20 History of Luminescence 



various designations— red vapor, red fire, sunshine at night, horizon 

 glow, snaky arrows, and white arcs.^^ Such expressions recall the 

 Greek and Roman names for the various types of auroral display. 



India 



Occasional references ^^ to the firefly and glowworm are to be 

 found in the holy writings ^^ of ancient India, the Vedas,^^ and in 

 the Indian epic poems. In the Upanishads, part of the Brahmanas 

 or the priestly dicta of the Hindus, probably recorded at some time 

 before the sixth century b. c, we find: ^® 



Fog, smoke, sun, fire, wind, 



Fire-flies, lightning, a crystal, a moon— 



These are the preliminary appearances, 



Which produce the manifestation of Brahma in Yoga. 



The Mahabharata, of date and author unknown (200 b. c.-a. d. 

 200?) , is probably the longest poem in existence, consisting of 18 

 books and 220,000 lines. It contains many episodes describing the 

 great story of the Bharatas, people descended from the mythical 

 king and hero, Bharata. The Sanskrit word, khadyota, meaning 

 firefly or glowworm, occurs a number of times. 



In one of the books, the Anugita,*° we find, " As those who have 

 eyes see a glow-worm disappear here and there in darkness, so like- 

 wise do those who have eyes of knowledge. Such a soul the Siddhas 

 see with a divine eye, departing [from the body] or coming to the 

 birth or entering into a womb." 



In another book of the Mahabharata, the Vana Parva *^ there is 

 the story of Saryati and Sukanya, who mistook Cyavana's eyes for 

 glowworms and a description of " the Lord, like a fire-fly at night 

 time during the rainy season. ..." In the Aswamedha-Parva,*'* 



'^ See D. J. Schove, Sunspots, aurorae and blood rain: the spectrum of time, his 42: 

 133-138, 1951. 



^* I am indebted to Professor W. Norman Brown of the University of Pennsylvania 

 for calling my attention to these references. 



^^ A tentative dating of Indian writings has been adopted by the National Institute 

 of Sciences of India (see S. L. Hora in Nature 168: 1048, 1951) . 



'^ Vedas include the (1) Sanhitas, a collection of mantras or hymns, (2) the Brah- 

 manas, priestly doctrines, including the Aranyakas and the Upanishads, and (3) the 

 Sutras or rules. They date from 2000 to perhaps 500 b. c. 



^^ Svetasvatara Upanishad (2: 11) translated from the Sanskrit by R. E. Hume in 

 The thirteen principal Upanishads, 398, Oxford Univ. Press, 1921. 



^0 K. T. Telang. The Anugita in Sacred hooks of the East 8: 239, 1882. 



■•^ See the translation of the Vana Parva by P. C. Roy, part 2, p. 375 and 801 (Mbh. 

 3: 10336 and 15827) . 



*== See translation by Roy, p. 40 (Mbh. 14: 485) . 



