Page 216 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

PREHISTORIC TIMES 3

The mythologists carried on their researches at a time when
man was believed to be post-Glacial and when the physical and
geographical surroundings of the ancient man were assumed not
to have been materially different from those of the present day.
All ancient myths were, therefore, interpreted on the assumption
that they were formed and developed in countries, the climatic
or other conditions of which varied very little, if at all from those
by which we are now surrounded. Thus every Vedic myth or
legend was explained either on the Storm or the Dawn theory,
though in some cases it was felt that the explanation was not at
all satisfactory. Indra was only a Storm-God and Vritra the demon
of drought or darkness brought on by the daily setting of the sun.
This system of interpretation was first put forward by the Indian
Etymologists and though it has been improved upon by Western
Vedic scholars, yet upto now it has remained practically unchanged
in character. It was again believed that we must look for the original
home of the Aryan race somewhere in Central Asia and that the
Vedic hymns, which were supposed to be composed after the
separation of the 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 implements found
buried in the various places in Europe the archreologists 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 Quater-
nary era and the high antiquity of man, who was shown to have
lived not only throughout the Quaternary 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 Palreolithic 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