The Arctic Home in the Vedas c9.25

c9.25

At the Pole, there is only one day and one night of six months each. Now if we have an express passage in the Rig-Veda (IV, 55, 3) indicating two different couples of Day and Night, Ushâsâ-naktâ and Ahanî, it is evident that the aho-râtre represented by them are the days and nights of the Circum-Polar regions, and of those alone. In the light of IV, 55, 3, we must, therefore, interpret III, 55, 11, quoted above, as describing two couples, one of the twin pair and the other of two sisters. The verse must, therefore, be translated:—"The twin pair (the first couple) make many forms (lengths); of the two one shines and the other is dark. Two sisters are they, the shyâvî or the dark and arushî or the bright, (the second couple)." No part of the verse is thus rendered superfluous, and the whole becomes far more comprehensible than otherwise.