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

4 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
Indian Aryans from the common stock, contained the ideas
only of that branch of the Aryan race which lived in the
Temperate zone. The scientific researches of the latter half
of the nineteenth century have, however, given a rude shock
to these theories. From hundreds of stone and bronze imple-
ments found buried in the various places in Europe the archæo-
logists have now established the chronological sequence of the
Iron, the Bronze and the Stone age in times preceding the historic
period. But the most important event of the latter half of the
last century, so far as it concerns our subject, was the discovery
of the evidence proving the existence of the Glacial period at
the close of Quaternary era, and the high antiquity of man,
who was shown to have lived not only throughout the Quater-
nary but also in the Tertiary era, when the climatic conditions
of the globe were quite different from those in the present or
the Post-Glacial period. The remains of animals and men
found in the Neolithic or Palæolithic strata also threw new
light on the ancient races inhabiting the countries where these
remains were found; and it soon became evident that the time-
telescope set up by the mythologists must be adjusted to a wider
range, and the results previously arrived at by the study of myths
and legends must be checked in the light of the facts disclosed
by these scientific discoveries. The philologists had now to be
more cautious in formulating their views, and some of them soon
realised the force of the arguments advanced on the strength
of these scientific discoveries. The works of German scholars,
like Posche and Penka, freely challenged the Asiatic theory re-
garding the original home of the Aryan race, and it is now
generally recognised that we must give up that theory and seek
for the original home of the Aryans somewhere else in the
further north. Canon Taylor in his Origin of the Aryans has
summed up the work done during the last few years in this

PREHISTORIC TIMES. 5
direction. “It was” he says “mainly a destructive work,” and
concludes his book with the observation that “the whilom
tyranny of the Sanskritists is happily overpast, and it is seen that
hasty philological deductions require to be systematically checked
by the conclusions of prehistoric archæology, craniology, an-
thropology, geology and common sense.” Had the remark not
been used as a peroration at the end of the book, it would
certainly be open to the objection that it unnecessarily deprecates
the labours of the comparative mythologists and philologists.
In every department of human knowledge old conclusions have
always to be revised in the light of new discoveries, but for that
reason it would never be just to find fault with those whose
lot it was to work earlier in the same field with scanty and
insufficient materials.
But whilst the conclusions of the philologists and mytholo-
gists are thus being revised in the light of new scientific dis-
coveries, an equally important work yet remains to be done. It
has been stated above that the discovery of the Vedic literature
imparted a fresh impulse to the study of myths and legends.
But the Vedas themselves, which admittedly form the oldest
records of the Aryan race, are as yet imperfectly understood.
They had already grown unintelligible to a certain extent even
in the days of the Brâhmanas several centuries before Christ,
and had it not been for the labours of Indian Etymologists
and Grammarians, they would have remained a sealed book
upto the present time. The Western Scholars have indeed deve-
loped, to a certain extent, these Native methods of interpretation
with the aid of facts brought to light by comparative philo-
logy and mythology. But no etymological or philological analysis
can help us in thoroughly understanding a passage which contains
ideas and sentiments foreign or unfamiliar to us. This is one of the
principal difficulties of Vedic interpretation. The Storm or the Dawn

6 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
theory may help us in understanding some of the legends
in this ancient book. But there are passages, which, in spite
of their simple diction, are quite unintelligible on any of these
theories, and in such cases Native scholars, like Sâyana,
are either content with simply paraphrasing the words, or
have recourse to distortion of words and phrases in order to
make the passages yield a sense intelligible to them; while some
of the Western scholars are apt to regard such texts as corrupt
or imperfect. In either case, however, it is an undoubted fact
that some Vedic texts are yet unintelligible, and, therefore,
untranslatable. Prof. Max Muller was fully alive to these diffi-
culties. "A translation of the Rig-Veda," he observes in his
introduction to the translation of the Vedic hymns in the
Sacred Books of the East series, "is a task for the next century,"*
and the only duty of the present scholars is to "reduce the
untranslatable portion to a narrower and narrower limit," as has
been done by Yâska and other Native scholars. But if the
scientific discoveries of the last century have thrown a new light
on the history and culture of man in primitive times, we may
as well expect to find in them a new key to the interpretation
of the Vedic myths and passages, which admittedly preserve for
us the oldest beliefs of the Aryan race. If man existed before
the last Glacial period and witnessed the gigantic changes which
brought on the Ice Age, it is not unnatural to expect that a
reference, howsoever concealed and distant, to these events would
be found in the oldest traditionary beliefs and memories of
mankind. Dr. Warren in his interesting and highly suggestive
work the Paradise Found or the Cradle of the Human Race at the
North Pole has attempted to interpret ancient myths and legends
in the light of modern scientific discoveries; and has come to
the conclusion that the original home of the whole human race
must be sought for in regions near the North Pole. My object

