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

416 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
Arctic origin. In other words, all the differentiæ, mentioned
in the third chapter as characteristic of the Polar and Circum-
Polar regions, are met with in the Ṛig-Veda in such a way as
to leave no doubt regarding the conclusion to be drawn from
them. A day or a night of six months, and a long continuous
dawn of several days' duration with its revolving splendours,
not to mention the unusually long Arctic day and night or a
year of less than twelve months' sunshine, were all known to
the Vedic bards, and have been described by them not mytho-
logically or metaphorically but directly in plain and simple
words, which, though misinterpreted so long, can, in the light
thrown upon the question by recent scientific researches, be
now rightly read and understood. In fact the task, which I set
to myself, was to find out such passages, and show how in the
absence of the true key to their meaning, they have been sub-
jected to forced construction, or ignored and neglected, by
Vedic scholars both Indian and foreign, ancient and modern.
I do not mean, however, to underrate, on that account, the
value or the importance of the labours of Indian Nairuktas
like Yâska, or commentators like Sâyaṇa. Without their aid
we should have, it is readily admitted, been able to do little
in the field of the Vedic interpretation; and I am fully aware
of the service they have rendered to this cause. There is no
question that they have done their best in elucidating the
meaning of our sacred books; and their claims on the grateful
remembrance of their services by future generations of
scholars will ever remain unchallenged. But if the Vedas
are really the oldest records of our race, who can deny that in
the light of the advancing knowledge regarding primitive
humanity, we may still discover in these ancient records
facts and statements which may have escaped the attention
of older scholars owing to the imperfect nature, in their days,
of those sciences which are calculated to throw further light on
the habits and environments of the oldest ancestors of our