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

PRIMITIVE ARYAN CULTURE AND RELIGION. 439
their offerings, eventually bring back the light of the dawn to
these worshippers. I do not mean to assert that an elaborate
system of sacrifices existed in inter-glacial times; but I do
maintain that sacrifice was the main ritual of the primeval
Aryan religion, and that it is a mistake to suppose that it origi-
nated or was invented only in post-glacial times. I have dwelt
at some length on the question of ancient religious worship and
ritual in this place because the theory of the Arctic home very
well exposes, in my opinion, the fallacious character of many of
the existing views on this subject.
A people, who had come to worship the powers of Nature
as manifestations of divine will and energy, who had a well-
developed language of their own, and who had already evolved
a legendary literature out of the Arctic conditions of the year
in their congenial home near the North Pole, may well be
expected to have made a good advance in civilisation. But we
have at present very few means by which we can ascertain
the exact degree of civilisation attained by the undivided
Aryans in their primitive home. Comparative Philology tells
us that primitive Aryans were familiar with the art of spinning
and weaving, knew and worked in metals, constructed boats
and chariots, founded and lived in cities, carried on buying
and selling, and had made considerable progress in agriculture.
We also know that important social or political institutions
or organisations, as, for instance, marriage or the laws of
property, prevailed amongst the forefathers of our race
in those early days; and linguistic palæontology furnishes us
with a long list of the fauna and the flora known to the
undivided Aryans. These are important linguistic discoveries,
and taking them as they are, they evidently disclose a state
of civilisation higher than that of the savages of the Neolithic
age. But in the light of the Arctic theory we are naturally
led to inquire if the culture of the primitive Aryans was con-
fined only to the level disclosed by Comparative Philology, or