• See S. B. E. Series, Vol. XXXII, p. xi.

PREHISTORIC TIMES. 7.
is not so comprehensive. I intend to confine myself only to
the Vedic literature and show that if we read some of the pas-
sages in the Vedas, which have hitherto been considered
incomprehensible, in the light of the new scientific discoveries,
we are forced to the conclusion that the home of the ancestors
of the Vedic people was somewhere near the North Pole before
the last Glacial epoch. The task is not an easy one, consider-
ing the fact that the Vedic passages, on which I rely, had to
be, and have been, hitherto either ignored or explained away
somehow, or misinterpreted one way or another by Native and
European scholars alike. But I hope to show that these inter-
pretations, though they have been provisionally accepted, are
not satisfactory, and that new discoveries in archæology and
geology provide us with a better key for the interpretation of
these passages. Thus if some of the conclusions of the my-
thologist and the philologist are overthrown by these discoveries,
they have rendered a still greater service by furnishing us with
a better key for the interpretation of the most ancient Aryan
legends, and the results obtained by using the new key cannot,
in their turn, fail to throw further light on the primitive history
of the Aryan race, and thus supplement or modify the conclusion
now arrived at by the archæologist and the geologist.
But before proceeding to discuss the Vedic texts which point
out to a Polar home, it is necessary to briefly state the results
of recent discoveries in archæology, geology and palæontology.
My summary must necessarily be very short, for I propose
to note down only such facts as will establish the proba-
bility of my theory from the geological and palæontological
point of view; and for this purpose I have freely drawn
upon the works of such well-known writers as Lyell, Geikie,
Evans, Lubbock, Croll, Taylor and others. I have also utilised
the excellent popular summary of the latest results of these
researches in Samuel Laing's Human Origins and other

8 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
works. The belief, that man is post-glacial and that the Polar
regions were never suited for human habitation, still lingers in
some quarters, and to those who still hold this view any
theory regarding the Polar home of the Aryan race may
naturally seem to be a priori impossible. It is better, therefore,
to begin with a short statement of the latest scientific conclu-
sions on these points.
Human races of earlier times have left ample evidence of
their existence on the surface of this globe; but like the records
of the historic period this evidence does not consist of stately
tombs and pyramids, or inscriptions and documents. It is of a
humbler kind, and consists of hundreds and thousands of rude
or polished instruments of stone and metal recently dug out from
old camps, fortifications, burial grounds (tumuli), temples, lake-
dwellings, &c. of early times spread over the whole of Europe;
and in the hands of the archæologist these have been found to
give the same results as the hieroglyphics in the hands of the
Egyptologist. These early implements of stone and metals were
not previously unknown, but they had not attracted the notice
of scientific experts till recently; and the peasants in Asia and
Europe, when they found them in their fields, could hardly make
any better use of them than that of worshipping the implements
so found as htunderbolts or fairy arrows shot down from the sky.
But now after a careful study of these remains, archæologists
have come to the conclusion that these implements, whose
human origin is now undoubtedly established, can be classified
into those of Stone (including horn, wood or bone), those of
Bronze, and those of Iron, representing three different stages of
civilization in the progress of man in prehistoric times. Thus
the implements of stone, wood or bone, such as chisels,
scrapers, arrow-heads, hatches, daggers, etc., were used when
the use of metal was yet unknown, and they were gradually
supplanted first by the implements of bronze and then of iron,

