Tilak an Eminent Indologist

8/11/2019 Tilak an Eminent Indologist

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4.9 LOKMANYA TILAK ANEMINENT INDOLOGIST

It is not much known that Tilak was also a great scholarand his researches in Indology were widely recognisedby his contemporaries in world.

Lokamanya Tilak's main contribution to Indologyconsists of three principle works viz. (1 The !rion or

"esearches into the #nti$uity of the %edas& ( The#rctic ome in the %edas& and () The *ita "ahasyawhereas (+ %edic ,hronology and the %endanga -yotishcontains his research papers on some topics inIndology. ention should also be made of his editorialson the ahabharata which/testify to his versatilegenius.

I. The Orion

Tilak had realised that western scholars were notprepared to accept a high anti$uity for the %edicliterature/ a0 ueller in particular had assigned the"igveda to about 1 2.,. e had divided the entirevedic literature into four strata viz. the ,hhandas&

antra& 2rahmana and 3utra. These were placed in thechronological order in which the ,hhandas were theearliest to be composed and the 3utra literature wasthe last& and all this was complete before the rise of2uddhism about + 2.,. a0 ueller allowed sometwo centuries for each stage& and thus arrived at 12.,. as the date of the "igveda. The same method wasfollowed by one 4r. ang who assigned 5ve hundred

years for each of the four stages and placed the"igveda in + 2.,. #ccording to him the %edic


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literature developed during +/ 2.,. #ll thisdating by a0 ueller and others was done on thebasis of literary evidence& particularly the style which&however& could reveal only the relative chronologicalposition and no evidence was adduced in support of acalendrical date. Tilak was 6usti5ed in arguing that thismethod was rather vague and uncertain and could atbest be cited as supportive evidence. The entire gamutof %edic literature was thus hanging in a sort ofchronological vaccum.

Tilak was deeply interested in 3anskrit literature&particularly %edic& as also mathematics. It was at thistime precisely that 3hankar 2alakrishna 4ikshitpublished his 2haratiya -yotish 3hastracha Itihas inarathi (istory of Indian #stronomy which is a shininge0ample of Indian scholarship. It demonstrated to theworld how the Indians had made remarkable progressin astronomy in ancient times. 7hen Tilak came acrossa reference in the 2hagwad/*ita that 8rishna was 9theargasirsa of the months& (asanam argasirsoham itimmediately struck him like a :ash that astronomy mayo;er some clue to the dating of the %edas and hetherefore collected the astronomical referencesoccurring in the %edic literature. To his great surprise hewas proved right and he could therefore develop hischronology of the %edic literature. e had given twolectures on it in 1 and later prepared hispaper for the >th !riental ,ongress which was to beheld in London in 1=>& but it became such a longishessay that it was later in 1=>) published in the form ofa separate monograph and only a short summary wasincluded in the as he states in the


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Tilak's theory is baseessentially on the astrono!i"al

e#ien"ee states& ?7e 5nd that the "igveda hymns had alreadybecome anti$uated and unintelligible in the days of the

Taittiriya 3amhita and the 2rahmanas. The Taittiriya3amhita places the vernal e$uino0 in the 8rittikas& and Ihave shown that we must 50 its date at about @2.,. If the hymns of the "igveda were unintelligible at

this time& they must have been sung several centuriesbefore it.?

The e0pression ?I am argasirsa among months?attracted Tilak's attention because he saw in it someclue to the %edic chronology for the simple reason thatthe names of months in the indu calendar are derivedfrom the names of nakshatras.


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the Taittiriya 3amhita.

The e$uino0es are the two days of the year when the3un is directly above the e$uator. #s the earth moves in

its orbit around the sun& the position of the sun changesin relation to the e$uator. The sun appears north of thee$uator between the arch e$uino0 and the 3eptembere$uino0. It Is south of the e$uator between the3eptember e$uino0 and the ne0t arch e$uino0.

