To me it (i e. The Arctic Home in the Vedas) is significant because it appeared in the midst of the author’s direst persecution when money reputation, influence and everything were at stake, and few men would have had the courage to spare a thought either for sacred books or Arctic Circles.
H. W. Nevinson.
The scholar in politics is either a remarkable failure or an extraordinary success. In the scholar’s temperament, hesitency, lack of strong will-power, im###patience and petulance usually form the chief mgrcdi###ents. His knowledge of men is limited ; his grasp of actualities is imperfect. He has no resourcefulness, very little courage or presence of mind. His personality is weak and he is very rarely a ruler of men. The failure as an administrator of M. Guizot, the celebrated philosopher-historian is a striking illustration of the danger of appointing men of letters at the helm of affairs. Mr. Tilak however was primarily a man of action. His wonderful and luminous scholarship and his versatile and comprehensive genius formed merely the back-ground of a strong-willed, fiery, masterful, soldierly personality. His scholarship illuminated his political leadership with a lustre as rare as it was dazzling ; his political leadership gave his scholarly work a prestige and a significance totally absent in the efforts of mere scholars. If a scholar in politics is a rarity, a scholar-politician finding his way to gaol is still more so; and that, such a man should have lifted his thoughts from the chilling atmosphere of gaol-life and the excru###ciating pain which inevitably attends it, up to the re###gions of ethics and philosophy is, verily a wonder of wonders !
But this was not the only wonder. Mr. Tilak’s every###day life was hardly more favourable to literary pur###suits than his gaol-life. It was a life of storm and stress. It is really surprizing that the din of political controversies enabled him to concentrate his mind on patient and laborious research. His first work, the Orion was planned and written in the midst of Social Reform controversies, the legacy of whose acrimony still abides ; the Arctic Home in the Vedas was com###pleted and published when Mr. Tilak was in the throes of a prosecution which was probably intended to strike at the very basis of his political and social position. It is this peace in the midst of storms and this serenity amid misery and obloquy that proves Mr. Tilak’s " title to something far higher and greater than the honour of mere political leadership " or scholarly \visdom. In him we recognize ‘* the stuff of which the saints and seers of the race are made."
Originality and versatility were the characteristics of Mr. Tilak’s genius. Though he planned writing many books, he actually wrote only three — (i) the Orion (English) (2) the Arctic Home in the Vedas, (English) and (3) The Gila-RaJiasya (Marathi). The theme of each is new and arresting. The Orion takes the antiquity of the Vedas back to 6000 B.C., a claim which Western
336 LOKAMANYA TILAK
scholars have at last grudgingly accepted. The Arctic Home proves that the cradle of the Aryans was not the Caucasus mountain, but the effulgent region of the North Pole. Both these volumes have suggested new view###points and have compelled Sanskritists to revise their estimates regarding the early history of the Aryan race. Mr. Tilak’s commentary on the Gita esta###blishes a new and convincing theory of Karma-yoga, These books are not mere compilations. They strike out a novel line of thought and research. The intellect of Gokhale and Telang was merely assimilative ; that of Tilak and Ranade was original and creative. In the Arctic Home, for instance, Mr. Tilak has given quite new and extremely convincing interpretations of nearly 80 verses in the Rig-veda, besides throwing ample light on more than twice the number. It should be remembered that these verses had baffled students of the Vedas from Sayana of the hoary past to the most recent Sanskrit scholar of Europe or America. Nor was this all. The Vedic Mythology, hitherto explained from Yaska downwards on the Storm or Dawn theory, had presented several knotty problems to the end of the last century and it was reserved for Mr. Tilak to establish the theory of " cosmic circulation of serial waters " by means of which the legends of Indra and Vritra, of Saptavadhri, of Aditi and her seven flourish###ing and one still born son, of Surya’s wheel and of Dirghatamas, became fully intelligible. These studies filled his mind with a thousand and one new and inter###esting ideas regarding the evolution of the Hindu Religion and Philosophy. He was eager to develop these ideas and incorporate them in two or three
TILAK THE SCHOLAR 337
volumes, but he had no hope of being able to do so, un###less, as he humourously said " Government was pleased to send him back to Mandalay for another period of six years. "
Even the perfunctory and casual account he has given in the Arctic Home and the Gita-Rahasya, of the progress of the ancient Aryans in culture, shows that he was gifted with an imagination of a very high order ; Mr. Tilak’s imagination was rather the solid, strong and masculine imagination of a scientist or a philosopher than the poet’s which like " a beautiful and ineffectual angel " beats " in the void, his luminous wings." His short but suggestive article on the " Indian and the Chaldean Vedas " strikes out a new line of investigation not only in comparative philology but in the history of ancient Asia as well. In this article, Mr. Tilak starts with a quotation from the Atharva-Veda wherein he finds several words that look unsanskrit in origin, traces them to the Chaldean Vedas and then gives his arguments regarding inter-communication between India and Chaldea.
