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

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exceeding, as in the previous case, a period of, twenty-four hours. As
the sun passes from the northern into the southern hemisphere, the
night will begin to gain over the day, until, after four months of such
succession of ordinary, days and nights, it terminates into the
continuous night of two months mentioned above. The same
description applies, mutatis mutandis, where the long night may last
for 3, 4 or 5 months,, until we reach the Polar condition of a day and a
night of six months each, when the intermediate succession of
ordinary days and nights will vanish.*
We have seen that a long dawn of two months is a special and
important characteristic of the North Pole. As we descend southward,
the splendor and the duration of the dawn will be witnessed on a less
and less magnificent scale. But the dawn, occurring at the end of the
long night of two, three or more months, will still be unusually long,
often of several day’s duration. As stated above, at first, only a pale
flush of light will appear and it will continue visible on the horizon,
revolving round and round, if the observer is sufficiently near the
Pole, for some days, when at last the orb of the sun will emerge, and
start the alternation of day and night described above, to be
eventually terminated into a long day. The splendors of the Aurora
Borealis would also be less marked and conspicuous in the southern
latitudes than at the North Pole.
But if the characteristics of the Arctic regions are different
* Cf. Bhāskarâchārya’s Siddhânta Shiromani, Golādhyâya, Chapter vii.,
verses 6-7.
“There is a peculiarity at the place, where the latitude is greater than
66° N. Whenever the northern declination of the sun exceeds the
complement of the latitude, there will be perpetual day, for such time is that
excess continues. Similarly when the southern (declination exceeds), there
will be perpetual night. On Meru, therefore there is equal half-yearly
perpetual day and night.” Thus if the latitude of a