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

460 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
X, 91, 13 ; &c.) This shows that the deities whose exploits were
sung in the hymns were considered to be ancient deities.
Nay, we have express passages where not only the deities but
their exploits are said to be ancient, evidently meaning that
the achievements spoken of in the hymns were traditional and
not witnessed by the poet himself ; thus, in I, 32, 1, the poet
opens his song with a clear statement that he is going to sing
those exploits of Indra which were achieved at first (pratha-
mâni) or in early times, and the adjectives pûrvyâṇi and
pûrvîḥ are applied to Indra's exploits in I, 11, 3, and I, 61,
13. The achievements of the Ashvins are similarly said to be
pûrvyâṇi in I, 117, 25 ; and the long list of the exploits given
in this hymn clearly shows that the poet is here rather sum-
marising the exploits traditionally known to him than enu-
merating events witnessed by himself or by his forefathers in
the near past. This is also evident from the fact that the
ancient Ṛiṣhis mentioned in the hymns, like the Aṅgirases or
Vasiṣhṭha, are believed to have been invested with supernatural
powers (VII, 33, 7–13), or to have lived and 'conversed with
(I, 179, 2), or shared in the enjoyments of the gods (Devâ-
nâm sadhamâdaḥ VIII, 76, 4). They are also said to be the
earliest guides (pathikṛit, X, 14, 15) for future generations. It
is impossible to suppose that Vedic poets could have ascribed
such superhuman character to their ancestors in the near
past ; and we are, therefore, led to the conclusion that the an-
cestors here spoken of were the ante-diluvian ancestors (naḥ
pûrve pitaraḥ) who completed their sacrifices in the Arctic year
of 7 or 10 months. And what is true of the ancestors applies
as well to the ancient deities mentioned in the hymns. I have
pointed out previously that the legend of Aditi and her sons
is expressly stated to be a legend of the past age (pûrvyam
yugaṁ) ; and the same thing may be predicated of the legends
of Indra, the Ashvins or the other deities whose expliots are
described in the Ṛig-Veda as pûrvyâṇi or prathamâni, that is,