The Orion, or Researches into the Antiquity of the Vedas c12.27.2

c12.27.2

188-198) gives a list of about sixty mythological names which may be shewn to be common to Greek and Sanskrit.[*] If so many mythological names can be shewn to be phonetically identical it is impossible to suppose that no songs, celebrating the deeds of these deities, existed in the Indo-Germanic period. Westphal has already proved the existence of poetry in the Indo-Germanic period, and Dr. Kuhn has endeavoured to trace whole formulæ back to the beginning of Indo-European poetry. Verbal coincidences such as, Sk. *pada*, Av. *padha*, Gk. *pous*, all meaning a metrical foot, again point to the same conclusion.[*] The results of comparative Philology, are therefore, not only not inconsistent with, but, on the contrary, corroborate the conclusions we have independently deduced from the astronomical references and allusions recorded in the old Vedic literature. But I would not make my case rest on such grounds. It must be remembered that we have not been speculating in any way about the oldest Vedic periods. Our conclusions have been based on express statements and texts in the Vedic literature and unless the texts themselves are questioned or other more reasonable interpretations suggested, we shall not be justified in disregarding these results, simply because they do not support certain literary hypotheses, guesses, or conjectures, as for instance, those that have been previously referred to in the first chapter. The results of the literary method may be moderate.