Usha and Ushshakala (ऊषस् देवता आणि उषःकाल)

 

We all know that ' Usha' (उषस्) is the name given to Goddess of Dawn in Vedas. We in India, consider  Usha as the mild morning sun, which lasts for a few minutes before transforming to the blazing hell, called in Sanskrit as  'Aditya' or many other names. However,  was this name 'Usha' really given originally to the morning sun, that lasts for only a few minutes?

 Similarly, 'Ushshakala' (उषःकाल) is thought by us as the dawn or pre-dawn period of first light. However again, is it really that pre-morning hour or something else?

With 'Usha' being a short period phenomenon,  One feels surprised to find as many as 20 'Suktas' (Hymns) of Rigveda ( the oldest Veda), praising this Goddess. Almost all Rigveda 'Mandalas' or books, which are considered as most archaic (nos. 3 to 7), have 'Suktas' that praise 'Usha', some of which, are composed by sages with very unfamiliar names such as Shunah-shepa, Goutamah, Atreya, Angirasah.

Rigveda calls the beauty of Goddess Usha as incomparable, incredible, and describes her as a beautiful dancer, who changes her brilliant glowing attire and jewelry each day. She is described to arrive in a different attire each day and Rigveda even assigns many different names for this Goddess. Her arrival on the horizon from darkness of night is compared to leaving of a cowshed by a cow. As she rises on horizon, Rigveda describes her rise as throwing away of her veil of golden brilliant glow and baring a breast.

Rigveda calls Usha as a sister of the night. In some 'Suktas' she is called wife of the sun and in some, the mother. She is described as very friendly with Asvins, the heavenly twins. She rides a golden chariot pulled by horses, which take her up in the sky.

How long does the Goddess Usha shine in the sky? Any person in India would answer this, as for a few minutes. Maybe some people in Kashmir may opt, for a time duration longer than that. Yet, another archaic book , considered as part of Vedas, 'Taitariya Bramhana' comes up with answers that are quite puzzling. As per this book, 'Usha' or the dawn may last, till all the oblations are done and 'Suktas' recited. Or it may linger on and on. Or it may even be there forever or 'Shashwat'.

After reading what these books say, it's  time to ask some questions. I have made a list of few obvious questions. A few more can be easily added.

What was the need for another deity, when deity called as  Aditya was already there, for the entity we know as the Sun and famous 'Gayatri' hymn to praise him?

Why so much importance was given to a transitory phenomenon of a short duration that took place each day?

Why it is said that this Goddess Usha comes up with changed appearance each day?

How can you call her sister of the night, when both have a large time interval between them in form of a solar day?

How can it linger on or stay forever?

Before we find answers to these questions, let us first do a little travel. We shall move to an open grassland in southern Russia, where horizon is visible on all sides, or precisely at 52 deg. N latitude and find out sunrise, sunset timings for two days in December.

On 1st December the sun rises at 8.17AM and sets at 3.56PM. Noon is at 12.07PM and sun rises only 14.4 degrees above horizon. Sunrise position is 28.4 deg. east of due south.

Next on 22nd December the sun rises at 8.49AM and sets at 3.54PM. Noon is at 12.22PM and sun rises only 12.2 degrees above horizon. Sunrise position is 29.6 deg. Southeast of due east.

With this data, I think we can attempt to find answers to our questions.

The sun at these latitudes and days is so mild and pleasant to look at, that the sages found nothing unusual in naming it as another deity.

 At these latitudes, it is no longer a transitory phenomenon. Goddess Usha stays there at least till noon if not later.

As seen above, the sunrise location, time, and height above horizon at noon, on each progressive day, keeps changing, along with the brightness or dazzle of the sun.

With the sun being so mild, there is no differentiation between dawn and day. We can have therefore, only dawns and nights, eliminating the day altogether. 

Since dawn just lingers on, a poet may as well call it as forever of 'Shashawat'. 

Coming back to the concept of 'Ushshakal' now, at these latitudes, it is no longer just the time of dawn or pre-dawn hour. We can say, it rather begins on some day after autumnal equinox, when sun has become so mild that it couldn't be called 'Aditya' or 'Hiranyagarbha' any longer. 'Ushshakal' should end on some day before spring equinox, when the Sun is back again a blazing hell.

The conclusion therefore, is straight forward and simple, the archaic hymns of Rigveda were obviously composed not in India, but at a place somewhere in the north, like a place at latitude, say around 52 deg. North. Later, when Rigveda came to India, entire concept of the dawn, as a separated entity, from the day, no longer remained appealing or relevant, to sages,  and was soon forgotten. 

Goddess 'Usha' no longer sparkles.