PREHISTORIC TIMES. 9
when the ancient man discovered the use of these metals. It is
not to be supposed, however, that these three different periods of
early human civilization were divided by any hard and fast line of
division. They represent only a rough classification, the passage
from one period into another being slow and gradual. Thus the
implements of stone must have continued to be used for a long time
after the use of bronze became known to the ancient man, and the
same thing must have occurred as he passed from the Bronze to the
Iron age. The age of bronze, which is a compound of copper and
tin in a definite proportion, requires an antecedent age of copper;
but sufficient evidence is not yet found to prove the separate
existence of copper and tin ages, and hence it is considered pro-
bable that the art of making bronze was not invented in Europe,
but was introduced there from other countries either by com-
merce or by the Indo-European race going there from outside.*
Another fact which requires to be noted in connection with these
ages is that the Stone or the Bronze age in one country was
not necessarily synchronous with the same age in another country.
Thus we find a high state of civilization in Egypt at about 6000
B. C., when the inhabitants of Europe were in the early stages
of the Stone age. Similarly Greece had advanced to the Iron
age, while Italy was still in the Bronze period, and the West
of Europe in the age of Stone. This shows that the progress of
civilization was slow in some and rapid in other places, the rate
of progress varying according to the local circumstances of each
place. Broadly speaking, however, the three periods of Stone,
Bronze and Iron may be taken to represent the three stages of
civilization anterior to the historic period.
Of these three different ages, the oldest or the Stone
age is further divided into the Palæolithic and the Neolithic
period, or the old and the new Stone age. The distinction is

• Lubbock's Prehistoric Times, 1890 Ed., pp. 4 and 64.

10 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
based upon the fact that the stone implements of the Palæoli-
thic age are found to be very rudely fashioned, being merely
chipped into shape and never ground or polished as is the
case with the implements of the new Stone age. Another
characteristic of the Palæolithic period is that the implements
of the period are found in places which plainly show a
much greater antiquity than can be assigned to the remains
of the Neolithic age, the relics of the two ages being hardly,
if ever, found together. The third distinction between the
Palæolithic and the Neolithic age is that the remains of the
Palæolithic man are found associated with those of many great
mammals, such as the cave bear, the mammoth and wooly-
haired rhinoceros, that became either locally or wholly extinct
before the appearance of the Neolithic man on the stage. In
short, there is a kind of hiatus or break between the Palæolithic
and Neolithic man requiring a separate classification and treat-
ment for each. It may also be noted that the climatic conditions
and the distribution of land and water in the Palæolithic period
were different from those in the Neolithic period; while from
the beginning of the Neolithic period the modern conditions,
both geographical and climatic, have prevailed almost unaltered
upto the present time.
To understand the relation of these three ages with the
geological periods into which the history of the earth is divided we
must briefly consider the geological classification. The geologist
takes up the history of the earth at the point where the archæo-
logist leaves it, and carries it further back into remote antiquity.
His classification is based upon an examination of the whole
system of stratified rocks, and not on mere relics found in the
surface strata. These stratified rocks have been divided into five
principal classes according to the character of the fossils found
in them, and they represent five different periods in the history of
our planet. These geological eras, like the three ages of Stone,

PREHISTORIC TIMES. ii
Bronze and Iron, cannot be separated very sharply from each
other. But taken as a whole we can clearly distinguish one era
from another by its characteristic fossil remains. Each of these
geological ages or eras is again subdivided into a number of
different periods. The order of these Eras and Periods, begin-
ning with the newest, is as follows:—
Eras. Periods.
Post-Tertiary or Quaternary... { Recent (Post-Glacial).
Pleistocene (Glacial).
Tertiary or Cainozoic ... ... ... { Pliocene.
Miocene.
Oligocene.
Eocene.
Secondary or Mesozoic ... ... { Cretaceous.
Jurassic.
Triassic.
Primary or Palæozoic ... ... { Permian.
Carboniferous.
Devonian, and Old
Red Sandstone.
Silurian.
Cambrian.
Archæan or Eozoic ... ... ... Fundamental Gneiss.
Thus the oldest of the stratified rocks at present known is
the Archæan or Eozoic. Next in chronological order come
the Primary or the Palæozoic, the Secondary or the Mesozoic,
the Tertiary or Cainozoic, and last the Quarternary. The
Quaternary era, with which alone we are here concerned, is
subdivided into the Pleistocene or the Glacial, and the Recent
or the Post-Glacial period; the close of the first and
the beginning of the second being marked by the last Gla-
cial epoch, or the Ice Age, during which the greater portion
of northern Europe and America was covered with an ice-cap
several thousand feet in thickness. The Iron age, the Bronze
age and the Neolithic age come under the Recent or the

