Page 408 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

VEDIC MYTHS-THE CAPTIVE WATERS 193

Many of the passages cited by me fall under this class; but I
trust that if my interpretations are examined without any bias and
in the light of the latest scientific researches, they will be found to
be far more natural and simple than those in vogue at present.
In some cases no new interpretations, were however, necessary.
The passages have been correctly interpreted; but in the absence
of the true key to their meaning, their real import was either
altogether missed, or but imperfectly understood. In such cases
I have had to exhibit the passages in their true light or colours.
giving in each, my reasons for doing the same. This has
sometimes rendered it necessary to introduce certain topics not
directly relevent to the question in band; but on the whole, I think,
it will be found that I have, as far as possible, tried to confine
myself to the discussion of the direct evidence bearing on the
points in issue and have examined it according to the strict method
of historic or scientific investigation. I did not start with any
preconceived notion in favour of the Arctic theory, nay I regarded
it as highly improbable at first; but the accumulating evidence
in its support eventually forced me to accept it, and in all proba-
bility, the evidence cited in the previous chapters, will, I think,
pro~uce the same impression on the reader's mind.
But the evidence, which I am now going to cite in support
of the Arctic theory, is of a different character. If the ancestors
of the Vedic bards ever lived near the North Pole the cosmical or
the meteorological conditions of the place could not have failed
to influence the mythology of these people; and if our theory
is true, a careful examination of the Veruc myths ought to disclose
facts which cannot be accounted for by any other theory. The
probative value of such evidence will manifestly be inferior to
that of the direct evidt>nce previously cited, for myths and legends
are variously explained by different scholars. Thus Yliska mentions
three or four different schools of interpretation, each of which
rries to explain the nature and character of the Vedic deities in a
different way. One of these schools would have us believe that
many of the deities were real historical personages, who were
subsequently apotheosized for their supernatural virtues or exploits.
Other theologians divide the deities into Karma-devatcZs or tho e
that have been .raised to the divine rank by their own deeds and
AJdna devatds or those that were divine by birth while the Nairuktas
(or the etymologists) maintain that tbe Vedic deities repre ent
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