Page 215 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

2 SAMAGRA TILAK - 2 • THE ARCTIC HOME
6000 B. C., is preceded by a period of myths and traditions; and as
these were the only materials available for the study of prehistoric
man upto the middle of the nineteenth century, various attempts
were made to systematise these myths, to explain them rationally
and see if they shed any light on the early history of man. But as
observed by Prof. Max Muller, " it was felt by all unprejudiced
scholars that none of the e systems of interpretation was in the
least satisfactory. " " The first impulse to a new consideration
of the mythological problem " observes the same learned author,
"came from the study of comparative philology. " Through the
discovery of the ancient language and sacred books of India-a
discovery, which the Professor compares with the discovery of the
new world, and through the discovery of the intimate relation-
ship between Sanskrit and Zend on the one hand and the languages
of the principal races of Europe on the other, a complete revolution
took place in the views commonly entertained of the ancient history
of the world.* It was perceived that the languages of the principal
European nations-ancient and modern-bore a close resem-
blance to the languages spoken by the Brahmans of India and the
followers of Zoroaster; and from this affinity of the Indo-Germanic
languages it followed inevitably that all these languages must be
the off-shoots or dialects of a single primitive tongue, and the
assumption of such a primitive language further implied the
existence of a primitive Aryan people. The study of Vedic litera-
ture and classical Sanskrit by Western scholars thus gradually
effected a revolution in their ideas regarding the history and culture
of man in ancient times. Dr. Schrader in his work on the Pre-
historic Antiquities of the Aryan Peoples gives an exhaustive sum-
mary of the conclusions arrived at by the methods of comparative
philology regarding the primitive culture of the Aryan people,
and those that desire to have further information on the subject
must refer to that interesting book. For our present purpose it is
sufficient to state that comparative mythologists and philologists
were in the sole possession of this field, until the researches of the
latter half of the nineteenth century placed within our reach new
materials for the study of man not only in prehistoric times but
in such remote ages that compared with them the prehistoric
period appeared to be quite recent.

• Set Lectures on the Science of Language, Yol. li, pp. 445-6.