The Orion, or Researches into the Antiquity of the Vedas c12.40.3

c12.40.3

The history of the Bible and the Koran shows us that a revelation can be conceived to be made at a particular period of time. If so, the mere fact that it is believed to be revealed does not account for the opinion entertained by the Hindu theological writers that the Veda has come down to them from times beyond the memory of man. Some of these writers lived several centuries before Christ, and it is quite natural to suppose that their opinions were formed from traditions current in their times. The periods of the Vedic antiquity we have determined render such an explanation highly probable. According to the Christian theology, the world was created only about 4000 years before Christ; or, in other words, the notions of antiquity entertained by these Christian writers could not probably go beyond 4000 B. C., and not being able to say anything about the period preceding it, they placed the beginning of the world at about 4000 B. C. The Indian theologians may be supposed to have acted somewhat in the same manner. I have shewn that the most active of the Vedic period commenced at about 4000 B. C., and there are grounds for carrying it back still further. The *form* of the hymns might have been more or less modified in later times;