The Vedic fathers of geology

GEOLOGICAL ANTIQUITY OF THE Vepas. 43

him with it, even before suckling him ( @...strar परि..-आसिचदत्रे \ 1.४. 7. 48. 2). Ail this, therefore, evidently proves the origin of Indva and Soma in AryAvarta,

Now, as regards their age, it may be said that there is equally strong evidence in respect of the very great antiquity of both Soma and Indra, Speaking of Soma first, we find that the Rig- Vedic. Rishis have declared him to be extremely old, saying that he existed even before the sacrifices (यज्ञस्य पूर्न्यः । 1. $. {. 2.10 ). In fact, it seems that even the ancestors of our hoary Rig-Vedie fore-fathers had used Soma for sacrificial purposes ( ववया हि नः पितरः सोम प्र कर्माणि चरः प्रमान धीराः । R. V. EX. 96. 11 ), and the more we look into his antiquity, the more he appears to be old ( एक प्रत्न जन्मना देवो ८ नाम सोमः ) RigVeda. IX. 3.9). As to Indra, it may be mentioned in brief that, even in the Rig- Veda, it is said, while addressing this deity, that there is none superior to, and older than Indra ( at%RS Seay T saat aie वृत्रहच्‌ ! KR. VY. Ly. 30. 1),

These being the very facts, we need not wonder if even the occidental scholars of note admit that Indra and Soma are the highest, the most ancient, and exclusively’ the Hindu or

I I may mention here, that the Zoroastrians were living with us—the Indo-A’ryans—in Asyayarta, before the religicus schism, They, therefore, knew,