The Arctic Home in the Vedas c16.42

Language: English

c16.42.1

A careful examination of the Rig-Vedic hymns will show that the Vedic Rishis were themselves conscious of the fact that the subject matter of the hymns sung by them was ancient or ante-diluvian in character, though the expressions used were their own productions. We have already referred before to the two sets of Vedic passages, the first expressly saying that the hymns were made, generated or fashioned like a chariot by the Ṛiṣhis to whom they are ascribed, and the other stating in equally unmistakable terms that the hymns were inspired, given or generated by gods. Dr. Muir attempts to reconcile these two contradictory views by suggesting that the different Ṛiṣhis probably held different views; or that when both of them can be traced to the same author, he may have expressed the one at the time when it was uppermost in his mind, and the other at another; or that the Vedic Ṛiṣhis or poets had no very clearly defined ideas of inspiration, and thought that the divine assistance of which they were conscious did not render their hymns the less truly the producation of their own mind.¹ In short, the existence of a human is not supposed to be incompatible with that of the super-human element in the composition of these hymns. But it will be seen that the above reconciliation is at once weak and unsatisfactory.

c16.42.2

A better way to reconcile the conflicting utterances of the Ṛiṣhis would be to make a distinction between the expression, language, or form on the one hand, and the contents, substance, or the subject matter of the hymns on the other; and to hold that while the expression was human, the subject matter was believed to be ancient or superhuman. There are numerous passages in the Ṛig-Veda where the bards speak of ancient poets (pūrve ṛiṣhayaḥ), or ancient hymns (I, 1, 2; VI, 44, 13; VII, 29, 4; VIII, 40, 12; X, 14, 15; &c.); and Western scholars understand by these phrases the poets or hymns of the past generations of Vedic bards, but not anterior to the post-Glacial times. But there are clear indications in the hymns themselves which go to refute this view. It is true that the Vedic bards speak of ancient and modern hymns; but they often tell us that though the hymn is new (navyasī), yet the god or the deity to whom it is addressed is old (pratna), or ancient, (VI, 22, 7; 62, 4; X, 91, 13; &c.) This shows that the 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, evidently meaning that the achievements spoken of in the hymns were traditional and not witnessed by the poet himself;

c16.42.3

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 (prathamâni) or in early times, and the adjectives pûrvyâni and pûrvih are applied to Indra's exploits in I, 11, 3, and I, 61, 13. The achievements of the Ashvins are similarly said to be pûrvyâni in I, 117, 25; and the long list of the exploits given in this hymn clearly shows that the poet is here rather summarising the exploits traditionally known to him than enumerating events witnessed by himself or by his forefathers in the near past. This is also evident from the fact that the ancient Rishis mentioned in the hymns, like the Angirases or Vasishtha, 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 (Devânâm sadhamâdah, VII, 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, therefore, led to the conclusion that the ancestors here spoken of were the ante-diluvian ancestors (nah pûrve pitarah) 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.

c16.42.4

I have pointed out previously that the legend of Aditi and her sons is expressly stated to be a legend of the past age (pûrvyam 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 pûrvyâni or prathamâni, that is, old or ancient. In short, the ancient hymns, poets, or deities, mentioned in the Ṛig-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 observed, 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 remains whether the subject matter of these hymns was of their own creation, and the fact that the deities have been called ancient in contradistinction with the songs offered to them (VI, 62, 4), and are clothed with Polar attributes, at once enables us to solve the question by answering that though the wording of the hymns was new, their subject matter was old, that is, traditionally handed down to the poet from remote ages.

c16.42.5

Thus in a hymn of the tenth Maṇḍala (X, 72, 1-2), the poet desiring to celebrate the births or the origin of gods, thus begins his hymn, “ Let us, from the love of praise, celebrate, in recited hymns, the births of gods,—any one of us who in this later age may see them, (yaḥ pashyâd uttare yuge).” Here we have a distinct contrast between the births of gods on the one hand and the poet who may see the hymn in the later age on the other, evidently meaning that the subject matter of the hymn is an occurrence of the former age (yuga), and that the poet celebrates as he perceives or sees it in the later age. The view that the Vedic hymns, or rather their contents, were perceived and not made by the Ṛiṣhis, derives material support from this statement. A similar expression is also found in VIII, 59, 6, which says “Indra and Varuṇa! I have seen (abhi apashyam) through tapas that which ye formerly gave to the Ṛiṣhis, wisdom, understanding of speech, sacred lore (shrutam), and all the places which the sages created when performing sacrifices.”¹ The notion about the perception of the subject matter of the Vedic hymns is here referred to almost in the same terms in which it is expressed by Vyâsa in the Mahâbhârata verse quoted above;

c16.42.6

and with such express texts before us, the only way to reconcile the conflicting statements about the human and the superhuman origin of the hymns is to refer them to the form and the matter of the hymns respectively, as suggested by Patanjali and other scholars. Dr. Muir notices a passage (VIII, 95, 4-5) where the poet is said to have "generated (ajîjanat) for Indra the newest exhilarating hymn (navîyasîm mandrâm giram), springing from an intelligent mind, an ancient mental product (dhiyam pratnâm), full of sacred truth."¹ Here one and the same hymn is said to be both new and old at the same time; and Dr. Muir quotes Aufrecht to show that gir, that is, expression or wording, is here contrasted with dhî or thought, obviously showing that an old thought (pratnâ dhîh) has been couched in new language (navîyasî gih) by the bard to whom the hymn is ascribed. In other words, the hymn is ancient in substance though new in expression,—a conclusion to which we have been already led on different grounds. We may also cite in this connection the fact that amongst the different heads into which the contents of the Brâhmanas have been classified by Indian divines, we find one which is termed Purâ-kalpa or the rites or traditions of a by-gone age, showing that even the Brâhmanas are believed to contain ante-diluvian stories or traditions.

c16.42.7

The statement in the Taittirîya Samhitâ that "The priests, in old times, were afraid that the dawn would not terminate or ripen into sunshine," is quoted by Sâya-na as an example of Purâ-kalpa, and we have seen before that this can be explained only by supposing it to refer to the Arctic dawn,—an incident witnessable by man only in the inter-glacial times. If the Brâhmanas can be thus shown to contain or refer to the facts of a by-gone age, *a fortiori* the Vedas may, very well, be said to do the same. Thus from whatever side we approach the question, we are irresistibly led, by internal as well as external evidence, to the conclusion that the subject matter of the Vedic hymns is ancient and inter-glacial, and that it was incorporated into the Vedic hymns in post-Glacial times by Ṛishis who inherited the same in the shape of continuous traditions from their inter-glacial forefathers.