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

458 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
the post-Glacial period is, even now, said to have com-
menced some 80,000 years ago, if not earlier, we need not be
much surprised at the Purâṇic estimate, especially when, as
stated above, it is found to disclose a real tradition of 10,000
years assigned to a cycle of the four yugas, the first of which
began with the new Kalpa, or, in the language of geology,
with the present post-Glacial period. Another point wherein
the two views may be said to differ is the beginning-less-ness
(anâditva) of the Vedas. It is impossible to demonstrate histori-
cally or scientifically that Vedic religion and worship is
absolutely without a beginning. All that we can say is that its
beginning is lost in geological antiquity, or that the Vedic religion
is as old as the Aryan language or the Aryan man himself. If
theologians are not satisfied with the support which this scienti-
fic view accords to their theory about the eternity of the
Vedas, the scientific and the theological views must stand,
as they are, distinct from each other, for the two methods of
investigation are essentially different. It is for this reason
that I have stated the views in parallel columns for comparison
without mixing them up. Whether the world was produced
from the original WORD, or the Divine Logos, is a question
which does not fall within the pale of historical investiga-
tion; and any conclusions based upon it or similar other
doctrines cannot, therefore, be treated in this place. We may,
however, still assert that for all practical purposes the Vedic
religion can be shown to be beginning-less even on strict scienti-
fic grounds.
A careful examination of the Ṛig-Vedic hymns will show
that the Vedic Ṛishis were themselves conscious of the fact
that the subject matter of the hymns sung by them was ancient
or ante-diluvian in character, though the expressions used
were their own productions. We have already referred
before to the two sets of Vedic passages, the first expressly
saying that the hymns were made, generated or fashioned like