The Vedic fathers of geology

GEOLOGICAL ANTIQUITY OF THE Vepas. 49

We have already seen that अहि 0" Serpent means 47 or cloud, and Sayana explains the word Ahi as meaning Megha (aétat = मेघानां ॥ R. ४.1. 32.3). In like manner, Vritra also means serpent; while, Indra is designated as the slayer of Vritra, who withholds the waters in the clouds and the necessary rain. Evidently, destruction of Vritra inyolved the fall of rain, and therefore, he was killed by Indra, and the waters in the clouds let off. We also know that the fall of Rain, the rise of the Sun, and the splendour of the Dawn before sunrise, are but the phenomena of Nature, which must haye certainly occurred before the advent of Man ; nay, these perhaps used to occur even from the beginning of things.

But, all this notwithstanding, our Primitive fore-fathers—the oldest ancestors of our RigVedic bards—could but mark, very naturally enough, these phenomena, when only they were able to stand on their own legs, or were able to see and to observe, or to appreciate and to admire. Tt was, therefore, then only, that they thought they had for the first time observed waters dropping from the serpent-like-clouds which had spread over the endless expanse of space hovering over their heads in the sky; which had held off waters within them; and which were only let off on the earth, £ “ॐ pierced through and smitten [भिन्नं