The Vedic fathers of geology

12 . Tae Vepic Fatuers or Groroey.

and ignorance of facts, only served to yield very theagre results in respect of the science.

The Upanishads, however, throw guite a flood of light on the geological discoveries of the times. While, the knowledge which the Rishis of the Rigveda period’ show, in respect of the subject, is simply incredible, especially when we take into consideration the fact that the Rishis belonged? to the Tertiary period. I shall, therefore, endeavour to give to the reader some idea of the geological theories then in progress, or vather of a few stray-thoughts and notions,

I It may not be out of place here to remark that, the Rig-Vedic period was evidently a part and parcel of the Tertiary Era, as we shall endeavour to prove in the next chapter ; and the latest discoveries and researches enable us to carry the antiquity of Man to this Epoch, by establishing the fact that he had existed even in the Tertiary Era,

2 In respect of this, Mr. Tilak says as follows :—

“The subject matter of these hymns (of RigVeda ) is inter-glacial, though its origin is still lost in geological antiquity, ( The Arctic Home in the Vedas. PD. 457 ) L

And again he says, “ the ancestors of the Vedic Rishis lived near the North Pole in times before the last Glacial Epoch,” (The Arctic Home in the Vedas. p, 464 )

Sir Charles Lyell has also proved and shown, beyond all possibility of doubt, the existence of the Tertiary Man, in his well-known work—The Antiquity of Jan, Fourth Edition, ( Vide ante p. 5. Foot-Note ).