Page:The Life of Lokamanya Tilak.djvu/355

 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 excruciating pain which inevitably attends it, up to the regions of ethics and philosophy is, verily a wonder of wonders!

But this was not the only wonder. Mr. Tilak's everyday life was hardly more favourable to literary pursuits 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 completed 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