Page 18 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

INTRODUCTION 5

while some have even COD;9emned the astronomical method as
inaccurate and conjectural. • It is, however, admitted that " if
the astronomical data on which conclusions as to the age of the
Veda have been built implied all that they were represented to
imply, the earliest periods of Vedic poetry will have to be
..
rearranged.t
It appears to me that scholars have erred too much on the
side of overcautiousness in condemning this method. I do not
mean to say that there are no difficulties; but sufficient care does
not appear to have been taken to always keep in view_ the main
point of the inquiry, by separating it from the mas~ of irrelevant
matter, with which, in some cases, it becomes unavoidably mixed
up. Some of :Bentley's speculations for instance, a;e ·@deed in-
genious and suggestive, but he relies too much upon Pura11ic tradi-
tions, mere etymological speculations and his own calculations
based thereon, instead of trying to find out whether there is any-
thing in the earlier works to corroborate or support these traditions.
On the other hand, Prof. Weber's Essay, which, as a collection of
astronomical allusions and references in the Vedic literature, is
extremely valuable, is taken up by the controversy as to the origin
of the Nak~hatras raised by M. Biot; and the same thing may be
said of Prof. Whitney's contributions on the subject.~ Various
other questions, such as whether the Vedic cycle comprised five
or six years, how and when the intercalary days or months were
inserted to make the lunar correspond with the solar year, have
also caused the attention of scholars to be diverted from the broad
astronomical facts and observations to be found recorded in the
Vedic literature; and as a consequence we find that while the
questions as to the original number of the Nak~hatras and as to
whether the Chinese borrowed them from the Hindus or vice versa,
are so ably discussed, no systematic attempt has yet been made to
trace back the astronomical references in the later works to the
Sruphitas, and to fully examine their bearing on the question of the
age and character of the Vedas. On the contrary, Prof. Weber
asks us to reconcile ourselves to the fact that any such search will,

• See 'Vcber's History of Indian Literature, p. z, note.
t Pref. to \lig. Vol. IV, p. lui.
t See his essay on the Hindu and Chinese systems of Aiterisms