The Vedic fathers of geology

Tus Vepic Discoveries In Grotocy. 13

which wereat the time upper-most in the minds of the hoary Bards of the Vedic period, as they apparently seem to be but remmants of some scientific treatise, or of an exhaustive discussion on the subject, at the time.

It would, I think, be convenient for a wide survey of the subject, to begin with the Upanishads and give a few details, as the zealous Rishis of the period seem to have taken very keen interest in geological researches. From the substance of what has been stated in the Taittirtya Samhita, it appears to have been supposed that at the beginning, all was liquid, which was probably considered to be enveloped in gaseous matter, and that this subsequently became transformed into the Earth. ( T. 8. VIL. 1. 5. 1.) आपः ते इदमग्रे सटिलमासीत्‌ । तस्मिन्‌ प्रजापति्वायुशत्वा अचरत्‌ ,...-,...सा पृथिव्यभवत्‌ । (त. सं, ७-१-५-१ ).

The researches of the Tailtirtya Brahmanas vo a step further, and declare that the Marth was at first but a burning globe of gaseous matter ( तस्नाचपनाद्धूमोऽजायत । .--अभिरजायत । ) ; that it subsequently became liquid (स सखंद्राऽभवत्‌ ।); ‘and that (after it gradually cooled down, and became condensed and solid by the consolidated particles of , granite ), it was transformed into the Earth ( सा प्रथिव्यभवत्‌ 1); and then vitality began to make its appearance in the form

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