Mr. Tilak’s genius was at once comprehensive and subtle. ‘* In one swift gyre " it surveyed the whole extent of the subject in hand ; at the same time there was nothing too minute for its ken. He developed argument after argument, built up theory after theory, with the same enjojmient with which he descended to the exhaustive discussion of the grammatical and philological peculiarities of a word ; after surveying with his intel###lectual teleoscope the rise and progress of philosophical thoughts and systems, he did not disdain with micros###copic minuteness to trace a missing verse from a refer###22S
338 LOKAMANYA TILAK
ence book {e. g. Sankhya-Karikas) or fix the Sanskrit definition of Hindu Epics. This subtlety of intellect enabled him to emend and correctly interpret all the verses of that knotty little book — the Vedanga-Jyotish.
The clarity of his ideas and the rapidity with which he transmitted them to paper were really wonderful. The Arctic Home contains references to nearly 500 learned volumes, and the Gita-Rahasya to nearly twice that number. He spent days, months and years in collecting and analyzing materials for his treatises. But once the materials were fully digested and the skeleton-notes prepared, he took very little time to write or dictate the book. Thus he worked at the Orion for nearly four years, at the Arctic Home for nearly nine, and at the Gita-Rahasya for more than twenty years. But the time he actually took to write these books was incredibly small. The Orion was finished in less than one month and the Arctic Home (about 450 Pages) in about two months. His magnum opus, t^e Gita" Rahasya required only five months. It was written in the winter of 1910-11 at Mandalay.
The Mahabharat (and especially the Gita) and the Rig’veda were Mr. Tilak’s favourite books. While read###ing the Gita in 1889, it occurred to hun " that impor###tant conclusions may be deduced from the statement of Krishna that ’ he was Margashirsha of the months’." This led him to inquire into the primitive Vedic Calen###dar and in 1892 Mr. Tilak sent an essay on this subject to the Ninth Oriental Congress held in London and in the next year (1893) he published in book-form the re###sults of his four years’ researches. In this book, Mr. Tilak abandoned the purely linguistic method of research of
TILAK THE SCHOLAR 339
the Western scholars and adopted the astronomical one about the utility of which those scholars were rather doubtful. The book created a sensation and though it was at first perused with scepticism, still subsequently Max Mullec Weber Jacobi and other Sanskritists had to accept Mr. Tilak’s conclusions and re-adjust their own in the light of Mr. Tilak’s investigations. Dr. Bloom###field the celebrated Professor of Sanskrit, at the John Hopkin’s University referring to the Orion said (1894): — " But a literary event of even greater importance has happened within the last two or three months — an event which is certain to stir the world of science and culture far more than the beatific reminiscences. Some twelve weeks ago, I received from India a small duo###decimo volume, in the clumsy get-up and faulty typo###graphy of the native Anglo-Indian Press. It came with the regards of the author, a person totally unknown to fame. I had never heard his name. * * *. It wiU be understood that the entry of the little volume upon my horizon was not such as to prejudice me in its favour, and secondly, I placed it where it might be reached, without too much effort, in the drowsy after-dinner hour, to be disposed of, along with much second-class matter such as reaches a scholar through the channels of the Postal Union. Nor was the preface ai all en###couraging. The author blandly informs us that the age of the Rigveda, cannot be less than 4000 years before Christ and that the express records of the Hindu anti###quity point back to 6000 before Christ. Having in mind the boundless fancy of the Hindu through the ages and his particularly fatal facility for * taking his mouthful ’ when it comes to a question of numbers.
340 LOKAMANYA TILAK
proposed to myself to continue to turn the leaves of the book with the amused smile of orthodoxy befitting the occassion. But soon the amused smile gave way to an uneasy sense that something unusual had hap###pened. I was first impressed with something leonine in the way in which the author controlled the Vedic lite###rature and the occidental works on the same ; my su###perficial reading was soon replaced by absorbed study, and finally, having been prepared to scoff mildly, I con###fess that the author had convinced me in all the essen###tial points. The book is unquestionably the literary sen###sation of the year ; history, the chronic readjuster shall have her hands uncommonly full to assimilate the result of Tilak’s discovery and arrange her paraphernalia in the new perspective."
