98 THE EEV. H. D. GRISWOLD, M.A., PH.D., ON 



departments, which precludes the mention of persons and 

 places."* 



Thus the method of interpretation is dogmatic and a priori, 

 rather than historical. Indeed, there can be no more vivid 

 commentary on the lack of the historic sense among the 

 Hindus than the fact that the membership of the Arya Samaj 

 embraces a large number of English-educated Indians, many of 

 whom are college-bred, and yet they accept as historical the 

 date 100,960,853,000 years ago as the date of the giving of the 

 Vedas, and regard as scientific that interpretation of the Yedas 

 according to which they constitute a prophetic programme of all 

 the scientific inventions of modern times. One remedy for this 

 state of affairs must surely be along the line of the encourage- 

 ment in the Indian universities of genuine historical study, i.e., 

 the mastery of the methods and canons of historical research, 

 instead of the passive memorizing of untested statements. 

 Enough has been said to show that the doctrines of the founder 

 of the Arya Samaj are based not on the Vedas themselves, but 

 upon an itncritical and unscientific interpretation thereof. 



So much for the Arya doctrine of the Vedas, and of their 

 interpretation. As in every religion, so in the Arya Samaj, 

 the "doctrine of Holy Scripture" is of fundamental import. 

 But while Swarni Dayanand's doctrine of the Vedas is 

 exceedingly open to criticism, it is only fair to say at the same 

 time that he has shown a sound instinct in excluding the later 

 literature of India, e.g., the Puranas and Tantras, from the 

 canon of Sacred Scripture. If any portion of Indian literature 

 deserves to be called sacred par excellence, it is the Upanishads 

 and certain hymns found in the Big Veda, notably those 

 addressed to Varuna. 



The theology of the Arya Samaj is the religious philosophy 

 of the Sankhya-Yoga read into the Vedas and Upanishads. 

 The fundamental principle of the Sankhya is the dualism of 

 Prahriti and Puriisha, matter and soul. The Yoga, or theistic 

 Sankhya, takes one of the innumerable souls recognized by the 

 non-theistic Sankhya and makes it the Supreme Soul. The 

 result is a kind of trinity consisting of God, Soul (or souls) and 

 Matter, each independent and self-existent. God is eternal, so 

 also is each soul, so also is matter. Pandit Ealla Eam, the 

 theologian of the Vegetarian section of the Arya Samaj, refers 

 to this as " the universal trinity recognized by science and 



* The Arya Patrika, October 19tli, 1901. 