This happened in )@ 2.,. 7ith this as a 50ed datum&the various stages of the %edic literature have been

dated by Tilak. #ccording to him& the oldest %ediccalendar& the oldest %edic hymn& was sacri5cial& andtherefore the sacri5ce of the year commenced with#diti at the vernal e$uino0 in or near


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II. The Orion Period (4000 - 2500 B.C.)

This period starts from the time when the vernal

e$uino0 was in the asterism of #rdra (!rion andcontinues upto the time when it receded to theasterism of the 8rittikas. This& according to Tilak& wasthe most important period in the development of the#ryan civilization. It was pre/eminently the period of thehymns which contain a record of the beginning of theyear when several legends were conceived. (e.g. thelegend of %risakapi.

III. The Krittika Period (2500 - 1400 B.C.)

This period begins when the vernal e$uino0 was in theasterism of the 8rittikas and continues upto the periodrecorded in the %edanga -yotish. It was the period ofthe Taittiriya 3amhita and many of the 2rahmanas werecomposed during this period. #ccording to Tilak& ?The

hymns of the "igveda had already become uni$ue andunintelligible by this time and the 2rahmavadinsengaged in speculations about the real meaning ofthese hymns and legends.?D

IV. Pre-Buddhist eriod (1400-500 B.C.)

This was the period when the 3utra literature was

composed.Tilak concludes his theory with the following statement&

?The astronomical method& I admit& is vague in so far asit does not enable us to determine the e0act date of allthe %edic hymns or works& but it is certainly superior tolinguistic method inasmuch as it supplies us withcertain de5nite& undisputed facts& for instance& theposition of the e$uino0es& which can safely be made


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the nuclei of the di;erent periods of anti$uity.''E

e further adds ?thus we 5nd that of all the ancientnations the indus alone had well nigh accurately

determined the rate of the motion of the procession ofthe e$uino0es.?=

Tilak records his debt to the Late


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It will be interesting to e0amine Tilak's theory in thelight of recent archaeological research. undred yearshave passed since Tilak e0pounded his views. In histime the Indus civilization had not been discoveredG butnow we know it in all its glory. It must be stated thatthere are $uite a few who identify it as the civilizationof the %edic #ryans1 although the general opinionseems to assign it to a post/arappan date in the laterhalf of the second millennium 2.,. It may not be out ofplace to mention here that the recent archaeologicaldata have not yielded any evidence for the #ryaninvasion.11oreover& the beginning of the settled life inthe Indian subcontinent now goes back to almost tenthousand years as is clear from the e0cavation atehragh which is located at the mouth of the 2olan


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owever& he could not 5nd the leisure re$uired for sucha serious study in the political and social con:icts inwhich he was engaged at that time. 2ut when he wasimprisoned for sedition in 1=>= he could devote hisattention to this problem. It was at this time that a0ueller& the greatest %edicist had sent him a copy ofthe second edition of the "igveda edited by him. It isinteresting to note that a0 ueller had developedgreat respect for Tilak's scholarship although he did notagree with his theories. #ctually the !0ford


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se$uel to the !rion in which it was unmistakablypointed out that the vernal e$uino0 was in theconstellation of riga or !rion during the period whenthe %edic hymns were composed& and that it hadreceded to the constellation of the 8rittikas or the


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view.

. There were at least two *lacial and one Inter/*lacialperiod& and the geographical distribution of land and

water on the earth during the Inter *lacial period was$uite di;erent from what it is at present.

). There were great vicissitudes of climate in the


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one hundred and ninety four days. The year therefore isthus divided at the + days sunG ED darkness&+E days dawn& += twilight.? 1E

The characteristics of the


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ought to disclose facts which cannot be accounted forby any other theory.?1

In the 1>thcentury much of the evidence in respect of

the #ryan problem was of linguistic nature& and it wason the basis of comparative philology that theoriesabout the anti$uity of the %edas and the originalhomeland of the #ryans were developed. Tilak'sresearches brought in a whi; of fresh air in thisotherwise stale atmosphere for he employedastronomical references in the %edas for dating themwhereas in the #rctic ome& he marshalled evidencenot only of comparative philology but also of geology&archaeology& ethnography and so on.