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Copyright for text and images
Chandrashekhar Athavale

References

1. Ancient Indo-Europeans

By Stanislav A Grigoriev

2. Arctic home of the Vedas

By. B.G. Tilak

Invaders of the land of seven Rivers - Chapter 1

 

1. The land of Saptasindhavah (सप्तसिन्धवः)

 

Since the dawn of civilization, the mighty Himalayas have always protected the people living in Indian sub-continent, not only from natural phenomena like sandstorms originating on central Asia plains or blistering arctic cold winds or great floodwaters sweeping the north Indian plains,  that could have created existential problems for the early settlers. The unscalable peaks and ranges of world’s tallest mountain also prevented the barbaric wild Asian steppe hordes, attacking and destroying the inhabitations, including cities and towns of subcontinent, the way they did in China and east Europe.

Yet, in spite of this guardian angel, protecting our borders, wild hordes of invaders and intruders, cruel and murderous tribesmen, monarchs, brave warriors with monarchy aspirations and people who themselves were pushed out from their country, found routes that circumambulated  the vast mountain ranges and enter the sub-continent over last two millennia. These intruders and their barbaric armies, created a profound impact on the culture of the sub-continent that had evolved over last five or more millennia, starting from Sindhu-Sarswati Civilization, the Vedic era, Buddhist ideas and finally the Sanatan Dharma. Some of the early intruders adopted to native religions, but some imposed their own religious doctrines, creating a great divisive force that continues to torment the sub-continent, even today.  

It so happens that the most profound impact of the intruders took place in a geographical area of the subcontinent, where Sindhu-Sarswati civilization once flourished five or more millennia ago. This land could be rightly called as the heart or core of the sub-continent culture. This region, in the northwest corner of the sub-continent, is none other than the land of seven rivers or Saptasindhavah (सप्तसिन्धवः) of the Vedas.  

In the oldest Veda or Rigveda, the sage Angirasa, while offering oblation to Sun God ‘Savita” describes him as,
अ॒ष्टौ व्य॑ख्यत्क॒कुभः॑ पृथि॒व्यास्त्री धन्व॒ योज॑ना स॒प्त सिन्धू॑न् । हि॒र॒ण्या॒क्षः स॑वि॒ता दे॒व आगा॒द्दध॒द्रत्ना॑ दा॒शुषे॒ वार्या॑णि ॥ (1.35.8)
“He has lighted up the eight points of the horizon, the three regions of living beings, the seven rivers; may the golden-eyes Savitā come hither, bestowing upon the offerer of the oblation desirable riches.”

The next question that naturally arises is the names of rivers that constitute this land of seven rivers.  Luckily Rigveda helps us even here. The Nadistuti sukta (नदिस्तुति सूक्त), or "the hymn in praise of rivers", gives us names of these seven rivers for the reconstruction of the geography of this area.

The first and foremost river that this Sukta (10.75.1) mentions is obviously Sindhu or The Indus, the mightiest of them all. Other rivers that are mentioned (10.75.5) in east to west direction are Sarasvati, Shutudri (Sutlej), Parushni (Iravati, Ravi), Asikni (Chenab) and finally Vitasta (Jhelum). This defines the land of seven rivers as the region that begins with Sarswati in the east, but does not end with Indus in the west.  

The next verse (10.75.6) describes the tributaries like Kubha (Kabul River), Gomati (Gomal) and  Krumu (Kurram),that merge with Sindhu in the plains.  Using this information, we can create a map of the landmass, which Rigveda describes as ‘Saptasindhav’. We must also include here the plains, west of Indus River that stretch to the mountains and also the Basin of no longer visible  Sarswati River, now found only through archaeological and satellite data. However, we shall not indulge in that endeavor as it is unrelated to our subject matter.   Figure 1.1 shows the exact locations of these rivers except River Sarswati.

 By Dbachmann, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=883227

 

From the image, we can imagine the vastness of this landmass. Considering present political situation, it consists of entire country of Pakistan, some parts of Afghanistan and Indian Punjab. Before we proceed further, it is important to clarify an issue, in which a few people, particularly from our western neighbor tend to believe.  After discovery of Indus culture (Now called Sindhu-Sarswati civilization) by Mr. Banerji of Archaeological survey of India, European historians started endorsing an imaginary idea of Aryan invasion, on land of seven Rivers and destruction of so called native or ‘Anarya’ culture that existed there before. However, the archeological and other data from extensive excavations in Saraswati basin by Archaeological Survey of India, Deccan College Pune and others have conclusively proved that no evidence have been found anywhere that can support this theory and the Aryan invasion theory stands rejected.

We can say with confidence therefore that history of land of seven Rivers, during Sindhu- Sarswati civilization does not include any major military campaigns by outsiders and it got extinguished due to several other reasons, which are out of our scope. Next we come to Vedic period (1500-to-1200 BCE) and Mahabharata (840 BCE) period, where major wars were only fought by indigenous armies and no external army or power was involved.  This however does not mean there were no wars fought between ‘Saptasindhav’ kingdoms and ‘Tochari’ people, their northwest neighbours. These probably were just local conflicts as no large scale invasion record has been found anywhere.