12 . THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
Post-Glacial period, while the Palæolithic age is supposed
to fall in the Pleistocene period, though some of the palæolithic
remains are post-glacial, showing that the palæolithic man must
have survived the Ice Age for some time. Latest discoveries and
researches enable us to carry the antiquity of man still further
by establishing the fact that man existed even in the Tertiary
era. But apart from it, there is, now, at any rate, overwhelming
evidence to conclusively prove the wide-spread existence of man
throughout the Quaternary era, even before the last Glacial
period.
Various estimates have been made regarding the time of the
commencement of the Neolithic age, but the oldest date assigned
does not exceed 5000 B. C., a time when flourishing empires
existed in Egypt and Chaldea. These estimates are based on
the amount of silt which has been found accumulated in some of
the smaller lakes in Switzerland since the lake-dwellers of the
Neolithic period built their piled villages therein. The peat-mosses
of Denmark afford means for another estimate of the early
Neolithic period in that country. These mosses are formed in
the hollows of the glacial drift into which trees have fallen and
become gradually converted into peat in course of time. There
are three successive periods of vegetation in these peat-beds, the
upper one of beech, the middle one of oak, and the lowest of all,
one of fir. These changes in the vegetation are attributed to slow
changes in the climate and it is ascertained from implements and
remains found in these beds, that the Stone age corresponds mainly
with that of Fir and partly with that of Oak, while the Bronze age
agrees mainly with the period of Oak, and the Iron with that of
Beech. It has been calculated that about 16,000 years will be requ-
ired for the formation of these peat-mosses, and according to this
estimate we shall have to place the commencement of the Neolithic
age in Denmark, at the lowest, not later than 10,000 years ago.

PREHISTORIC TIMES. 13
But these estimates are not better than mere approximations,
and generally speaking we may take the Neolithic age in Europe
as commencing not later than 5000 B. C.
But when we pass from the Neolithic to the Palæolithic
period the difficulty of ascertaining the commencement of the
latter becomes still greater. In fact we have here to ascertain
the time when the Post-Glacial period commenced. The
Palæolithic man must have occupied parts of Western Europe
shortly after the disappearance of the Ice Age and Prof. Geikie
considers that there are reasons for supposing that he was inter-
glacial. The Glacial period was characterised by geographical
and climatic changes on an extensive scale. These changes and
the theories regarding the cause or the causes of the Ice Age will
be briefly stated in the next chapter. We are here concerned
with the date of the commencement of the Post-Glacial period,
and there are two different views entertained by geologists on the
subject. European geologists think that as the beginning of the
Post-Glacial period was marked with great movements of eleva-
tion and depression of land, and as these movements take place
very slowly, the commencement of the Post-Glacial period cannot
be placed later than 50 or 60 thousand years ago. Many American
geologists, on the other hand, are of opinion that the close of the
last Glacial period must have taken place at a much more recent
date. They draw this inference from the various estimates of time
required for the erosion of valleys and accumulation of alluvial
deposits since the last Glacial period. Thus according to Gilbert,
the post-glacial gore of Niagara at the present rate of erosion
must have been excavated within 7000 years ¹. Other American
geologists from similar observations at various other places have
arrived at the conclusion that not more than about 8000 years have

