The Vedic fathers of geology

V

having been destroyed by foreigners and fanatics, who had neither sympathy nor taste for it?.

The Reader, perhaps, will scout and pooh pooh the idea, by asking with-an air of sneer and contempt, “ What! The Vedas and the Puranas contain germs of Geology !! Absurd !!!” But, with all deference, I would here request him to pause, to wait, and to exercise patience, before pronouncing his hasty judgment. For, as rightly observed by Professor Max Muller, “ It is far easier and far more amusing for shallow critics to point out what is absurd and ridiculous in the religion and philosophy of che ancient world than for the earnest student to discover truth and wisdom under strange disguises.” “The Sacred Books of the East are no longer a mere butt for the invectives of missionaries or the sarcasms of philosophers. They have at last

3 Says Mr. Vincent Smith in regard to this, as follows :—“ The political decadence of Magadha never atfected the reputation of the kingdom as the Centre and head-quarters of Buddhist learning, which continued to be cultivated sedulously at Nailand and other places up to the time of the Mahomedan conquest at the close of the twelfth century, when the monasteries with their well-stocked libraries were reduced to ashes.” (The Early History of India. Second Edition. pp, 294-295). Vide also Tod’s Rajasthan Vol. I. p. VIII, IX, XIV, 217. Edition 1880, Third Reprint,