The Secret Of The Veda Aurobindo - HolyBooks.com

Modern Theories 31
can throw light upon the problem should be welcome. Three
such contributions have proceeded from Indian scholars. Two
of them follow the lines or the methods of European research,
while opening up new theories which if established, would considerably
alter our view of the external sense of the hymns.
Mr. Tilak in his Arctic Home in the Vedas has accepted the
general conclusions of European scholarship, but by a fresh
examination of the Vedic Dawn, the figure of the Vedic cows
and the astronomical data of the hymns, has established at least
a strong probability that the Aryan races descended originally
from the Arctic regions in the glacial period. Mr. T. Paramasiva
Aiyar by a still bolder departure has attempted to prove that
the whole of the Rig Veda is a figurative representation of the
geological phenomena belonging to the new birth of our planet
after its long-continued glacial death in the same period of terrestrial
evolution. It is difficult to accept in their mass Mr. Aiyar’s
reasonings and conclusions, but he has at least thrown a new
light on the great Vedic mythus of Ahi Vritra and the release
of the seven rivers. His interpretation is far more consistent
and probable than the current theory which is not borne out
by the language of the hymns. Taken in conjunction with Mr.
Tilak’s work it may serve as the starting-point for a new external
interpretation of the old Scripture which will explain much that
is now inexplicable and recreate for us the physical origins if not
the actual physical environment of the old Aryan world.
The third Indian contribution is older in date, but nearer
to my present purpose. It is the remarkable attempt by Swami
Dayananda, the founder of the Arya Samaj, to re-establish the
Veda as a living religious Scripture. Dayananda took as his
basis a free use of the old Indian philology which he found
in the Nirukta. Himself a great Sanskrit scholar, he handled his
materials with remarkable power and independence. Especially
creative was his use of that peculiar feature of the old Sanskrit
tongue which is best expressed by a phrase of Sayana’s, — the
“multi-significance of roots”. We shall see that the right following
of this clue is of capital importance for understanding the
peculiar method of the Vedic Rishis.