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

PRIMITIVE ARYAN CULTURE AND RELIGION. 423
unlikely that Hindu astronomers, who held the view that the
sun, the moon, and all the planets were in a line at the beginning
of the Kalpa, arrived at this figure by mathematically calculating
the period during which the sun, the moon and all the planets
made an integral number of complete revolutions round the earth.
We need not, however, go into these details, which, howsoever
interesting, are not relevant to the subject in hand. A cycle of
the four yugas, viz., Kṛita, Tretâ, Dvâpara and Kali, is, it will be
seen, the basis of this chronological system, and we have therefore
to examine more critically what this collection of four yugas,
otherwise termed a Mahâ-yuga, really signifies and whether the
period of time originally denoted by it was the same as it is said
to be at present.
Prof. Raṅgâchârya and especially Mr. Aiyer have ably trea-
ted this subject in their essays, and I agree in the main with them
in their conclusions. I use the words 'in the main' deliberately,
for though my researches have independently led me to reject the
hypothesis of 'divine years,' yet there are certain points which
cannot, in my opinion, be definitely settled without further
research. I have shown previously that the word yuga is used in
the Ṛig-Veda to denote 'a period of time,' and that in the phrase
mânushâ yugâ it cannot but be taken to denote 'a month.' Yuga
is, however, evidently used to denote a longer period of time in
such expressions as Devânâm prathame yuge in the Ṛig-
Veda, X, 72, 3; while in the Atharva Veda VIII, 2, 21,
which says "We allot to thee a hundred, ten thousand
years, two, three, (or) four yugas," a yuga evidently means
a period of not less than 10,000 years;* and Mr. Aiyer is
right in pointing out that the omission of the word 'one' in
the above verse is not accidental. According to this view a

• Atharva Veda, VIII, 2, 21, — शतं तेऽयुतं हायनान्द्वे युगे त्रीणि चत्वारि ,
  कृण्मः ।