This image is completely blank and contains no text to transcribe.

The provided image appears to be completely blank with no visible text to transcribe.

The provided image is completely blank and contains no readable text.

This page is blank and contains no text.

The provided image is completely blank; there is no text to transcribe.

THE
ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS,
BEING ALSO A NEW KEY TO THE INTERPRETATION
OF MANY VEDIC TEXTS AND LEGENDS,
BY
LOKAMANYA
BĀL GANGADHAR TILAK B. A., LL. B.
THE PROPRIETOR OF THE ‘Kesari’ & THE ‘Maratha’
NEWSPAPERS, THE AUTHOR OF THE ‘Orion’ OR
Researches into the Antiquity of the Vedas,
THE ‘Gīta Rahasya’ (a Book on
Hindu Philosophy) etc. etc.
Publishers
Messrs. TILAK BROS.
Gaikwar Wada,
POONA CITY.
(All rights reserved by the Publishers.)
1925.

Published by S. B. & R. B. Tilak, and Printed by A. A. Moramkar,
at ' Shree Laxmi-Narayan Press ' 364, Thakurdwar, BOMBAY.

PREFACE.

THE present volume is a sequel to my Orion or Researches
into the Antiquity of the Vedas, published in 1893. The esti-
mate of Vedic antiquity then generally current amongst Vedic
scholars was based on the assignment of arbitrary period of
time to the different strata into which the Vedic literature is
divided; and it was believed that the oldest of these strata
could not, at the best, be older than 2400 B. C. In my Orion,
however, I tried to shew that all such estimates, besides being
too modest, were vague and uncertain, and that the astronomi-
cal statements found in the Vedic literature supplied us with
far more reliable data for correctly ascertaining the ages
of the different periods of Vedic literature. These astronomical
statements, it was further shewn, unmistakably pointed out that
the Vernal equinox was in the constellation of Mṛiga or Orion
(about 4500 B. C.) during the period of the Vedic hymns, and
that it had receded to the constellation of the Kṛittikâs, or the
Pleiades (about 2500 B. C.) in the days of the Brâhmaṇas.
Naturally enough these results were, at first, received by scholars
in a sceptical spirit. But my position was strengthened when
it was found that Dr. Jacobi, of Bonn, had independently arrived
at the same conclusion, and, soon after, scholars like Prof.
Bloomfield, M. Barth, the late Dr. Bulher and others, more or
less freely, acknowledged the force of my arguments. Dr.
Thibaut, the late Dr. Whitney and a few others were, however,
of opinion that the evidence adduced by me was not conclusive.
But the subsequent discovery, by my friend the late Mr. S. B.
Dixit, of a passage in the Shatapatha Brâhmaṇa, plainly
stating that the Kṛittikâs never swerved, in those days, from

ii PREFACE.
the due east, i. e., the Vernal equinox, has served to dispel all
lingering doubts regarding the age of the Brâhmaṇas; while
another Indian astronomer, Mr. V. B. Ketkar, in a recent num-
ber of the Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic
Society, has mathematically worked out the statement in the
Taittirîya Brâhmaṇa (iii, 1, 1, 5), that Bṛihaspati, or the planet
Jupiter, was first discovered when confronting or nearly occult-
ing the star Tiṣhya, and shewn that the observation was possible
only at about 4650 B. C., thereby remarkably confirming my
estimate of the oldest period of Vedic literature. After this,
the high antiquity of the oldest Vedic period may, I think, be
now taken as fairly established.
But if the age of the oldest Vedic period was thus carried
back to 4500 B. C., one was still tempted to ask whether we
had, in that limit, reached the ultima Thule of the Aryan anti-
quity. For, as stated by Prof. Bloomfield, while noticing my
Orion in his address on the occasion of the eighteenth anniver-
sary of John Hopkin's University, "the language and literature
of the Vedas is, by no means, so primitive as to place with it the
real beginnings of Aryan life." "These in all probability and in all
due moderation," he rightly observed, "reach back several
thousands of years more," and it was, he said, therefore
"needless to point out that this curtain, which seems to shut off
our vision at 4500 B. C., may prove in the end a veil of thin
gauze." I myself held the same view, and much of my spare
time during the last ten years has been devoted to the search of
evidence which would lift up this curtain and reveal to us the
long vista of primitive Aryan antiquity. How I first worked on
the lines followed up in Orion, how in the light of latest researches
in geology and archæology bearing on the primitive history of
man, I was gradually led to a different line of search, and finally
how the conclusion, that the ancestors of the Vedic Ṛiṣhis lived
in an Arctic home in inter-glacial times, was forced on me by

