Page:The Life of Lokamanya Tilak.djvu/363

 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 authorities. 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