1. See Geikie's Fragments of Earth Lore, p. 286; also Dr. Bonney's.
   Story of our Planet, p. 560.

14 . THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
elapsed since the close of the last Glacial period. This estimate
agrees very well with the approximate date of the Neolithic
period ascertained from the amount of silt in some of the
lakes in Switzerland. But it differs materially from the
estimate of the European geologists. It is difficult to decide,
in the present state of our knowledge, which of these
estimates is correct. Probably the Glacial and the Post-Glacial
period may not, owing to local causes, have commenced or ended
at one and the same time in different places, just as the ages of
Stone and Bronze were not synchronous in different countries.
Prof. Geikie does not accept the American estimate on the
ground that it is inconsistent with the high antiquity of the
Egyptian civilisation, as ascertained by recent researches. But
if no traces of glaciation are yet found in Africa this objection
loses its force, while the arguments by which the American view
is supported remain uncontradicted.
There are other reasons which go to support the same view.
All the evidence regarding the existence of the Glacial period
comes form the North of Europe and America; but no traces of
glaciation have been yet discovered in the Northern Asia or North
Alaska. It is not to be supposed, however, that the northern
part of Asia did not enjoy a genial climate in early times. As
observed by Prof. Geikie "everywhere throughout this vast
region alluvial deposits are found packed up with the remains of
mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, bison, and horse;" and "the fossils
are usually so well preserved that on one occasion the actual
carcass of a mammoth was exposed in so fresh a state that dogs
ate the flesh thereof." * These and other equally indisputable
facts clearly indicate the existence in Siberia of a mild and genial
climate at a time, which, from the freshness of the fossil remains,
cannot be supposed to be removed from the present by several
*. See Geikie's Great Ice Age, 1st Ed., p. 495; Dr. Croll's Climate
and Cosmology, p. 179.

PREHISTORIC TIMES. 15
thousands of years. Again in North Africa and Syria we find in
dry regions wide-spread fluviatile accumulations which are believ-
ved to be indications of rainy seasons, contemporaneous with the
Glacial period of Europe.* If this contemporaneity can be
established, the high estimate of time for the commencement of
the Post-Glacial period in Europe will have to be given up, or at
any rate much curtailed.
As regards the races which inhabited Europe in these early
ages, the evidence furnished by human remains or skulls shows
that they were the direct ancestors of the races now living in the
different parts of Europe. The current classification of the human
races into Aryan, Semetic, Mongolian, &c. is based upon the
linguistic principle; but it is evident that in dealing with ancient
races the archæologist and the geologist cannot adopt this princi-
ple of division, inasmuch as their evidence consists of relics from
which no inference can be drawn as to the language used by the
ancient man. The shape and the size of the skull have, therefore,
been taken as the chief distinguishing marks to classify the
different races of prehistoric times. Thus if the extreme breadth
of a skull is three-fourths, or 75 per cent., of its length or lower, it
is classed as long-headed or dolicho-cephalic, while if the breadth
is higher than 83 per cent. of the length, the skull is said to be
brachy-cephalic or broad-headed; the intermediate class being
styled ortho-cephalic, or sub-dolicho-cephalic, or sub-brachy-
cephalic according as it approaches one or the other of these
types. Now from the examination of the different skulls found in
the Neolithic beds it has been ascertained that Europe in those
early days was inhabited by four different races, and that the existing
European types are directly descended from them. Of these four
races two were dolicho-cephalic, one tall and one short; and two
brachy-cephalic similarly divided. But the Aryan languages are,

• See Geikie's Fragments of Earth Lore, p. 252.

16 'THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
at present, spoken in Europe by races exhibiting the charac-
teristics of all these types. It is, however, evident that one
alone of these four ancient races can be the real representative
of the Aryan race, though there is a strong difference of
opinion as to which of them represented the primitive Aryans.
German writers, like Posche and Penka, claim that the tall
dolicho-cephalic race, the ancestors of the present Germans, were
the true representative Aryans; while French writers, like Chavee
and M. de Mortillet, maintain that the primitive Aryans were
brachy-cephalic and the true Aryan type is represented by the Gauls.
Canon Taylor in his 'Origin of the Aryans sums up the controversy
by observing that when two races come in contact, the probability
is that the speech of the most cultured will prevail, and therefore
“it is" he says “an easier hypothesis to suppose that the dolicho-
cephalic savages of the Baltic coast acquired Aryan speech from
their brachy-cephalic neighbours, the Lithuanians, than to suppose,
with Penka, that they succeeded in some remote age in Aryanis-
ing the Hindus, the Romans and the Greeks.”*
Another method of determining which of these four races
represented the primitive Aryans in Europe is to compare the
grades of civilisation attained by the undivided Aryans, as
ascertained from linguistic palæontology, with those attained by
the Neolithic races as disclosed by the remains found in their
dwellings. As for the Palæolithic man his social condition appears
to have been far below that of the undivided Aryans; and Dr.
Schrader considers it as indubitably either non-Indo-European or
pre-Indo-European in character. The Palæolithic man used stone
hatchets and bone needles, and had attained some proficiency in
the art of sculpture and drawing, as exhibited by outlines of various
animals carved on bones &c.; but he was clearly unacquainted

