वेदों की प्राचीनता एवं काल-निर्णय / ओरायन (लोकमान्य बाल गंगाधर तिलक - खगोलीय वैदिक शोध)

vi PREFACE. with himself, the subject itself is sure to be benefited." Working under such disadvantages, I was, therefore, glad, when, on turn- ing the pages of the first volume of the tenth edition of the En- cyclopædia Britannica, recently received, I found that Prof. Geikie, in his article on geology, took the same view of Dr. Croll's calculations, as summarised at the end of the second chapter of this book. After stating that Croll's doctrine did not make way amongst physicists and astronomers, the eminent geologist says that more recently (1895) it has been critically examined by Mr. E. P. Culverwell, who regards it as "a vague speculation, clothed indeed with delusive semblance of severe numerical accuracy, but having no foundation in physical fact, and built up of parts which do not dovetail one into the other." If Dr. Croll's calculations are disposed of in this way, there re- mains nothing to prevent us from accepting the view of the American geologists that the commencement of the Post-glacial period cannot be placed at a date earlier than 8000 B. C. It has been already stated that the beginnings of Aryan civilization must be supposed to date back several thousand years before the oldest Vedic period; and when the commence- ment of the Post-glacial epoch is brought down to 8000 B. C., it is not at all surprising if the date of primitive Aryan life is found to go back to it from 4500 B. C., the age of the oldest Vedic period. In fact, it is the main point sought to be established in the present volume. There are many passages in the Ṛig-Veda, which, though hitherto looked upon as obscure and unintelligible, do, when interpreted in the light of recent scientific researches, plainly disclose the Polar attri- butes of the Vedic deities, or the traces of an ancient Arctic calendar ; while the Avesta expressly tells us that the happy land of Airyana Vaêjo, or the Aryan Paradise, was located in a region where the sun shone but once a year, and that it was destroyed by the invasion of snow and ice, which rendered its