Artic Home of the Aryans by Lokamanya Bal ... - Mandhata Global

403
the dignity of the goddess of the morning; and from this we are asked
to infer that the worship of the dawn was developed only on the
Indian soil. The theory of the Arctic home, however, makes it
impossible to argue in this way. If Vedic deities are clothed with
attributes which are unmistakably polar in their origin, — and in the
case of Ushas, the polar character has been shown to be
unquestionable, — we cannot hold that the legends pertaining to
these deities were developed on the plains of Central Asia. It was
impossible for the Indian priests to conceive or picture the splendors
of the dawn in the way we meet with in the يig-Veda; for it has been
shown that the evanescent dawn, with which they were familiar, is
quite dissimilar in character to the Arctic dawn, the subject of the
Vedic hymns. And what applies to the dawn can be predicated as
well of other deities and myths, e.g., of Indra and Vṛitra or the captive
Waters, of Vishnu hibernating for four months in a year, or of Trita or
the Third going down in a well, or of the Ashvins rescuing or saving
the gods from the temporary affliction to which they were again and
again subjected. These very names may not be found in the Celtic or
the Teutonic mythology, but an examination of the latter has been
found to disclose the same polar characteristics which are possessed
by Vedic deities or myths; and so long as this fundamental
coincidence exists between the two, it is unreasonable to contend
that the mythologies of the different branches of the Aryan race had
no common origin, or that the resemblances between the names of
the deities are more linguistic than mythological. The destruction of
the ancient Aryan home by glaciation and deluge introduces a new
factor in the history of the Aryan civilization; and any shortcomings or
defects in the civilization of the Aryan races, that are found to have
inhabited the northern parts of Europe in the beginning of the
Neolithic age, as distinguished from the civilization of the Asiatic
Aryan races, must now be accounted for as the result of a natural
relapse into barbarism after the great catastrophe. It is true that
ordinarily we cannot conceive a race that has once launched on a
career of