• See Taylor's Origin of the Aryans, p. 243.

PREHISTORIC TIMES. . 17
with the potter's art and the use of metals. It is only in the
Neolithic period that we meet with pottery in the piled villages
of lake-dwellers in Switzerland. But even the oldest lake-dwellers
seem to have been unacquainted with the use of metals and
waggons, both of which were familiar to the undivided Aryans.
No trace of woollen cloth is again found in these lake-dwellings,
even when sheep had become numerous in the Bronze age. But with
these exceptions the culture of the Swiss lake-dwellings is con-
sidered by Dr. Schrader to be practically of the same character
as the culture common to the European members of the Indo-
Germanic family, and he, therefore, ventures to suggest, though
cautiously, that "from this point of view there is nothing to
prevent our assuming that the most ancient inhabitants of Switzer-
land were a branch of the European division" of the Aryan race.*
But though recent discoveries have brought to light these
facts about the human races inhabiting Europe in prehistoric
times, and though we may, in accordance with them, assume
that one of the four early Neolithic races represented the primitive
Aryans in Europe, the question whether the latter were autochth-
onous, or went there from some other place and then succeeded
in Aryanising the European races by their superior culture and
civilisation, cannot be regarded as settled by these discoveries.
The date assigned to the Neolithic period as represented by Swiss
lake-dwellers is not later than 5000 B. C., a time when Asiatic
Aryans were probably settled on the Jaxartes; and it is admitted
that the primitive Aryans in Europe could not have been the de-
scendants of the Palæolithic man. It follows, therefore, that
if we discover them in Europe in the early Neolithic times
they must have gone there from some other part of the
*Dr. Schrader's Prehistoric Antiquities of the Aryan Peoples,
translated by Jevons, Part IV. Ch. xi. p. 368.

18 . THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
globe. The only other alternative is to assume that one of the
four Neolithic races in Europe developed a civilisation quite
independently of their neighbours, an assumption, which is impro-
bable on its face. Although, therefore, we may, in the light of
recent scientific discoveries, give up the theory of successive
migrations into Europe from a common home of the Aryan race
in Central Asia in early times, yet the question of the primeval
home of the Aryan race, a question with which we are mainly
concerned in this book, still remains unsolved. When and where
the primitive Aryan tongue was developed is again another
difficult question which is not satisfactorily answered. Canon
Taylor, after comparing the Aryan and Ural-Altaic languages,
hazards a conjecture that at the close of the reindeer, or the last
period of the Palæolithic age, a Finnic people appeared in
Western Europe, whose speech remaining stationary is represent-
ed by the agglutinative Basque, and that much later, at the be-
ginning of the pastoral age, when the ox had been tamed, a taller
and more powerful Finno-Ugric people developed in Central
Europe the inflexive Aryan speech.* But this is merely a
conjecture, and it does not answer the question how the Indo-
Iranians with their civilisation are found settled in Asia at a time
when Europe was in the Neolithic age. The Finnic language
again discloses a number of culture words borrowed from the
Aryans, and it is unlikely that the language of the latter could
have got its inflection from the Finnic language. A mere similarity
of inflectional structure is no evidence whatsoever for deciding
who borrowed from whom, and it is surprising that the above
suggestion should come from scholars, who have assailed the
theory of successive Aryan migrations from a common Asiatic
home, a theory which, amongst others, was based on linguistic
grounds. Why did the Finns twice migrate from their home is also

• The Origin of the Aryans, p. 296.

