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

THE
ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
CHAPTER I.
PREHISTORIC TIMES.
The Historic Period—Preceded by myths and traditions—The
Science of Mythology—Fresh impulse given to it by Compara-
tive Philology—Unity of Aryan races and languages—The
system of interpreting myths, and the theory of Asiatic Home
—Recent discoveries in Geology and Archæology—Requiring
revision of old theories—The Vedas still partially unintelli-
gible—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—Distinc-
tion 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 Quaternary and Tertiary
eras—Date of the Neolithic Age—5000 B. C. from lake-dwell-
ings—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
American estimate of 8000 years—Neolithic races—Dolicho-
cephalic and Brachy-cephalic—Modern European races des-
cended from them—Controversy as to which of these repre-
sent the Primitive Aryans in Europe—Different views of
German and French writers—Social condition of the Neoli-
thic races and the primitive Aryans—Dr. Schrader's view—
Neolithic Aryan race in Europe cannot be regarded as autoch-
thonous—Nor descended from the Palæolithic man—The
question of the original Aryan home still unsettled.
If we trace the history of any nation backwards into
the past, we come at last to a period of myths and tradi-
tions which eventually fade away into impenetrable darkness.