Vedic Mythology c4.9

c4.9

The air being above the earth in the threefold division of the universe, its subdivisions, whether two or three, would naturally have been regarded as above it also; and one verse at least (1, 81⁵ cp. 90⁷) clearly shows that the 'terrestrial space' is in this position. Three passages, however, of the RV. (6, 9¹; 7, 80¹; 5, 81⁴) have been thought to lend themselves to the view⁷ that the lower atmosphere was conceived as under the earth, to account for the course of the sun during the night. The least indefinite of these three passages (5, 81⁴) is to the effect that Savitṛ, the sun, goes round night on both sides (*ubhayataḥ*). This may, however, mean nothing more than that night is enclosed between the limits of sunset and sunrise. At any rate, the view advanced in the AB. (3, 44⁴) as to the sun's course during the night is, that the luminary shines upwards at night, while it turns round so as to shine downwards in the daytime. A similar notion may account for the statement of the RV. that the light which the sun's steeds draw is sometimes bright and sometimes dark (1, 115⁵), or that the *rajas* which accompanies the sun to the east is different from the light with which he rises (10, 37³).