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

42 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
distorted in course of time; and it is for us to see if they do or do
not accord with what we know of the ancient man from latest
scientific researches. In the case of the Vedic traditions, myths
and beliefs, we have the further advantage that they were collect-
ed thousands of years ago, and handed down unchanged from that
remote time. It is, therefore, not unlikely that we may find traces
of the primeval Polar home in these oldest books, if the Aryan man
did live within the Arctic circle in early times, especially as a por-
tion of the Ṛig-Veda is still admittedly unintelligible on any of the
existing methods of interpretation, although the words and expres-
sions are plain and simple in many places. Dr. Warren has quoted
some Vedic traditions, along with those of other nations, in support
of his theory that the Arctic regions were the birth-place of the
human race. But the attempt, so far as the Vedic texts are
concerned, is desultory, as it was bound to be, inasmuch as these
Vedic legends and texts have, as yet, never been examined by any
Vedic scholar from the new standpoint furnished by the latest
scientific researches, and as Dr. Warren had to depend entirely
on the existing translations. It is proposed, therefore, to examine
the Vedas from this new point of view; but before doing so it is
necessary to ascertain such peculiar characteristics, or what in
logic are called differentiæ, of the Polar or the Arctic regions, as
are not found elsewhere on the surface of the globe, so that if we
meet with them in the Vedic traditions, the Polar origin of the
latter would be indubitably established. We have seen that the
inclemency of climate, which now characterises the Polar regions,
was not a feature of the Polar climate in early times; and we must,
therefore, turn to astronomy to find out the characteristics requir-
ed for our purpose.
It has been a fashion to speak of the Polar regions as
characterised by light and darkness of 6 months each, for it