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

PRIMITIVE ARYAN CULTURE AND RELIGION. 431
that it is not difficult to ascertain, from traditions contained
therein, the site of the Aryan Paradise, now that we begin to
search for it in the light thrown upon the subject by modern
scientific researches.
But if the fact of an early Aryan home in the far north is once
established by indisputable traditional evidence, it is sure to re-
volutionise the existing views regarding the primitive history or
religion of the Aryan races. Comparative philologists and Sans-
kritists, who looked for the primeval home " somewhere in Cen-
tral Asia," have advanced the theory that the whole progress of
the Aryan race, intellectual, social or moral from primeval sava-
gery to such civilisation as is disclosed by the Vedic hymns, was
effected on the plains of Central Asia. It was on these plains,
we are told, that our oldest ancestors gazed upon the wonders
of dawn or the rising sun with awe and astonishment, or rever-
entially watched the storm-clouds hovering in the sky to be
eventually broken up by the god of rain and thunder, thereby
giving rise to the worship of natural elements and thus laying
down the foundations of later Aryan mythology. It was on these
plains that they learnt the art of weaving, the products of which
superseded the use of hides for clothing, or constructed their
chariots, or trained their horses, or discovered the use of
metals like gold and silver. In short, all the civilisation and cul-
ture which Comparative Philology proves on linguistic grounds
to have been common to the different Aryan races before their
separation is regarded to have first originated or developed on
the plains of Central Asia in post-Glacial times. Dr. Schrader,
in his Pre-historic Antiquities of the Aryan Peoples, gives us
an exhaustive summary of facts and arguments regarding
primitive Aryan culture and civilisation which can be deduced
from Linguistic Palæology, or Comparative Philology, and
as a repertory of such facts the book stands unrivalled. But we
must remember that the results of Comparative Philology,