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

CONTENTS. PAGE PREFACE . . . . . . . . i—ix CHAPTER I. ‘PREHISTORIC TIMES. The Historic Period—Preceded by myths and traditions—The Science of Mythology—Fresh impulse given to it by Comparative Philo- logy—Unity of Aryan races and languages—The system of in- terpreting myths, and the theory of Asiatic Home—Recent dis- coveries in Geology and Archæology—Requiring revision of old theories—The Vedas still partially unintelligible—New key to their interpretation supplied by recent discoveries—The Ages of Iron, Bronze and Stone—Represent different stages of civilization in Prehistoric times—The Ages not necessarily synchronous in different countries—Distinction between Neolithic and Palæolithic or New and Old Stone Age—The Geological eras and periods —Their correlation with the three Ages of Iron, Bronze and Stone —Palæolithic Age probably inter-glacial—Man in Quartenary and Tertiary eras—Date of the Neolithic Age—5000 B. C. from lake- dwellings—Peat-mosses of Denmark —Ages of Beach, Oak and Fir—Date of the Palæolithic or the commencement of the Post- Glacial period—Different estimates of European and American geologists—Freshness of fossil deposits in Siberia—Favours Ame- rican estimate of 8000 years—Neolithic races—Dolicho-cephalic, and Brachy-cephalic—Modern European races descended from them—Controversy as to which of these represent the Primitive Aryans in Europe—Different views of German and French writers —Social condition of the Neolithic races and the primitive Aryans —Dr. Schrader's view—Neolithic Aryan race in Europe cannot be regarded as autochthonous—Nor descended from the Palæolithic man—The question of the original Aryan home still unsettled. 1