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

PRIMITIVE ARYAN CULTURE AND RELIGION, 421
and when two independent lines of research unexpectedly lead
us to the same result, we may very well reject, at least in the
present state of our knowledge, the extravagant speculations
of Croll and his followers, and, for all practical purposes, adopt
the view that the last Glacial epoch closed and the post-Glacial
period commenced at about 8000 B. C. From this to the
Orion period is an interval of about 3000 years, and it is not at
all improbable that the traditions of the ancient home should
have been remembered and incorporated into hymns whose
origin can be clearly traced to that period. In short, the Vedic
traditions, far from being contradictory to the scientific
evidence, only serve to check the extravagant estimates re-
garding the age of the last Glacial epoch; and if the sober
view of American geologists be adopted, both geology and
the traditions recorded in the ancient books of the Aryan race
will be found alike to point out to a period not much older
than 8000 B. C. for the commencement of the post-Glacial
era and the compulsory migration of the Aryan races from
their Arctic home.
And not only Vedic but also Purâṇic chronology, properly
understood, leads us to the same conclusion. According
to the Purâṇas the earth and the whole universe are occa-
sionally subjected to destruction at long intervals of time, the
earth by a small and the universe by a grand deluge. Thus we
are told that when the god Brahmâ is awake during his day
the creation exists; but when at the end of the day he goes to
sleep, the world is destroyed by a deluge, and is re-created
when he awakes from his sleep and resumes his activity the
next morning. Brahmâ's evening and morning are thus syn-
onymous with the destruction and the re-creation of the earth.
A day and a night of Brahmâ are each equal to a period of time
called a Kalpa, and a Kalpa is taken for a unit in measuring
higher periods of time. Two Kalpas constitute a nycthemeron
(day and night) of Brahmâ, and 360×2=720 Kalpas make