Page 587 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

368 SAMAGRA TILAK 2 • THE ARCTIC HOME

origin is as old as the Veda iteslf. Accordingly, when we come to
the Brihma~as and the Upani~hads, we naturally find the same
view prevailing. They tell us that the Rig-Veda proceeded from
Agni (fire), the Yaju!'-Veda from Vayu (wind), and the Sarna-
Verla from Surya (the sun), and that these three deities got their
warmth from Prajapati who practised tapas for the purpose,
( Shat. Brih. XI, 5, 8, I jf; Ait. Brah. V, 32- 34; ChMn. Up. IV,
17, 1 ) ; or that the Vedas are the breathings of the Supreme Being
( B!'ih. Up. II, 4, 10 ); or that Prajapati by means of the eternal
Vach created the Vedas and everything else in this world; and
the same view is met with in the Sm!'itis like those of Manu ( I,
21 -23 ) and others, or in the Puranas, several extracts from which
are given by Dr. Muir in the volume above referred to. It is ad-
mitted that the Vedas, with other things, are destroyed, at the end
of a Kalpa, by the deluge ( pralaya ) which overtakes the world at
the time. But we are told that this does not affect the question
of the eternity of the new Kalpa by Brahma himself after the
grand deluge, and by the ~i~his, who survive, after minor
deluges. The authority generally quoted in support of this view
is a verse from the Mahii.bharata ( Shanti-Parvan, Chap. 210, v. 19)
which says, " The great ~i~his, empowered by SvayambhU (the
self-born), formerly obtained, through tapas (religious austerity)
the Vedas and the Itihasas, which had disappeared at the end of
the (preceding) Yuga. "* The ~ishis are, therefore, called the
seers and not the makers of the Vedic hymns; and the personal
designation of some Shakhas, branches or recensions of Vedas,
as Taittir!ya, Kathaka, etc., as well as the statements in the Vedic
hymns, which say that so and so has made or generated such and
such a hymn, are understood to mean that the particular Sbakha
or hymn was perceived, and only perceived, by the particular
~i~hi or poet. 1t is not, however, till we come to the works of the
authors and expositors of the different schools of Hindu philo-
sophy ( darshanas ) that we find the doctrine of the eternity of
the Vedas subjected to a searching examination; and, as remarked

• The verse is as follows :-~~s~rlmor,. ~ ~f6lr~nor,_ ~: 1
~ ~61 '{_~re-r m~9r II Bhavabhtlti, Utt., I, IS, similarly says in
another connedion :-:or~~ ~ffllf ~t~f 1 ~~"'": ~: ~\~~~qif6 11
~·~ ~\9: ~\IIJfl: I ~·~9 ~iilf#l ~l+rlfr(ir II Also Cf. ~ig. Vlll,
59, 6 quoted infra.