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

PREHISTORIC TIMES. 3
a revolution in their ideas regarding the history and culture of man
in ancient times. Dr. Schrader in his work on the Prehistoric
Antiquities of the Aryan Peoples gives an exhaustive summary of
the conclusions arrived at by the methods of comparative
philology regarding the primitive culture of the Aryan people,
and those that desire to have further information on the subject
must refer to that interesting book. For our present purpose it is
sufficient to state that comparative mythologists and philologists
were in the sole possession of this field, until the researches of the
latter half of the nineteenth century placed within our reach new
materials for the study of man not only in prehistoric times but
in such remote ages that compared with them the prehistoric
period appeared to be quite recent.
The mythologists carried on their researches at a time when
man was believed to be post-glacial, and when the physical and
geographical surroundings of the ancient man were assumed not
to have been materially different from those of the present day.
All ancient myths were, therefore, interpreted on the assump-
tion that they were formed and developed in countries, the
climatic or other conditions of which varied very little, if at
all, from those by which we are now surrounded. Thus every
Vedic myth or legend was explained either on the Storm or
the Dawn theory, though in some cases it was felt that the
explanation was not at all satisfactory. Indra was only a Storm-
God and Vritra the demon of drought or darkness brought on
by the daily setting of the sun. This system of interpretation
was first put forward by the Indian Etymologists; and though
it has been improved upon by Western Vedic scholars, yet upto
now it has remained practically unchanged in character. It was
again believed that we must look for the original home of the
Aryan race somewhere in Central Asia, and that the Vedic hymns,
which were supposed to be composed after the separation of the