The Arctic Home in the Vedas c9.18.3

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.”