The Arctic Home in the Vedas c4.4

c4.4

In some cases, as in that of Greece, the historic period goes back to 1000 B. C., while in the case of Egypt the contemporaneous records, recently unearthed from ancient tombs and monuments, carry back its history upto about 5000 B. C. But in either case the historic period, the oldest limit of which may be taken to be 5000 or 6000 B. C., is preceded by a period of myths and traditions; and as these were the only materials available for the study of prehistoric man up to the middle of the nineteenth century, various attempts were made to systematise these myths, to explain them rationally and see if they shed any light on the early history of man. But, as observed by Prof. Max Muller, "it was felt by all unprejudiced scholars that none of these systems of interpretation was in the least satisfactory." "The first impulse to a new consideration of the mythological problem" observes the same learned author "came from the study of comparative philology." Through the discovery of the ancient language and sacred books of India—a discovery, which the Professor compares with the discovery of the new world, and through the discovery of the intimate relationship between Sanskrit and Zend on the one hand and the languages of the principal races of Europe on the other, a complete revolution took place in the views commonly entertained of the ancient history of the world.¹ It was perceived that the languages of the principal European nations—ancient and modern—bore a close resemblance to the languages spoken by the Brahmans of India and the followers of Zoroaster; and from this affinity of the Indo-Germanic languages it followed inevitably that all these languages must be the off-shoots or dialects of a single primitive tongue, and the assumption of such a primitive language further implied the existence of a primitive Aryan people. The study of Vedic literature and classical Sanskrit by Western scholars thus gradually effected a revolution in their ideas regarding the history and culture of man in ancient times. Dr. Schrader in his work on the *Prehistoric Antiquities of the Aryan Peoples* gives an exhaustive summary of the conclusions arrived at by the methods of comparative philology regarding the primitive culture of the Aryan people, and those that desire to have further information on the subject must refer to that interesting book. For our present purpose it is sufficient to state that comparative mythologists and philologists were in the sole possession of this field, until the researches of the latter half of the nineteenth century placed within our reach new materials for the study of man not only in prehistoric times but in such remote ages that compared with them the prehistoric period appeared to be quite recent.