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

PRIMITIVE ARYAN CULTURE AND RELIGION. 465
In fact, the idea of searching for the evidence of an
Arctic home in the Vedas may be said to have been stimulated,
if not suggested, by the recent advances made in these sciences,
and it will be seen that the method, adopted by us in working it
up, is as rigid as it ought to be. It is now several centuries
since the science of Vedic exegetics was founded by Indian
Nairuktas ; and it may seem surprising that traces of an Arctic
home in the Vedas should remain undiscovered so long. But
surprises like these are out of place in investigations of this kind,
where one must be prepared to accept the results proved, in
the light of advancing knowledge, by the strictest rules of logic
and scientific research. It is these rules that we have taken for
our guide, and if the validity of our conclusions be tested by this
standard, we hope it will be found that we have succeeded in
discovering the true key to the interpretation of a number of
Vedic texts and legends hitherto given up as hopeless, ignored
or misunderstood. In these days of progress, when the question
of the primitive human culture and civilisation is approached
and investigated from so many different sides, the science of
Vedic interpretation cannot stand isolated or depend exclusively
on linguistic or grammatical analysis; and we have simply
followed the spirit of the time in seeking to bring about the co-
ordination of the latest scientific results with the traditions
contained in the oldest books of the Aryan race,—books which
have been deservedly held in the highest esteem and preserved
by our ancestors, amidst insurmountable difficulties, with
religious enthusiasm ever since the beginning of the present
age.
FINIS.