The Arctic Home in the Vedas c9.18

Language: English

c9.18.1

The first three quarters or feet of this verse contain the principal statements, while the fourth is the refrain of the song or the hymn. Literally translated it means:— "The twin pair (females) make many forms; of the two one shines, the other (is) dark : two sisters (are) they, the dark (shyâvî), and the bright (aruṣhî). The great divinity of the Gods is one (unique)." The verse looks simple enough at the first sight, and simple it is, so far as the words are concerned. But it has been misunderstood in two important points. We shall take the first half of the verse first. It says "the twin pair make many forms; of the two one shines and the other is dark." The twin pair are Day and Night, and one of them is bright and the other dark. So far, therefore, there is no difficulty. But the phrase 'make many forms' does not seem to have been properly examined or interpreted. The words used in the original verse are nânâ chakrâte vapûṃṣhi, and they literally mean ‘make many bodies or forms.’ We have thus a two-fold description of the couple; it is called the shining and the dark, and also described as possessed of many forms. In I, 123, 7, the couple of Day and Night is said to be *viṣurūpe*; while in other places the adjective *virūpe* is used in the same sense. It is evident, therefore, that the ‘bodies’ or ‘forms’ intended to be denoted by these words must be different from the two-fold character of the couple as shining and dark;

c9.18.2

and if so, the phrases *viṣurūpe*, *virūpe*, or *nānā vapūṃṣi* used in connection with the couple of Day and Night must be taken to mean something different from ‘bright and dark’, if these expressions are not to be considered as superfluous or tautological. Sāyaṇa interprets these phrases as referring to different colours (*rūpa*), like black, white, &c., and some of the Western scholars seem to have adopted this interpretation. But I cannot see the propriety of assigning different colours to Day and Night. Are we to suppose that we may have sometimes green, violet, yellow or blue days and nights? Again though the word *rūpa* lends itself to this construction, yet *vapūṃṣi* cannot ordinarily be so understood. The question does not, however, seem to have attracted the serious attention of the commentators; so that even Griffith translates *viṣurūpe* by ‘unlike in hue’ in I, 123, 7. The *Naktoṣhāsā* are described as *virūpe* also in I, 113, 3, but there too Sāyaṇa gives the same explanation. It does not appear to have occurred to any one that the point requires any further thought. Happily, in the case of Rig. I, 113, 3, we have, however, the advantage of consulting a commentator older than Sāyaṇa.

c9.18.3

The verse occurs in the *Uttarārchika* of Sāma-Veda (19, 4, 2, 3), and Mâdhava in his *Vivarana*, a commentary on the Sâma-Veda, explains *virūpe* thus:—“In the *Dakṣiṇāyana* during the year there is the increase of night, and in the Uttarâyaṇa of day.” ¹ Mâdhava’s Vivaraṇa is a scarce book, and I take the above quotation from an extract from his commentary given in a footnote to the Calcutta edition of the Sâma-Veda Saṃhitâ, with Sâyaṇa’s commentary, published by Satya-vrata Sâmashramî, a learned Vedic scholar of Calcutta. It is not known who this Mâdhava is, but Pandit Satyavrata states that he is referred to by Durga, the commentator of Yâska. We may, therefore, take Mâdhava to be an old commentator, and it is satisfactory to find that he indicates to us the way out of the difficulty of interpreting the phrases viṣhurûpe and virûpe, occurring so many times in the Rig-Veda, in connection with the couple of Day and Night. The word ‘form’ (rûpa) or body (vapus) can be used to denote the extent, duration, or length of days and nights, and virûpe would naturally denote the varying lengths of days and nights, in addition to their colour, which can be only two-fold, dark or bright. Taking our cue from Mâdhava, we may, therefore, interpret the first half of the verse as meaning “The twin pair assume various (nânâ) lengths (vapûṃshi); of the two one shines and the other is dark.”