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

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in the west.” Now, in X, 114, 2, there are three Nir-ritis mentioned,
evidently corresponding to the three earths and three heavens; and in
X, 161, 2, the lap of Nir-riti is identified with the region of death.
Pururavas is again said (X, 95, 14) to have gone to the distant region
(param parâvatam) and there made his bed on the lap of Nir-riti; while
the Maruts are described as mounting up to the firmament from the
bottomless Nir-riti in VII, 58, 1. All these passages taken together
show that Nir-riti, or the land of dissolution and death, commenced in
the west, that the sun lying in darkness traveled through the distant
region (parâvat) and eventually rose in the east from the lap of Nir-riti,
and that the whole of this movement was placed not in the upper
heaven, but on the other side of the vault through which the sun
traveled before he entered into Nir-riti. In other words, the Nir-ritis
extended below the earth from west to east; and since the region
below the three earths is expressly mentioned in the يig-Veda, the
three Nir-ritis must be understood to mean the three regions belowthe
earth corresponding to the threefold division of the earth or of the
heaven above it. Zimmer is, therefore, correct in stating that the sun
moved through the rajas below the earth during night and that the
Vedic poets knew of this nether rajas.
There are other passages in the يig-Veda which fully support
the same view. Thus corresponding to the rajasî, or the two rajas, we
have another expression in the dual, namely, ubhau ardhau, which
literally denotes “the two halves,” and when applied to heaven, “the
two celestial hemispheres.” The expression ardhau occurs in II, 27,
15, and the two halves are there asked to be propitious to the
sacrificer. Wallis, however, interprets ubhau ardhau to mean “heaven
and earth.” But this is a mistake for there is a passage in the يig-
Veda where we have the phrases pare ardhe (in the farther half) and
upare ardhe (in the nearer half) of heaven (divah), showing that the
heaven alone (and not heaven and earth) was conceived as divided
into two halves (I, 164, 12). A few verses later on (I, 164, 17), the cow
with her calf (the