Page 266 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

THE NIGHT OF THE GODS 53
whereithe sun was above the horizon during all the days of tho,
year. The science of Vedic mythology, so far as it is developed
at present, also supports the same view. Vritra is said to be a
demon of drought or darkness and several myths are explained
on the theory that they represent a daily struggle between the
powers of light and the powers of darkness, or of eventual triumph
of summer over winter, or of day over night, or of Indra over
watertight clouds. Mr. N~r~yapa Aiyangar of Bangalore has
attempted to explain some of these myths on the astral theory,
showing that the myths point out to the position of the vernal
equinox in Orion, in the oldest period of Vedic civilisation. But
all these theories or methods of interpretation assume that the
Vedic people have always been the inhabitants of the temperate
or the tropical zone, and all these myths and traditions were formed
or developed in such a home.
_ s'uch are the results of the latest researches in Vedic philology,
mytl10logy or calendar, regarding the ancient home of the Vedic
people and the origin and the antiquity of their mythology. But
to a man who is working in the same field, the question whether
we have reached the utmost limjt of our researches naturally
occurs. It is a ;mistake to suppose that all the traditions and
myths, and eyen the deities, mentioned in the :{tig-Veda were the
creation of one period. To adopt a geological phrase, the ~ig­
Veda, o' w~ might even say the whole Vedic literature, is not
arranged into different strata according to their chronological
order, so that we can go on from one stratum to another and
examine each separately. The ~ig-Veda is a book-in which old
things of different periods are so m'xed up that we have to work
long and, patiently before we are able to separate and classify
its contents in chionological order. I have stated before how
qwing to our imperfect knowledge of the ancient man and his
~urrqundings this task is rendered difficult, or even impossible
in some cases. :Sut, -as observed by Prof. Max Muller, it is the-
duty, of each gen~ration of Vedic scholars to reduce as much as
possible the unintelll.gible portion of the ~ig-Veda, so -that With
the advance of scientific knowledge each succeeding generation
~ay, in J this matter, naturally be in a 'better position than its
predeceS-sors. ·The Vedic calendar; " ~o far as we know or the
Vedic mythology may not have, a·s yet, disclosed any indication
of an Arctic h'ome, but underneath the-materials that have been