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

430 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
indicating the existence of an Arctic home of these races in an-
cient times; and from a consideration of all these he arrives at
the conclusion that the cradle of the whole human race must be
placed in the circum-polar regions, a conclusion in which he is
also supported by other scholars. But, as observed by Prof.
Rhys, it is no fatal objection to the view we have endeavoured
to prove in these pages that the mythologies of nations, beside
the Aryan, also point to the North Pole as their original home;
for it is not contended that the Aryans may be the only poeple
of northern origin. On the contrary, there are grounds to
believe that the five races of men (pañcha janâḥ) often mentioned
in the Ṛig-Veda may have been the races which lived with the
Aryans in their original home, for we cannot suppose that the
Vedic Aryas after their dispersion from the original home met
only with five races in their migrations, or were divided only in-
to five branches. But the question is one which can be finally de-
cided only after a good deal of further research; and as it is not
necessary to mix it up with the question of the original home of
the Aryans, we may leave it out for the present. If the North
Pole is conclusively shown to be the cradle of the human race
hereafter, it would not affect in the least the conclusion we
have drawn in these pages from a number of definite Vedic
and Avestic traditions, but if the existence of the Aryan home
near the North Pole is proved, as we have endeavoured to do
in the foregoing pages, by independent testimony, it is sure
to strengthen the probability of the northern home of the whole
human race; and as the traditions of the Aryan people are
admittedly better preserved in the Veda and the Avesta
than those of any other race, it is safer and even desirable to
treat the question of the primeval Aryan home independently
of the general problem taken up by Dr. Warren and other
scholars. That the Veda and the Avesta are the oldest books
of the Aryan race is now conceded by all, and we have seen