PREFACE. iii
the slowly accumulating mass of Vedic and Avestic evidence,
is fully narrated in the book, and need not, therefore, be re-
peated in this place. I desire, however, to take this opportu-
nity of gratefully acknowledging the generous sympathy shewn
to me at a critical time by that venerable scholar Prof. F. Max
Muller, whose recent death was mourned as a personal loss by
his numerous admirers throughout India. This is not the place
where we may, with propriety, discuss the merits of the policy
adopted by the Bombay Government in 1897. Suffice it to say
that in order to put down certain public excitement, caused by
its own famine and plague policy, the Government of the day
deemed it prudent to prosecute some Vernacular papers in the
province, and prominently amongst them the Kesari, edited by
me, for writings which were held to be seditious, and I was
awarded eighteen months' rigorous imprisonment. But political
offenders in India are not treated better than ordinary convicts,
and had it not been for the sympathy and interest taken by
Prof. Max Muller, who knew me only as the author of Orion,
and other friends, I should have been deprived of the pleasure,
—then the only pleasure,—of following up my studies in these
days. Prof. Max Muller was kind enough to send me a copy
of his second edition of the Ṛig-Veda, and the Government was
pleased to allow me the use of these and other books, and also
of light to read for a few hours at night. Some of the passages
from the Ṛig-Veda, quoted in support of the Arctic theory
in the following pages, were collected during such leisure
as I could get in these times. It was mainly through the
efforts of Prof. Max Muller, backed by the whole Indian
press, that I was released after twelve months; and in the very
first letter I wrote to Prof. Max Muller after my release, I
thanked him sincerely for his disinterested kindness, and also
gave him a brief summary of my new theory regarding the
primitive Aryan home as disclosed by Vedic evidence. It

iv PREFACE.
was, of course, not to be expected that a scholar, who had
worked all his life on a different line, would accept the new
view at once, and that too on reading a bare outline of the evi-
dence in its support. Still it was encouraging to hear from him
that though the interpretations of Vedic passages proposed by
me were probable, yet my theory appeared to be in conflict with
the established geological facts. I wrote in reply that I had
already examined the question from that stand-point, and ex-
pected soon to place before him the whole evidence in support
of my view. But, unfortunately, I have been deprived of
this pleasure by his deeply mourned death which occurred
soon after.
The first manuscript of the book was written at the end of
1898, and since then I have had the advantage of discussing the
question with many scholars in Madras, Calcutta, Lahore,
Benares and other places during my travels in the different parts
of India. But I hesitated to publish the book for a long time,—
a part of the delay is due to other causes,—because the lines of
investigation had ramified into many allied sciences such as
geology, archæology, comparative mythology and so on; and, as I
was a mere layman in these, I felt some diffidence as
to whether I had correctly grasped the bearing of the
latest researches in these sciences. The difficulty is well
described by Prof. Max Muller in his review of the Pre-
historic Antiquities of Indo-Europeans, published in the volume of
his Last Essays. “The ever-increasing division and sub-division,”
“observes the learned Professor, “of almost every branch of human
knowledge into more special branches of study make the specialist,
whether he likes it or not, more and more dependent on the judg-
ment and the help of his fellow-workers. A geologist in our day
has often to deal with questions that concern the mineralogist,
the chemist, the archæologist, the philologist, nay, the the astro-
nomer, rather than the geologist pur et simple, and, as

PREFACE. v
life is too short for all this, nothing is left to him but to appeal
to his colleagues for counsel and help. It is one of the great
advantages of University life that any one, who is in trouble
about some question outside his own domain, can at once get
the very best information from his colleagues, and many of the
happiest views and brightest solutions of complicated problems
are due, as is well-known, to this free intercourse, this scientific
give and take in our academic centres." And again, "Unless
a student can appeal for help to recognised authorities on all
these subjects, he is apt to make brilliant discoveries, which ex-
plode at the slightest touch of the specialist, and, on the other
hand, to pass by facts which have only to be pointed out in
order to disclose their significance and far-reaching importance.
People are hardly aware of the benefit which every branch of
science derives from the free and generous exchange of ideas,
particularly in our Universities, where every body may avail
himself of the advice and help of his colleagues, whether they
warn him against yet impossible theories, or call his attention
to a book or an article, where the very point, that interests him,
has been fully worked out and settled once for all." But alas!
it is not given to us to move in an atmosphere like this, and
small wonder if Indian students are not found to go beyond the
stage of passing the examinations. There is not a single insti-
tution in India, nor, despite the University Commission, can we
hope to have any before long, where one can get all up-to-date in-
formation on any desired subject, so easily obtainable at a seat of
learning in the West; and in its absence the only course open to
a person, investigating a particular subject, is, in the words of
the same learned scholar, "to step boldly out of his own domain,
and take an independent survey of the preserves of his neigh-
bours," even at the risk of being called "an interloper, an igno-
ramus, a mere dilettante," for, "whatever accidents he may meet

