Artic Home of the Aryans by Lokamanya Bal ... - Mandhata Global

111
Taitt. Samhitâ V, 3, 4, 7.
It was un-distinguished,* neither day nor night. The Gods
perceived these dawn-bricks (for the laying of which the 15 verses
given above are to be used). They laid them. Then it shone forth.†
Therefore for whom these are laid, it shines forth to him, destroys
(his) darkness.
REMARKS
It has been previously mentioned that the fifteen verses, quoted
above, are used or recited as Mantras at the time of laying down
certain emblematical bricks, called Vyushtî-ishtakâs or dawn-bricks,
on the sacrificial altar. But as the Mantras, or verses, used for
sacrificial purposes are often taken from different Vedic hymns, these
verses are likely to be regarded as unconnected with each other. The
account of the thirty dawns, contained therein, however, shows that
these verses must have originally formed an entire or one
homogeneous hymn. Again if the Mantras had been selected from
different hymns, one for each dawn-brick, there would naturally be 16
verses in all, as 16 dawn-bricks are to be laid on the altar. The very
fact, that the Anuvâka contains only 15 verses (leaving the sacrificer
to select the 16th from elsewhere), therefore, further supports the
same view. It is true that some of these verses are found in the
Atharva-Veda, either detached or in connection with other subjects.
But that does not prevent us from treating the passage in the
Taittirîya Samhitâ, as containing a connected account of thirty dawns
divided into five groups of six each. The question is not, however,
very material, inasmuch as verses 5 and 6, whether
* It was undistinguished: This paragraph, which is found later on in the
Samhitâ, explains how the dawn-bricks came to be laid with the fifteen
verses given above. The portions of the Taittirîya Samhitâ, which contain
such explanations are called Brâhmana.
† Then it shone forth: This shows that aid the thirty Dawns were
understood to have preceded the rise of the sun, I have already quoted
(supra p. 100) a passage from Taitt. Brâh. (II, 5, 6, 5) which says that these
dawns were continuous and unseparated.