After the publication of the Orion, Mr. Tilak carried on correspondence with Prof. Max Muller on various philological and astronomical points. Like some chro###nic fever, the subject pursued him, despite the claims which political work had upon his time and energy. The years 1895-97 were, indeed, some of the busiest years of his life ; but all the same, Vedic chronology formed a strong undercurrent of his thoughts. This was a peculiarity with Mr. Tilak. Frequently he could so withdraw his mind from work, that only the lighter moods occupied him. But when a subject ‘possessed’ him, it gave him no rest, it tormentated him even in his sleep. Before such a powerful concentration it was###no wonder that Saraswati yielded the keys of her treasures. Throughout the busy years of the Poona Congress, the Famine, the Plague, the Councillorship and the Press-prosecutions in the Bombay Presidency^
TILAK THE SCHOLAR 34I
the little leisure he could snatch was given to Vedic •studies. In 1897, he was sentenced to rigorous impri###sonment ; and what time he could get in the Yeravda Jail, was devoted to the continuation of his Vedic re###searches. The first manuscript of the Arctic Home was written at the end of 1898, but Mr. Tilak hesitated to publish the book for a long time " because the hues of investigation had ramified into many allied sciences “Such as geology, archaeology, comparative mythology and so on " and as Mr. Tilak thought himself to be a layman in these, he felt some diffidence as to whether he had " correctly grasped the bearings of the latest re###searches in these siences.” Unable in India to find a University atmosphere where one could get all up-to###date information on any desired subject, the only course open for Mr. Tilak was, in the words of Prof. Max Muller ‘* to step boldly out of his own domain and take an in###dependent survey " of the aUied sciences like Geology, €ven at the risk of being called " an interloper, an ignoramus, a mere dilettante." After completely satis###fying himself on all the different points, Mr. Tilak published the book (1903) which was more favourably received by Western scholars than the Orion.
Like the early editorial writing of Mr. Tilak, the Orion was written in what may be called the scholar’s style. But the Arctic Home is a book which even the lay reader can peruse with enjoyment. The style is smooth, flowing, and extremely lucid, occasionally rising to the heights of philosophical eloquence. The treatment is at once interesting and methodical. After stating the problem in brief, Mr. Tilak treats of the Glacial Period and prores from geological evidence of
342 LOKAMANYA TILAK
fossil, fauna and flora that " in the early geological ages, when the Alps were low and the Himalayas not yet upheaved, and when Asia and Africa were repre###sented only by a group of islands, * * * an equable and uniform climate prevailed over the whole surface of the globe as a result of these geographical conditions." Mr. Tilak then describes the Polar and circumpolar cha* racteristics. The former are : (i) the sun rises in the South (2) the stars do not rise and set but revolve in horizontal planes (3) the year consists only of one long day and one long night of six months each (4) the sun rises and sets only once a year but the twilight, whether of the morning or of the evening lasts continuously for about two mo7iths. The circum-polar characteristics are (i) The sun will always be to the South of the zenith of the observer. (2) A large number of stars are above the horizon, during the entire period of their revolu###tion and hence, always visible. (3) The year is made up of three parts (a) one long continuous night ; (b) one long continuous day (c) a succession of ordinary days and nights. (4) The dawn, at the close of the long continuous night lasts for several days. Mr. Tilak; says " if a Vedic description or tradition discloses any of the characteristics mentioned above, we may safely infer that th6 tradition is polar or circum-polar in origin and the phenomenon, if not actually witnessed by the poet, was at least known to him by tradition faithfully handed down from generation to generation." Mr. Tilak then quotes many such passages and traditions and proves the existence of the Arctic Home. He sup###ports his conclusions by studies in comparative mytho###logy and by quotations from the Avesta “which express
TILAK THE SCHOLAR 343
ly tell us that the happy land of Airy ay a Vaejo or the Aryan Paradise, was located in a region where the sun shone but once a year, and that it was destroyed by the invasion of snow and ice, which rendered its climate inclement.”
Here is an Anglo-Indian estimate of Mr. Tilak’s book. Prof. Fraser, editor of the Indian Education thus writes about the Arctic Home in the Vedas : —
** We regret we cannot enter into a critical review of this book ; but we gladly assist to make it known and pay a short tribute to the clear style in which it is written throughout. All readers will appreciate this; Indian students not least. It is well and carefuUy printed and presented in an attractive cover. Unfortunately^ the binding is very weak and this a great pity in the case of a book which has a permanent value. It is fast###ened with wire instead of being sewn ; this is a feeble sort of binding in any case. In India, the wire soon rusts and this causes the paper to rot and leaves to become loose." Apparently the Une of Addison’s Tom Folio is not yet extinct !