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

PREFACE. vii
climate inclement and necessitated a migration southward. These
are plain and simple statements, and when we put them side by
side with what we know of the Glacial and the Post-glacial
epoch from the latest geological researches, we cannot avoid the
conclusion that the primitive Aryan home was both Arctic and
inter-glacial. I have often asked myself, why the real bearing
of these plain and simple statements should have so long remain-
ed undiscovered; and let me assure the reader that it was not un-
til I was convinced that the discovery was due solely to the re-
cent progress in our knowledge regarding the primitive history
of the human race and the planet it inhabits, that I ventured to
publish the present volume. Some Zend scholars have narrow-
ly missed the truth, simply because 40 or 50 years ago they
were unable to understand how a happy home could be located
in the ice-bound regions near the North Pole. The progress of
geological science in the latter half of the last century has, how-
ever, now solved the difficulty by proving that the climate at
the Pole during the interglacial times was mild, and consequent-
ly not unsuited for human habitation. There is, therefore, nothing
extraordinary, if it be left to us to find out the real import of
these passages in the Veda and Avesta. It is true that if
the theory of an Arctic and inter-glacial primitive Aryan home
is proved, many a chapter in Vedic exegetics, comparative
mythology, or primitive Aryan history, will have to be re-
vised or re-written, and in the last chapter of this book I have
myself discussed a few important points which will be affect-
ed by the new theory. But as remarked by me at the end of
the book, considerations like these, howsoever useful they may
be in inducing caution in our investigations, ought not to
deter us from accepting the results of an inquiry conducted
on strictly scientific lines. It is very hard, I know, to give up
theories upon which one has worked all his life. But, as Mr.
Andrew Lang has put it, it should always be borne in mind

viii PREFACE.
that "Our little systems have their day, or their hour : as know-
ledge advances they pass into the history of the efforts of pio-
neers." Nor is the theory of the Arctic home so new and start-
ling as it appears to be at the first sight. Several scientific men
have already declared their belief that the original home of man
must be sought for in the Arctic regions; and Dr. Warren, the
President of the Boston University, has anticipated me, to a cer-
tain extent, in his learned and suggestive work, the Paradise
Found or the Cradle of the Human Race at the North Pole, the
tenth edition of which was published in America in 1893. Even
on strict philological grounds the theory of a primitive Aryan
home in Central Asia has been now almost abandoned in favour
of North Germany or Scandinavia; while Prof. Rhys, in his
Hibbert Lectures on Celtic Heathendom, is led to suggest "some
spot within the Arctic circle" on purely mythological considera-
tions. I go only a step further, and show that the theory, so
far as the primitive Aryan home is concerned, is fully borne out
by Vedic and Avestic traditions, and, what is still more import-
ant, the latest geological researches not only corroborate the
Avestic description of the destruction of the Aryan Paradise,
but enable us to place its existence in times before the last
Glacial epoch. The evidence on which I rely is fully set forth in
the following pages ; and, though the question is thus brought
for the first time within the arena of Vedic and Avestic scholar-
ship, I trust that my critics will not prejudge me in any way,
but give their judgment, not on a passage here or an argument
there,—for, taken singly, it may not sometimes be found to be
conclusive,—but on the whole mass of evidence collected in the
book, irrespective of how far-reaching the ultimate effects of such
a theory may be.
In conclusion, I desire to express my obligations to my
friend and old teacher Prof. S. G. Jinsivâle, M. A., who
carefully went through the whole manuscript, except the last

PREFACE. IX
chapter which was subsequently written, verified all references,
pointed out a few inaccuracies, and made some valuable sug-
gestions. I have also to acknowledge with thanks the ready
assistance rendered to me by Dr. Râmkṛishṇa Gopâl Bhâṇḍâr-
kar, C. I. E., and Khân Bahâdur Dr. Dastur Hoshang Jamâspji
the High Priest of the Parsis in the Deccan, whenever I had an oc-
casion to consult them. Indeed, it would have been impossible to
criticise the Avestic passage so fully without the willing co-opera-
tion of the learned High Priest and his obliging Deputy Dastur
Kaikobâd. I am also indebted to Prof. M. Raṅgâchârya M. A., of
Madras, with whom I had an opportunity of discussing the sub-
ject, for some critical suggestions, to Mr. Shrinivâs Iyengar, B. A.,
B. L., of the Madras High Court Bar, for a translation of
Lignana's Essay, to Mr. G. R. Gogte, B. A., LL. B., for pre-
paring the manuscript for the press, and to my friend Mr.
K. G. Oka, who helped me in reading the proof-sheets, and but
for whose care many errors would have escaped my attention.
My thanks are similarly due to the Managers of the Ânandâ-
shrama and the Fergusson College for free access to their libra-
ries and to the Manager of the Ârya-Bhûshaṇa Press for the care
bestowed on the printing of this volume. It is needless to add
that I am alone responsible for the views embodied in the book.
When I published my Orion I little thought that I could bring
to this stage my investigation into the antiquity of the Vedas;
but it has pleased Providence to grant me strength amidst
troubles and difficulties to do the work, and, with humble
remembrance of the same, I conclude in the words of the well-
known consecratory formula,—
ॐ तत् सत् ब्रह्मार्पणमस्तु ।
POONA: March, 1903. B. G. TILAK.

