The Vedic fathers of geology

18 Tur Ventc Fararrs or Grotocy.

(स सखवोऽभवत्‌ ), 804 ५३ subsequently gave rise 10 [धा ( यद्ष्स्वापयत सा प्रथिव्यभवत्त । Taittirlya Br. IL. 2-9-1, 3, 4)

After lapse of ages, the Earth gradually began to cool down, evidently by slow and continuous process, the vast effects of which could only have been realized after period of almost incalculable duration. And weeds and lotuses ( ए्थिव्या ओषधयः 1. 7.11. 1 ; सो ऽपङ्यत्‌ पुष्करपर्णं tiga T. Br. I. 1-3-5 ), trilobites and fishes, reptiles and quadrupeds, (अकरोत्स तन्नूमन्यां कल्पादिषु यथा रा । मल्स्यङ्र्मादिकं तद्वद्वाराहं वपुरास्थितः । Vishnu Purina I. 4-7 ), began to swarra and breed, on earth. It was supposed in those stirring intellectual Vedic times, that life was dormant even inthe fluid, when the Earth was ina liquid state. For, it appears from the Taittiriya Aranyaka ( I. 23-3/4 ), that the fluid became a tortoise moving amid the waters ( af @4: al sara-aqa: म शतं सपन्तमतरवीत्‌ । ), 8710 11186 रला Prajdpati or the Creator said to him, “ Thou hasé sprung from my skin and flesh,” the tortoise had then replied to say, ^ No. I was here even before ( नेत्यनर्वात्‌ । पूर्वमेवाडमिहासमिति ।). 1115, 11166078, evidently indicates that life was supposed to be dormant even in the fluid of the deep.

Proceeding further, and going back to the very root of things and the foundation of all, we come to the Rig-Veda, which is admitted4}