In the course of his Vedic studies Mr. Tilak found that, in spite of the valuable initial help, which the commentators give, it is on the whole better to carry research work in ancient hterature, unfettered by the occasionally wrong lead given by the so-called authori###ties. It was only when Mr. Tilak rejected Sayana on one hand, and Prof. Max Muller on the other that he could make valuable contribution to the interpretation of the Vedas, He tried the same method with the Gita. Hq
344 LOKAMANYA TILAK
was first introduced to this book during his father’s last illness ; at that time Mr. Tilak was barely i6. In the stillness of evening, he would sit by the lamp-side and read out to his father the Gita and its Marathi commentary. The sublime melody of the Gita charmed him and since then he was a devoted student of the Lord’s Song. But, almost from the time of his first perusal of the book, a doubt haunted his mind. The great Shankaracharya has pronounced the Gita to have preached Jnyana, unqualified by Karman. Can it be so ? If yes, how are we to reconcile the fact that Arjuna was moved, by the Lord’s Message, to do that Karman, which had repelled him ? The commenta###tors are silent. Indeed, most of them entirely neglect the first chapter and start their commentaries from the nth verse of chapter second. Wearied by the wrong lead given by the commentators, Mr. Tilak read the original repeatedly without the aid of any commentary, till at last, be found that the Gita, far from being a book of cold philosophy, was a guide for every day life, a master-piece on Karmayoga Shastra. The more did he discuss this subject with contemporary scholars, the more was he convinced of the strength of his contention, until at last he determined to give his researches out to the public. But that was not an easy matter. The anti-Partition agita###tion made Mr. Tilak the leader of All-India Party » and all his time was swallowed up by Politics###He had given up the attempt as hopeless and when in July 1908, he was sentenced to six years’ trans###portation, even the last lingering chance was apparently lost, for no-body ever expected him to
TILAK THE SCHOLAR 345
■survive the dreary period. But the subsequent com###mutation of his sentence to one of simple imprisonment together with the Hterary facihties afforded, en###abled him to undertake the enterprise and within less than twenty months after he was " well settled " at Mandalay, he wrote in a letter as follows : —
" About the Gita, I have finished what I call Gita Rahasya, an independent and original book investiga###ting the purpose of the Gita and showing how our reli###gious philosophy is applied therein to solution of the ethical problem. For, my view of the Gita is, that it is a work on Ethics — not Utilitarian, nor intuitional but transcendental, somewhat on the lines followed in the Green’s ’ Prolegomena to Ethics .’ I have com###pared, throughout, the Gita-philosophy with the West###em, both religious and ethical and have tried to show that our system is, to say the least, not inferior to any of the Western methods. This Rahasya is made up of 15 chapters with an appendix devoted to a critical examination of the ,Gita as part of the Mahabharat and discussing its age etc. * * * j^ ^ill i think fill about 300 or 350 pages. To this a translation of the Gita, according to my view of it, is yet to be appended and I am now engaged on this translation, which, by the bye, is a light task. * * * I believe it will be found to be an entirely -original book like the " Orion “; for so far as I am aware, no one has ventured on such a path before in translating or commenting on the Gita, though I have had this view of the Gita in mind for about the last twenty years and more. I have used all the books that I have here with me
346 LOKAMANYA TILAK
but there are references to works, not with me here, and as these are quoted from memory, they will have to be verified before publishing the book * * * Kant’s ’ Critique of Pure Reason ’ and * Green’s Prole###gomena to Ethics ’ are the main English authorities for my book which is based on the Brahmasutras (Shankara###charya’s Bhashya) and the Mahabharat * * * and it treats in brief, the Hindu Philosophy of active life.”
The book — a ponderous volume of 854 closely-print###ed pages — was, published (1915) a few months after Mr. Tilak was set free. The first edition — 6000 copies — was sold off within a week. The second and third edi###tions were also soon exhausted. The book has been translated into Gujarati, Hindi and Kanarese and Mr. Tilak proposed to get it rendered into Bengali, Telgu, Tamil and other leading vernaculars of India. It was his intention to give out his researches to the Western countries but as that was a work which could not con###veniently be left to mere translators, Mr. Tilak intend###ed to do it himself.
But that was not to be ; nor was this the only literary project he left unfinished. With life and leisure, he would have brought out treatises on (i) The Differential and Integral Calculas (2) The Hindu Law (3) and Politics. Regarding (i) he had collected all the necessary materials and digested them. A few months’ leisure and the book would have been ready. The same remark holds good about his intended book on Politics. His sudden death was a loss not only to the PoUtical but also to the Literary World. Even Mr. Tilak’s opponents will admit that during its life, the University
TILAK THE SCHOLAR 34/
of Bombay has not produced a more versatile or original genius. Its semi-official character may not have enabled it to honour itself by honouring Mr. Tilak. India, however, gratefully recognises that the literary recreation of Mr. Tilak has accomplished far brighter and more enduring results than the works of many a professional Sanskritist.