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

238 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. Vedic deities represent certain cosmical and physical pheno- mena such as the appearance of the dawn or the breaking up of the storm-clouds by the lightning. The Adhyâtmikas, on the other hand, try to explain certain Vedic passages in their own philoso- phical way; and there are others, who endeavour to explain Vedic myths in other different ways. But this is not the place where the relative merits of these different schools can be dis- cussed or examined. I only wish to point out that those, who explain the Vedic myths on the supposition that they represent, directly or allegorically, ethical, historical or philosophical facts, are not likely to accept any inference based upon the theory which interprets the Vedic myths as referring to certain cosmi- cal and physical phenomena. It was for this reason that I reserved the discussion of the mythological evidence for consi- deration in a separate chapter, after all the evidence directly bearing on the subject has been examined. The evidence, which proves the existence of a long continuous dawn, or a long continuons day or night, is not affected by the different theories regarding the interpretation of the Vedic myths, and may, therefore, be termed, what the lawyers call, direct; but in the case of the mythological evidence only those, who accept the Nairukta method of interpretation, will admit the validity of any inference based upon the consideration of these myths. It is true that the Nairukta school of interpretation dates from ancient times, and that modern scholars have accepted the method almost without reserve, though they might differ from the ancient Nairuktas, like Yâska, in the details of the explanation suggested by them. But still when a new theory is to be established, I thought it safer to separate the mythological from the direct evidence bearing upon the points at issue, even when the two lines of investigation seemed to converge towards the same point. Now it has been recorded by Yâska that the Nairuktas explain most of the Vedic legends on the theory that they