This in a way is a good illustration of multi/disciplinaryapproach which is very much in vogue at present.

There were a few scholars who agreed with Tilak.#mongst these the foremost was one 4r. . 7. 7arren&the then


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the government to permit him to take some books withhim. It was granted and he has noted in the


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3ankaracharya.

The *ita "ahasya received numerous accolades fromdi;erent $uarters but the most telling was the praise

showered by 3ri #urobindo who found the work ?anoriginal criticism and presentation of ethicalmonumental work& the 5rst prose writing of the frontrank in importance ... and is likely to become aclassic.?@

Tilak wrote the *ita/"ahasya in arathi& and when hisfriends asked him why did he not write in Anglish& he

replied that it is not a piece of research& but was writtenfor the common man who should imbibe the karma/yoga as interpreted by him. oreover& he said that thepeople in the western world are already practicingkarma/yoga and that is why they have prosperedGhence they need not be taught it. 7hen the book was5rst published in 1>1@& the 5rst edition of si0 thousandcopies was sold like hot cakes& and there were $ueues

outside the 8esari oKce in *aikwad 7ada. #lthough avast ma6ority of the people agreed with Tilak'sinterpretation of the *ita& there were some& particularlyin


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4ecember 1>+& and was later contributed to the ". *.2handarkar ,ommemoration %olume. Interestingarchaeological discoveries were being made in 7est#sia at the beginning of the twentieth centurynoteworthy among which were the inscribed tabletsunearthed in large numbers in esopotamia which& ondecipherment& were found to record what scholars haveaptly refereed to as the ,haldean %eda. Tilak had comeacross certain nonsanskrit works in course of his studyof the #tharva %eda. 3ince& according to him& the %edicand the ,haldean civilization were contemporary& theremust have been culture contact between them. eshowed how the word 9mana' was borrowed by the%edic. uch more interesting and ingenious& however&is the similarity in Taimata and Crugula of the #v with

Tiamat and Crgala of the #ccadian legends. Tilak hasdiscussed some other words which throw light on thecontacts between India and 7est #sia in the ancientpast.D

et another paper deals with 9# missing verse in the3ankhya 8arikas'. The 3ankhya 8arika of Ishwarkrishnacontained E verses& but only D> are available. Tilakreconstructed the missing verse on the basis of theevidence of the commentary of *audapadaE. There aresome more papers which have been published in abook entitled %edic ,hronology and %edanga -yotish.

Tilak wrote a series of eight articles in the 8esari on theahabharata& which& though reviewed ,. %. %aidya'smonumental work on the epic& are also important forhis deep insight into the sub6ect. %aidya had dated theahabharat war to about ) 2.,.& but Tilak has veryconvincingly shown that the event in all probabilityoccurred around 1+ 2.,. which date is in agreementwith that proposed by a ma6ority of scholars.=any of

Tilak's editorials display his wide erudition and keenintellect. e wrote on a variety of sub6ects such as


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"amayan& 2ababhatta& %ishnu/sahasranamagnosticism and so on which bear elo$uent testimonyto his versatile genius.

#ll of Tilak's writings are marked by a remarkableclarity of style& forceful language M whether Anglish orarathi M and elegant prose. They also display his wideerudition which is at once interesting and instructiveand is free from cumbersome 6argon. This is obviouslydue to his being basically a teacher of 3anskrit andathematics. e was gifted with an imagination of avery high order and his genius was comprehensive andsubtle. The sheer speed with which he wrote is simplyamazing. e dictated almost a dozen pages at a stretchand worked for over si0teen hours a day. This could bepossible because of his super/abundant energy androbust health which he has ac$uired during his studentdays. e was a true practitioner of the 8armayogawhich& according to him& was the gospel of the *ita.

The great Indian philosopher& 3. "adhakrishnan wrotethat ?his (Tilak's real genius lay in literacy work.? isessay on 9# missing verse in the 3ankhya 8arika' isregarded by scholars as a notable contribution to theinterpretation of the 3ankhya

Tilak an Eminent Indologist

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