Page 597 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

378 SAMAGRA TILAK - 2 • THE ARCTIC HOME
deities whose exploits were sung in the hymns were considered
to be ancient deities. Nay, we have express passages where not
only the deities but their exploits are said to be ancient, evi-
dently meaning that the achievement spoken of in the hymns were
traditional and not witnessed by the poet himself; thus, in I,
32, 1, the poet opens his song with a clear statement that he is
going to sing those exploits of Indra which were achieved at
first ( prathamani ) or in early times, and the adjective pU,rvydJJ,i
and pU,rvi!z are applied to Indra's exploits in I, 11, 3, and 1, 61,
13. The achievements of the Ashvins are similarly said to be
pU,rvyd1)i in I, 117, 25; and the long list of the exploits given
in this hymn clearly shows that the poet is here rather summa-
rising the exploits traditionally known to him than enumerat-
ing events witnessed by himself or by his forefathers in the near
past. This is also evident from the fact that the ancient ~i~his
mentioned in the hymns, like the Angirases or Vasi~htha, are
believed to have been invested with supernatural powers ( VII,
33, 7- 13 ), or to have lived and conversed with (I, 179, 2) or
shared in the enjoyments of the gods ( Dew.inam sadhamdda!z
VIII, 76, 4 ). They are also said to be the earliest guides
(pathikrit, X, 14, 15) for future generations. It is impossible to
suppose that Vedic poets could have ascribed such superhuman
character to their ancestors in the near past; and we are, there-
fore, led to the conclusion that ancestors here spoken of
were the ante-diluvian ancestors ( na!zpU,rve pitara!z ) who
completed their sacrifices in the Arctic year of 7 or 10 months.
And what is true of the ancestors applies as well to the ancient
deities mentioned in the hymns. I have pointed out previously
that the legend of Aditi and her sons is expressly stated to be a
legend of the past age ( pU,rvyam yugam ) ; and the same thing
may be predicated of the legends of Indra, the Ashvins or the
other deities whose exploits are described in the Rig-
Veda as pU,rvydl)i or prathamani, that is, old or ancient. In short
the ancient hymns, poets, or deities, mentioned in the Rig-Veda
must be referred to a by-gone age and not to post-Glacial times.
The Arctic character of these deities, it may be further observ-
ed, is intelligible only on this view. The Vedic bards may well
be credited with having composed, or fashioned, new songs or
hymns; but the question still rem1ins whether the subject-
matter of these hymns was of their own creation, and the fact