PREHISTORIC TIMES. 19
left unexplained. For reasons like these it seems to me more
probable that the Finns might have borrowed the culture words
from the Aryans when they came in contact with them, and that
the Aryans were autochthonous neither in Europe nor in Central
Asia, but had their original home somewhere near the North
Pole in the Palæolithic times, and that they migrated from this
place southwards in Asia and Europe, not by any 'irresistible
impulse,' but by unwelcome changes in the climatic conditions of
their original home. The Avesta preserves traditions which fully
support this view. But these have been treated as valueless by
scholars, who worked up their theories at a time when man was
regarded as post-glacial, and the Avestic traditions were, it was
believed, not supported by any Vedic authority. But with the
time-telescope of a wider range supplied to us by recent scientific
discoveries it has become possible to demonstrate that the Avestic
traditions represent a real historical fact and that they are fully
supported by the testimony of the Vedas. The North Pole is
already considered by several eminent scientific men as the most
likely place where plant and animal life first originated; and I
believe it can be satisfactorily shown that there is enough positive
evidence in the most ancient books of the Aryan race, the Vedas
and the Avesta, to prove that the oldest home of the Aryan people
was somewhere in regions round about the North Pole. I shall
take up this evidence after examining the climatic conditions of
the Pleistocene or the Glacial period and the astronomical
characteristics of the Arctic regions in the next two chapters,

CHAPTER II.
THE GLACIAL PERIOD.
Geological climate—Uniform and gentle in early ages—Due to
different distribution of land and water—Climatic changes in the
Quaternary era—The Glacial epoch—Its existence undoubtedly
proved—Extent of glaciation—At least two Glacial periods—
Accompanied by elevation and depression of land—Mild and
genial Inter-glacial climate even in the Arctic regions—Various
theories regarding the cause of the Ice Age stated—Lyell's theory
of geographical changes—Showing long duration of the Glacial
period—Croll's theory—Effect of the precession of the equinoxes
on the duration and intensity of seasons—The cycle of 21,000
years—The effect enhanced by the eccentricity of the earth's
orbit—Maximum difference of 33 days between the duration of
summer and winter—Sir Robert Ball's calculations regarding
the average heat received by each hemisphere in summer and
winter—Short and warm summers and long and cold winters,
giving rise to a Glacial epoch—Dr. Croll's extraordinary
estimate regarding the duration of the Glacial epoch—Based
on the maximum value of the eccentricity of the earth's orbit
—Questioned by astronomers and geologists—Sir Robert Ball's
and Newcomb's view—Croll's estimates inconsistent with
geological evidence—Opinions of Prof. Geikie and Mr. Hudleston
—Long duration of the Glacial period—Summary of results.
THE climate of our globe at the present day is characterised by
a succession of seasons, spring, summer, autumn, and winter, caused
by the inclination of the earth's axis to the plane of the ecliptic.
When the North Pole of the earth is turned away from the sun in
its annual course round that luminary, we have winter in the
northern and summer in the southern hemisphere, and vice versa
when the North Pole is turned towards the sun. The cause of the
rotation of seasons in the different hemispheres is thus very simple,
and from the permanence of this cause one may be led to think

THE GLACIAL PERIOD. 21
that in the distant geological ages the climate of our planet
must have been characterised by similar rotations of hot and
cold seasons. But such a supposition is directly contradicted by
geological evidence. The inclination of the earth's axis to the
plane of the ecliptic, or what is technically called the obliquity of
the ecliptic, is not the sole cause of climatic variations on the
surface of the globe. High altitude and the existence of oceanic
and aerial currents, carrying and diffusing the heat of the equatorial
region to the other parts of the globe, have been found to produce
different climates in countries having the same latitude. The
Gulf Stream is a notable instance of such oceanic currents, and
had it not been for this stream the climate in the North-West of
Europe would have been quite different from what it is at present.
Again, if the masses of land and water be differently distributed
from what they are at present, there is every reason to suppose
that different climatic conditions will prevail on the surface of the
globe from those which we now experience, as such a distribution
would materially alter the course of oceanic and aerial currents
going from the equator to the Poles. Therefore, in the early
geological ages, when the Alps were low and the Himalayas not
yet upheaved, and when Asia and Africa were represented only
by a group of islands, we need not be surprised if, from geological
evidence of fossil fauna and flora, we find that an equable and
uniform climate prevailed over the whole surface of the globe as
the result of these geographical conditions. In Mesozoic and
Cainozoic times this state of things appears to have gradually
changed. But though the climate in the Secondary and the
Tertiary era was not probably as remarkably uniform as in the
Primary, yet there is clear geological evidence to show
that until the close of the Pliocene period in the Tertiary
era the climate was not yet differentiated into zones and there
were then no hot and cold extremes as at present. The close

