Page:Heroes of the hour- Mahatma Gandhi, Tilak Maharaj, Sir Subramanya Iyer.djvu/154

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eminent scholars of the world. He called his work “The Arctic Home of the Vedas.” In it Mr. Tilak located the original home of the ancestors of all civilised nations somewhere in the Arctic regions. To the modern mind which has long been accustomed to believe that the Aryans migrated to the several continents from either Mid-Asia or Mid-Europe this was a revelation and this seems yet to be a revelation. Mr. Tilak's conclusions have not been generally accepted and they have not had the superb fortune of that wonderful “Theory of Black Hole of Calcutta” which vitiated and in certain cases still vitiates Indian history by obtruding into the realm of text-books. It may be hoped however that time will ere long arrive when the researches of the real native Vedic scholar will be accepted as deserving of greater attention than the researches of men whose knowledge of the things that were at the beginning is after all second-hand and thirdhand. One thing however may be taken as a sign that sooner or later Mr. Tilak's Arctic Home in the Vedas will have its influence in the making of historical theories. His methods of critical study have not been questioned. An eminent American scholar Dr. F. W. Warren