Aupmanyav
Be your own guru.
In the tenth Mandala we have a hymn (123) dedicated to Vena which according to Yaska denotes a deity of the middle region. Yaska (Nirukta 10. 38) derives the word from ven ' to love/ f to desire, ' and explains it as denoting, as his commentator Durgacharya says, " loved by all” while the hymn itself contains such expressions as the "son of the sun,” “on the top of rita," "comes out of the ocean like a wave," which have been variously interpreted by the commentators. But from all these facts I think we have herein the original Aryan name of Venus.
The word, or rather the meaning I have here proposed, is entirely lost in the Sanskrit literature, but considering the fact that the Latins named the planet as Venus,t while the word cannot be satisfactorily derived from any Latin root, there can be no objection to identify Venus with the Vena (nom. sin, Venas) in the Vedic works. In the Latin mythology Venus is the goddess of love, and this we can now easily account for, as the name of the Vedic deity is derived from a root which means "to desire," "to love." I may again point out that the hymn of Vena in the Rigveda is used In sacrifices at the time, when the priest takes tip the Vessel of Shukra (current Sanskrit/Hindi name for the planet) in the sacrificial ceremonies.
Katyayana, indeed, mentions the optional use of the hymn for taking up the vessel of Manthin. But that does not much alter the position, for, when the meaning of the word was utterly forgotten the hymn might come to be used for a different purpose in addition to the previous one. The fact, that the Vena hymn was used in taking up the Shukra vessel is, therefore, an important indication of its old meaning, and when we find the name actually preserved till now indicating the planet Venus, and that this name cannot be satisfactorily derived in any other way, we might fairly infer that Vena of the Rigveda is Venus of the Latin Mythology. As regards the change of gender we need not consider it to be a serious objection inasmuch as not only Venus, but also the moon has changed in gender in its passage to Europe.
Source "Arctic Home in Vedas", Bal Gangadhar Tilak, available at www.archives.org, page 163
The word, or rather the meaning I have here proposed, is entirely lost in the Sanskrit literature, but considering the fact that the Latins named the planet as Venus,t while the word cannot be satisfactorily derived from any Latin root, there can be no objection to identify Venus with the Vena (nom. sin, Venas) in the Vedic works. In the Latin mythology Venus is the goddess of love, and this we can now easily account for, as the name of the Vedic deity is derived from a root which means "to desire," "to love." I may again point out that the hymn of Vena in the Rigveda is used In sacrifices at the time, when the priest takes tip the Vessel of Shukra (current Sanskrit/Hindi name for the planet) in the sacrificial ceremonies.
Katyayana, indeed, mentions the optional use of the hymn for taking up the vessel of Manthin. But that does not much alter the position, for, when the meaning of the word was utterly forgotten the hymn might come to be used for a different purpose in addition to the previous one. The fact, that the Vena hymn was used in taking up the Shukra vessel is, therefore, an important indication of its old meaning, and when we find the name actually preserved till now indicating the planet Venus, and that this name cannot be satisfactorily derived in any other way, we might fairly infer that Vena of the Rigveda is Venus of the Latin Mythology. As regards the change of gender we need not consider it to be a serious objection inasmuch as not only Venus, but also the moon has changed in gender in its passage to Europe.
Source "Arctic Home in Vedas", Bal Gangadhar Tilak, available at www.archives.org, page 163