22 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
of the Pliocene and the whole of the Pleistocene period was
marked by violent changes of climate bringing on what is called
the Glacial and Inter-Glacial epochs. But it is now conclusively
established that before the advent of this period a luxuriant forest
vegetation, which can only grow and exist at present in the
tropical or temperate climate, flourished in the high latitude of
Spitzbergen, where the sun goes below the horizon from Novem-
ber till March, thus showing that a warm climate prevailed in
the Arctic regions in those days.
It was in the Quaternary or the Pleistocene period that the
mild climate of these regions underwent sudden alterations,
producing what is called the Glacial period. The limits of this
Glacial period may not so exactly coincide with those of the
Pleistocene as to enable us to say that they were mathematically
co-extensive, but, still, in a rough sense we may take these two
periods as coinciding with each other. It is impossible within the
limits of a short chapter to give even a summary of the evidence
proving the existence of one or more Glacial epochs in the
Pleistocene period. We may, however, briefly indicate its nature
and see what the geologists and the physicists have to say as
regards the causes that brought about such extensive changes of
climate in the Quaternary era. The existence of the Glacial
period is no longer a matter of doubt, though scientific men are
not agreed as to the causes which produced it. Ice-sheets have
not totally disappeared from the surface of the earth, and
we can still watch the action of ice as glaciers in the valleys
of the Alps or in the lands near the Pole, like Greenland
which is still covered with a sheet of ice so thick as to make
it unfit for the growth of plants or the habitation of animals.
Studying the effects of glacial action in these places geologists
have discovered abundant traces of similar action of ice in
former times over the whole of Northern Europe and America.
Rounded and scratched stones, till or boulder-clay, and the

THE GLACIAL PERIOD. 23
rounded appearance of rocks and mountains clearly point out
that at one period in the history of our globe northern
parts of Europe and America must have been covered
for a long time with a sheet of ice several hundreds of feet in
thickness. The ice which thus invaded the northern portion
of America and Europe did not all radiate from the Pole. The
evidence of the direction of the striæ, or scratches engraved
on rocks by ice, undoubtedly proves that the ice-caps spread out
from all elevated places or mountains in different directions. These
ice-sheets of enormous thickness covered the whole of Scandinavia,
filled up the North Sea, invaded Britain down to the Thames
valley, greater portion of Germany and Russia as far south as
Moscow and almost as far east as the Urals. It is calculated that
at least a million of square miles in Europe and more in North
America were covered by the debris of rocks ground down by
these glaciers and ice-caps, and it is from this debris that geologists
now infer the existence of an Ice Age in early times. The examina-
tion of this debris shows that there are at least two series of
boulder clay indicating two periods of glaciation. The debris of
the second period has disturbed the first layer in many places, but
enough remains to show that there were two distinct beds of
boulder-clay and drifts, belonging to two different periods. Prof.
Geikie mentions four such Glacial periods, with corresponding
Inter-Glacial periods, as having occurred in succession in Europe
during the Pleistocene period. But though this opinion is not
accepted by other geologists, yet the existence of two Glacial
epochs, with an intervening Inter-Glacial period, is now consider-
ed as conclusively established.
A succession of cold and warm climates must have chara-
cterised these Glacial and Inter-Glacial periods, which were
also accompanied by extensive movements of depression and
elevation of land, the depression taking place after the land
was weighed down with the enormous mass of ice. Thus