The Arctic Home in the Vedas c8.9

c8.9

Another indication of the long duration of the dawn is furnished by the Taittirîya Saṁhitâ, VII, 2, 20.¹ Seven oblations are here mentioned, one to *Uṣhas*, one to *Vyuṣhṭi*, one to *Udeṣhyat*, one to *Udyat*, one to *Uditâ*, one to *Suvarga* and one to *Loka*. Five of these are evidently intended for the dawn in its five forms. The Taittirîya Brâhmaṇa (III, 8, 16, 4) explains the first two, *viz.*, to *Uṣhas* and *Vyuṣhṭi*, as referring to dawn and sunrise, or rather to night and day, for according to the Brâhmaṇa, "*Uṣhas* is night, and *Vyuṣhṭi* is day."² But even though we may accept this as correct, and take *Uṣhas* and *Vyuṣhṭi* to be the representatives of night and day, because the former signalises the end of the night and the latter the beginning of the day, still we have to account for three oblations, *viz.*, one to the dawn about to rise (*Udeṣhyat*), one to the rising dawn (*Udyat*), and one to the dawn that has risen (*Uditâ*), the first two of which are, according to the Taittirîya Brâhmaṇa, to be offered before the rising of the sun. Now the dawn in the tropical zone is so short that the three-fold distinction between the dawn that is about to rise, the dawn that is rising, and one that has risen or that is full-blown (*vi-uṣhṭi*), is a distinction without a difference. We must, therefore, hold that the dawn, which admitted such manifold division for the practical purpose of sacrifice, was a long dawn.