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

PRIMITIVE ARYAN CULTURE. AND RELIGION. 455 the Pre-Orion or the Aditi Period to the commencement of the present post-Glacial era. In the language of the Purâṇas the first period after the close of the Ice Age (8000-5000 B. C,) may be called the Kṛita Yuga, or the age of wandering, as the Aitareya Brâhmaṇa (VII, 15) describes it to be. It was the period when the Aryan races, expatriated from their mother land, roamed over the northern parts of Europe and Asia in search of new homes. It is doubtful if the Brâhmaṇa meant as much when it described Kṛita to be the age of wandering. But nevertheless it is interesting to notice the new light thrown upon the characteristics of the four Yugas mentioned in the Brâhmaṇa. Thus we are told that "Kali is lying, Dvâpara is slow- ly moving, Tretâ is standing up, and Kṛita is wandering."* Dr. Haug understands this stanza to refer to the game of dice, and other scholars have proposed different interpretations. But in the light of the Arctic theory we may as well suppose that the different stages of life through which the Aryan races had to pass in post-Glacial times, from wandering in search of homes to final settlement in some lands of their choice, are here des- cribed, somewhat after the manner of the Avestic account of the sixteen ancient lands created by Ahura Mazda, and invaded in succession by Angra Mainyu. But even apart from this verse, we can very well see that during the first of the above periods the Aryan races had no fixed home, and many must have been the settlements made and abandoned by them before they permanently settled in congenial lands. I have already stated above that Aryan religion and worship are both inter- glacial ; and that Vedic religion and ritual is a post-Glacial deve- lopment of such relics of the ancient religion as were preserved from the general wreck caused by the Ice Age ; and this affords in my opinion a safe basis to compare our results with the

• Ait. Brâh. VII, 15. — कलिः शयानो भवति संजिहानस्तु द्वापरः । उत्तिष्ठंस्त्रेता भवति कृतं संपद्यते चरन् ॥