 5,059 yojanas round the Meru in 24 hours; and as Meru means the earth and the circumference of the earth is now known to be about 24,877 miles, a yojana would be about 4.9, or in round number, about 5 miles. Thirty such yojanas will, therefore, be 150 miles; while the first beams of the dawn greet us on the horizon when the sun is not less than 16° below the horizon. Taking one degree equal to 60 miles, 16° would mean 960 miles, a distance far in excess of the thirty yojanas of Sâyaṇa. Another objection to Sâyaṇa's explanation is that the Vedic bard is evidently speaking of a phenomenon present before him, and not mentally following the astronomical dawns at different places produced by the daily rotation of the earth on its axis. The explanation is again inapplicable to ‘thirty steps (padâni)’ of the dawn expressly mentioned in VI, 59, 6. Therefore, the only alternative left is to take the phrases ‘thirty yojanas,’ ‘thirty sisters,’ and ‘thirty steps’ as different versions of one and the same fact, viz., the circuits of the dawn along the Polar horizon. The phrase ‘each its destined course’ also becomes intelligible in this case, for though thirty dawns complete thirty rounds, each may well be described as following its own definite course. The words *pari yanti* in the text literally apply to a circular (*pari*) motion, (cf. the words *pari-ukṣaṇam*, *pari-staraṇam*, &c.);