Indian Perception Of History

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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Tilakji is somebody that historians of this ilk generally steer clear off (ok, they acknowledge the dating bit), <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

This is of course wishful thinking on the part of the good professor Tilaks dating of the Rg is acknowledged widely and certainly by Rajaram and Talageri. When Tilak talks about migrations from the arctic he certainly does not imply these were during 1200 BCE but much earlier referring back to an era when the ice age was advancing and to a period of interglacial migrations. Here is the verbatim quote from Talageri,p.363, the Rigveda , a Historical analysis, http://www.bharatvani.org/books/rig/ch8.htm

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->II.A. The Date of the Rigveda and of Vedic Civilization


B.G. (Lokmanya) Tilak, the earliest scholar belonging to this school of interpretation, proved on the basis of astronomical references in the Rigveda, that the composition of the Rigveda commenced around 4500 BC or so, and the bulk of the hymns were composed between 3500 BC and 2500 BC.


However, he was not satisfied with these dates, and he tried to find earlier astronomical references, but without success: “I have, in my later researches, tried to push back this limit by searching for the older zodiacal positions of the vernal equinox in the Vedic literature, but I have not found any evidence of the same.”70


<span style='color:red'>Tilak, therefore, tried to “push back” the date of the civilization represented in the Rigveda, if not of the actual Rigveda itself, by formulating his Arctic homeland theory, according to which Vedic civilization “did not originate with the Vedic bards, but was derived by them from their interglacial forefathers”71 who lived in the Arctic region in the interglacial period which ended around “10000-8000 BC” with “the destruction of the original Arctic home by the last Ice Age.” 1 </span>


Going even further back: “Aryans and their culture and religion cannot be supposed to have developed all of a sudden at the close of the last interglacial period, and the ultimate origin of both must, therefore, be placed in remote geological times… though Aryan race or religion can be traced back to last interglacial period, yet the ultimate origin of both is still lost in geological antiquity.”


Latter-day scholars of this school, however, are less discreet about these dates “lost in geological antiquity”.  S.D. Kulkarni tells us that “our civilization, Vedic or Hindu, has a continuity of more than 31092 years before present.” and he pinpoints “21788 BC as the period, at least, of the origin of the Rigveda.”


For sceptics, Kulkarni adds: “It appears that the scholars simply get awe-struck if any date for any event in the past is fixed to such remote antiquity.  They forget that the creation of this universe is some 200 crores of years old if not more, and the first man has set his foot on this mother earth at least some 60 lac years ago.”

1 AHV


The Arctic Home in the Vedas by B.G. Tilak, Published by The Manager, Kesari, Poona City, 1903.


Ch. 8:70-73, 82-84,1 03-110, 116, 120-122, 131-155, 259.


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That migrations of the human species have happened in history should be of no sruprise to anyone and that Indians were inveterate travellers till about 1000 CE should also be of no surprise.

In any event none of this is to suggest that one person is right and another is wrong when it comes to ancient history. We have much to learn about the Ancients in general and the Vedics in aprticular. The only thing we know now is that Max Mueller pulled the dates of the Rg out of thin air without any justification whatsoever and those are the dates that are accepted as gospel by the unsuspecting youth of India