THE ASTROLOGICAL eMAGAZINE JULY 2019 23
twilight receives more attention at the hands of the
Yedic Rishis than the evening twilight. Yedic seers
describe her “She is born in the eastern quarter of the
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“She is the daughter of heaven, is seen m the east,
lovely and arrayed in light. Verily does she follow
the course appointed and like a woman of unfailing
discern see is unchanging in her direction.” (R. V.,
1-124-3). “She has awkened sleeping creation, like a
good matron, returning to us with constancy, unlike
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1). “Lovely dawn has yoked her spacious car: the
immortal devas have ascended it. The noble queen
has come out of the gloom, bringing relief to human
maladies.” (R. V., 1-123-1).
In addition to the above purely descriptive statements,
the Rishis give some veiled astronomical facts also-
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that the north-pole observer, when the equinox is
in the star Aswini, gets his twilight when the Sun
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by using the formula of the Surya Siddhanta that Jya
declination is equal to the product of Jya obliquity
and Jya longitude of the Sun, divided by radius, we
get the vertical depth of the Sun to be 19 degrees and
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Rig VeiaUHDGV²
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Heefjef#eleesmlecees Dev³ee iegnekeÀoÐeewog<ee: Meesª®elee leLesve ~~
Apanydetyabhyanya deti Vishu- rupe Ahani Samcharete
Parikshi- tostamo, Anya Guhakaraiyaudushah
Sostichata Ratheria (R. V., 1-123-7).
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on the Vishu day, days and nights are equal to one
another on all parts of the earth (except at the north
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of the day is not equal ‘to the length of the night
(except at the equator, where the lengths of the nights
are equal to the lengths of the days throughout the
year). In the second hall, the two kinds of twilights
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causing day
The pala pata (paraphrase) of the mantra is
:—“Apa—Anyat- Eti—Abhi—Anyat—Eti —
Vishnurupe iti Vishurupe—Ahani—Sam —
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— Akah— Adyant — Ushah — Sosuchata—.
Rathena”. According to Yaska ‘Apa’ and ‘Vi’ are the
antithesis / ofSam’.
meced Fl³eskeÀerYeeJeced efJe DeHe Fl³eslem³e Òeefleueesc³eced ~~
Sam Ityekibhavam: Vt Apa Ityetasaya Pratilomyam
(Yas- ka’s Nirukta 1-3). ‘Ekibhavam’ may mean
either ‘combination’ or ‘equality \ Therefore * Apa ’
may mean either 1 separation’ or ‘Inequality’. ‘Abhi’
is explained by Yaska-Abhi Itayabhimukhyam’
(Yaska’s Nirukta, 1-3). ‘Abhi’ means ‘towards’.
Hence the meaning of the mantra is that each Ahas
moves towards an unequal night, and this happens
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on Vishu Rupe i.e, on equinoctial days, we have the
Ahas and Ratri equal in length. The second half of
the mantra makes a new statement that the evening
twilight leads on to night and the morning twilight
leads on to day.
The next mantra is a very important mantra. Rig
Veda 1-128-8 reads:
me¢MeerjÐe MeeogMeerefj¢éees oerIe& me®evles Je©Cem³e Oeece ~
Deve³emeeqðeMeleced ³eespeveev³eskewÀkeÀe keÀlegced Heefj³eefvle meÐe: ~~
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Yojananyekiktt Kratum Pariyanti Sadyah.