This page is blank and contains no text to transcribe.

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

xii CONTENTS.
PAGE
CHAPTER II.
THE GLACIAL PERIOD.
Geological climate—Uniform and gentle in early ages—Due to dif-
ferent distribution of land and water—Climatic changes in the
Quarternary era—The Glacial epoch— Its existence undoubtedly
proved—Extent of glaciation—At least two Glacial periods —
Accompanied by elevation and depression of land — Mild and
genial inter-glacial climate even in the Arctic regions—Various
theories regarding the cause of the Ice Age stated—Lyell's theory
of geographical changes —Showing long duration of the Glacial
period—Croll's theory—Effect of the precession of the equinoxes
on the duration and intensity of seasons —The cycle of 21,000
years—The effect enhanced by the eccentricity of the earth's orbit
—Maximum difference of 33 days between the duration of sum-
mer and winter—Sir Robert Ball's calculations regarding the
average heat received by each hemisphere in summer and winter
—Short and warm summers and long and cold winters, giving
rise to a Glacial epoch—Dr. Croll's extraordinary estimate re-
garding the duration of the glacial epoch—Based on the maxi-
mum value of the eccentricity of the earth's orbit—Questioned by
astronomers and geologists —Sir Robert Ball's and Newcomb's
view —Croll's estimates inconsistent with geological evidence—
Opinions of Prof. Geikie and Mr. Hudleston—Long duration of the
Glacial period—Summary of results. . . . . 20
CHAPTER III.
THE ARCTIC REGIONS.
Existence of a Circum-polar continent in early times—Probable also
in the Inter-glacial period—Milder climate at the time—Neces-
sity of examining Vedic Myths—Difference between Polar and
circumpolar characteristics—The precession of the equinoxes used
as chronometer in Vedic chronology—Characteristics of the North
Pole—The horizontal motion of the celestial hemisphere—Spin-
ning round of the stars without rising or setting—The Sun rising
in the South—A day and a night of six months each—Aurora
Borealis —Continuous fortnightly moonlight, and long morning

CONTENTS xiii
PAGE
and evening twilights—Dawn lasting from 45 to 60 days—The
Polar year—The darkness of the Polar night reduced only to two,
or two and a half, months—Dr. Warren's description of the Polar
dawn with its revolving splendours—Characteristics of regions to
the South of the North Pole—Stars moving obliquely and a few
rising and setting as in the tropical zone—The southerly direction
of the Sun—A long day and a long night, but of less than six
months' duration—Supplemented by the alterations of ordinary
days and nights for some time during the year—Long dawn, but
of shorter duration than at the Pole—Comparison with the features
of the year in the tropics—Summary of Polar and Circum-polar
characteristics. . . . . . 39
CHAPTER IV.
The Night of the Gods.
Vedic sacrifices, regulated by the luni-solar calendar—A year of six
seasons and twelve months, with an intercalary month in the Tait-
tirîya Saṁhitâ—The same in the Ṛig-Veda—Present result of
the Vedic mythology—All presuppose a home in the temperate or
the tropical zone—But further research still necessary—The spe-
cial character of the Ṛig-Veda explained—Polar tests found in
the Ṛig-Veda—Indra supporting the heavens with a pole, and
moving them like a wheel—A day and a night of six months, in
the form of the half-yearly day and night of the Gods—Found in
the Sûrya Siddhânta and older astronomical Saṁhitâs—Bhâskarâ-
chârya's error explained—Gods' day and night mentioned by
Manu and referred to by Yâska—The description of Meru or the
North Pole in the Mahâbhârata—In the Taittirîya Âraṇyaka
—The passage in the Taittirîya Brâhmaṇa about the year-long day
of the Gods—Improbability of explaining it except as founded
on the observation of nature—Parallel passage in the Vendîdâd—
Its Polar character clearly established by the context—The Vara
of Yima in the Airyana Vaejô—The sun rising and setting there
only once a year—The Devayâna and the Pitṛiyâna in the Ṛig-
Veda—Probably represent the oldest division of the year, like
the day and the night of the Gods—The path of Mazda in the
Parsi scriptures—Death during Pitṛiyâna regarded inauspicious
—Bâdarâyaṇa's view—Probable explanation suggested—Death
during winter or Pitṛiyâna in the Parsi scriptures—Probably in-