We also read of three rokanas, where, though it is difficult to say what is really meant, we must translate, the three skies. The cosmography of the Veda is, as I said before, somewhat vague and varying. There is, of course, the natural division of the world into heaven and earth (dyú and bhû´mi), and the threefold division into earth, sky, and heaven, where sky is meant for the region intermediate between heaven and earth (prithivî´, antáriksha, dyú). There is also a fourfold division, for instance,

VIII, 97, 5.

yát vâ ási rokané diváh
samudrásya ádhi vishtápi,
yát pâ´rthive sádane vritrahan-tama,
yát antárikshe â´ gahi.

Whether thou, O greatest killer of Vritra, art in the light of heaven, or in the basin of the sea, or in the place of the earth, or in the sky, come hither!

V, 52, 7. yé vavridhánta pâ´rthivâh yé uraú antárikshe â´, vrigáne vâ nadî´nâm sadhá-sthe vâ maháh diváh.

The Maruts who grew, being on the earth, those who are in the wide sky, or in the realm of the rivers, or in the abode of the great heaven.

But very soon these three or more regions are each spoken of as threefold. Thus,

I, 102, 8. tisráh bhû´mîh trî´ni rokanâ´.

The three earths, the three skies.

II, 27, 9. trî´ rokanâ´ divyâ´ dhârayanta.

The Âdityas support the three heavenly skies.

V, 69, 1. trî´ rokanâ´ varuna trî´n utá dyû´n trî´ni mitra dhârayathah rágâmsi.

Mitra and Varuna, you support the three lights, and the three heavens, and the three skies.

Here there seems some confusion, which Sâyana's commentary makes even worse confounded. What can rokanâ´ mean as distinct from dyú and rágas? The fourth verse of the same hymn throws no light on the subject, and I should feel inclined to take divyâ´-pâ´rthivasya as one word, though even then the cosmic division here adopted is by no means clear. However, there is a still more complicated division alluded to in IV, 53, 5:

tríh antáriksham savitâ´ mahi-tvanâ´ trî´ rágâmsi pari-bhûh trî´ni rokanâ´, tisráh dívah prithivî´h tisráh invati.

Here we have the sky thrice, three welkins, three lights, three heavens, three earths.

A careful consideration of all these passages will show, I think, that in our passage we must take diváh vâ rokanâ´t ádhi in its usual sense, and that we cannot separate the two words.

In the next verse, on the contrary, it seems equally clear that diváh and pâ´rthivât must be separated. At all events there is no passage in the Rig-veda where pâ´rthiva is joined as an adjective with dyú. Pâ´rthiva as an adjective is frequently joined with rágas, never with dyú. See I, 81,

[paragraph continues] 5; 99, 7; VIII, 88, 5; IX, 72, 8: in the plural, I, 154, 1; V, 81, 3; VI, 31, 2; 49, 3.

Pâ´rthivâni also occurs by itself, when it refers to the earth. as opposed to the sky and heaven.

X, 32, 2. ví indra yâsi divyâ´ni rokanâ´ ví pâ´rthivâni rágasâ.