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

PRIMITIVE ARYAN CULTURE AND RELIGION. 415 must be taken to be the minimum or the lowest, that can be pre- dicated of the undivided Aryans—The culture of the undivided Aryans higher than the culture of the Stone or the Metal age- —Use of metal coins among them highly probable—Beginnings of the Aryan language, or the differentiation of human races ac- cording to colour or language still untraceable—The origin of Aryan man and religion lost in geological antiquity—Theologi- cal views regarding the origin and character of the Vedas sum- marised—Differently supported by writers on the different schools of philosophy—Patanjali’s and Vyâsa's view that the Vedas were lost in the last deluge and repromulgated in sub- stance, if not in form, at the beginning of the new age—The four periods into which the Post-Glacial era may be divided on astronomical grounds—Compared with the characteristics of the four yugas given in the Aitareya Brâhmaṇa—Theological and historical views regarding the origin &c. of the Vedas stated in parallel columns and compared —Vedic texts, showing that the subject matter of the hymns is ancient though the language may be new, cited—Vedic deities and their exploits all said to be ancient—Improbability of Dr. Muir’s suggested reconciliation —Vedas, or rather Vedic religion, shown to be inter-Glacial in substance though post-Glacial in form—Concluding remarks. WE have now completed our investigation of the question of the original home of the ancestors of the Vedic Aryans from different stand-points of view. Our arguments, it will be seen, are not based on the history of culture, or on facts dis- closed by linguistic palæontology. The evidence, cited in the foregoing chapters, mainly consists of direct passages from the Vedas and the Avesta, proving unmistakably that the poets of the Ṛig-Veda were acquainted with the climatic conditions witnessible only in the Arctic regions, and that the principal Vedic deities, such as the revolving Dawn, the Waters capti- vated by Vṛitra, the Ashvins the rescuers of the afflicted gods and Sûrya, Indra the deity of a hundred sacrifices, Vishṇu the vast-strider, Varuṇa the lord of night and the ocean, the Âditya brothers or the seven monthly sun-gods, Trita or the Third, and others, are clothed with attributes which clearly betray their