From Mahabharata period we shall move ahead by two three centuries or so and we come to a period around middle of sixth century BCE. Buddhism was spreading fast in north and northwest India.  With the monks travelling everywhere in the region, information about India, its riches, was spreading very fast.  It was no wonder therefore that foreign powers, kings and monarchs, ever eager to expand their kingdoms and monarchies, must have gathered this information and plans were afoot to invade this golden land.

With this background, we can label the arrival of the first invader army to land of seven Rivers as beginning of an evil period that intermittently continued until 1760 CE, only to be replaced by an even more cunning adversary, the British and later bifurcation of this most fertile and beautiful land itself.

(To be continued)

 

27th April 2024

 

 

 

Lokamanya Tilak’s Sleeping Lion, The original Quit India message to British

 

The year was 1880. India, now a British colony, was a captive land, both in body and thought. Even thinking about independence, was considered sedition, a serious crime.  Yet in those depressing days, six young men from Pune, dared to start a newspaper that aimed to give a rise to free thought.  These six men were, VishnuShastri Chipalunkar, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Vaman Shivaram Apte, Ganesh Krishna Garde,  Gopal Ganesh Aagarkar and Mahadev Vallabha Namajoshi.

On Vijayadashami day of that year, they declared their intention of starting a newspaper, in a letter signed by them, to Mumbai’s Native Opinion, with aims and objectives of their newspaper, which would be called as “Kesari” or The Lion. The name has been suggested by VasudevShastri Khare, an associate.

The publication of Kesari was however delayed as raising capital for the project was a problem but eventually publication of Kesari started on 4th January 1881 from Pune, as a Marathi weekly.

By that time, British system of stating a motto or a mission statement had taken root in India. Educational institutes, schools all had started adopting a phrase as their motto. Instead of Latin words or phrases used by British in their endeavours,   Indians adopted Sanskrit phrases or Shlokas as mottos. For “Kesari” founders, finding a shloka in Sanskrit was no easy task. It was tricky, to say least,   as if it offends the British rulers, the whole enterprise would be in trouble. Yet these men were determined that their message must reach the readers.

Vishnu Shastri Chiplunkar hit upon the solution that would not offend anyone, yet would carry purpose of the paper with full force. These beautiful four lines were written in sixteenth century by a great Sanskrit scholar, famously known as “Panditraj Jagganath” in his book “Bhamini-Vilas”.

The Shloka says. 

स्थितिं नो रे दध्याः क्षणमपि मदान्धेक्षण सखे

गजश्रेणीनाथ त्वमिह जटिलायां वनभुवि ।

असौ कुम्भिभ्रान्त्या खरनखरविद्रावितमहा

गुरुग्रावग्रामः स्वपिति गिरिगर्भे हरिपतिः ॥

Which if translated in English, would read as

“O my friend, the elephant king in musth, with aggressive and unpredictable ways, do not wait and linger in this deep and dense forest even for a moment.”

“The lion king of this forest, who breaks large rocks (suspecting these to be elephant heads) into heaps of small stones with his sharp nails, is at present in deep slumber in his cave, under delusion.”

 

The message was very clear.  These six young men were telling the British Raj in clear terms to leave. They were telling the Raj that it has survived only because India was asleep under delusion. This was the original Quit India message.  Gandhi’s Quit India came much later.  It is a surprise that British Raj, which even objected to Marathi dramas and lyrics included in Marathi dramas, never really found out the real meaning and intention of this Shloka.

Now some trivia. The original shloka in Sanskrit was placed just below the mast head on front page. To make things convincing, its Marathi translation appeared on the editorial page above the main editorial column.  This Marathi translation was made by Vasudevshastri Khare, a close associate of Lokamaya and Sanskrit teacher in New English School Pune.

गजालि श्रेष्ठा या निबिडतर कांतार जठरी|

मदांधाक्षा मित्रा क्षणभरही वास्तव्य न करी॥

नखाग्रानी येथे गुरुतर शिळा भेदुनी करी|

भ्रमाने आहे रे गिरिकुहरी हा निद्रित हरी॥  

Incidently, this Marathi Shloka also had appeared even at the head of those two epic editorials, for which Lokamanya was sentenced with a jail term, under sedition law.

Initially, “Kesari” had no logo as such. However, later a logo with two lions appeared sometime in early 1900’s. This continued until Lokamanya’s death in 1920. 

After this, Lokomanya’s sketch, with a sun like border was included in between two lion figures.

The original Sanskrit Shloka continued until 1947 and was probably removed after.   A new logo with smaller lion figures and Lokamanya’s face, decorates “Kesari” front page today. The original Marathi Shloka by Vasudevshastri Khare, also  adorns the editorial page of “Kesari”, even today.