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

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the sun at the winter solstice seems bound and to stand still (hence
called solstice), till he jumps up and turns back. But ten days is too
long a period for the sun to stand still at the winter solstice, and even
Prof. Max Müller seems to have felt the difficulty, for immediately after
the above explanation he remarks that “whether this time lasted for
ten or twelve nights would have been difficult to settle even for more
experienced astronomers than the Vedic يishis.” But even supposing
that the period of ten days may be thus accounted for, the
explanation entirely fails in the case of the legend of Dîrghatamas
who is said to have grown old in the tenth yuga and rescued by the
Ashvins from the torment to which he was subjected by his enemies. I
have shown previously that yuga here means a month; and if this is
correct we shall have to suppose that Dîrghatamas, representing the
annual course of the sun, stood still at the winter solstice for two
months! The whole difficulty, however, vanishes when we explain the
legends on the Arctic theory, for the sun may then be supposed to be
below the horizon for any period varying from one to a hundred nights
or even for six months.
The third point, left unexplained by the Vernal theory is the
place of distress or suffering from which the protégés are said to have
been rescued by the Ashvins. Bhujyu was saved not on land, but in
the watery region (apsu) without support (anârambhane) and
unillumined (tamasi) by the rays of the sun (I, 182, 6). If we compare
this description with that of the ocean said to have been
encompassed by Vṛitra or of the dark ocean which Bṛihaspati is said
to have hurled down in II, 23, 18, we can at once recognize then as
identical. Both represent the nether world which we have seen is the
home of aerial waters, and which has to be crossed in boats by the
drowned sun in the يig-Veda or by Hêlios in the Greek mythology. It
cannot, therefore, be the place where the sun goes in winter; and
unless we adopt the Arctic theory, we cannot explain how the
protégés of the Ashvins are said to have been saved from being
drowned in a