The Arctic Home in the Vedas c16.42.4

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.