Charles Darwin was born in 1809, in England. He thought of evolution in a new way, in a way no other scientists had been able to do. His two famous books were the ‘Origin of Species’ (1859) and the ‘Descent of Man’ (1871). Before these publications, on the advice of Professor Henslow of Cambridge, he travelled all over the world on a ship called the Beagle. After his travels he wrote many articles on geology, biology, and botany. Before Darwin, in 1801, a French biologist named Lamarck supposed that all animals derived from lower grades of animals. The theory had been approved of, but not well-circulated. Charles Darwin pursued the idea with great tenacity and honest observation in the midst of many contrary and contradictory opinions. He was helped by Huxley, Hooker, Watson, Wallace, Hegel, and many unknown persons in getting his ideas established. He worked hard for materials in support of his ideas on geology, biology and psychology.

 

Darwin’s theory of evolution says that by struggle we evolve or grow. From consolidated life energy atoms, plants and animals have come. From life comes life. Animals feel ego, and the struggle for life after their arrival became even keener.

 

In 1779 Mr. Cook discovered the island of Sandwitch. At that time the population of the island was 3 millions. One hundred years later in 1872 a census revealed only 51,000. Many had been unable to survive the struggle with the environment for existence. Survival in the struggle is evolution.

 

If we can create new things, Nature also can. Due to cross-breeding many new species come into existence. These new species increase their numbers and attempt to survive. For millions of years Nature has been bringing variety to the Earth.

 

According to environmental pressure and resulting activity there is great diversity among the animals. Plants and animals brought to temperate zones from the Arctic regions prefer to survive in conditions resembling those of their arctic origin. But generally speaking, if they fail to adjust to the new conditions, they perish. Some animals are speedy; some, like camels, have long necks; others, like lions, are stout; others, like asses, are slow. All have grown according to the requirements of some ancient environment. Generally our limbs even in one lifetime grow according to the needs placed on them. Unused organs dry up. Thus species are different from each other.

 

Animals have their own language. They call for help in time of danger. Expression of mind is language. Language evolves when there is need for more and new expression of feeling. Instinct also develops in this way. And this development of instinct is what distinguishes one species from another. Because of similarity in form, intellect, and phrenology Darwin decided that monkeys were the ancestors of men. He found resemblance between some low-grade African tribes and the higher apes. In the  ‘Descent of Man’, p. 254-255, Darwin says, “The most ancient progenitors in the Kingdom of vertebrata consisted of marine animals resembling ascidians. These animals probably gave rise to a group of fishes, as lowly organized as lancelet and genoids. From such fish a very small advance would carry us to the amphibians. From these mammoths, monkeys; from the latter at a remote period, man, the wonder and glory of the universe, proceeded.” From these words we can conclude that our ancestors were the gorillas, orang-utangs, and chimpanzees of the monkey family.

 

Planets in the solar system revolve in elliptic orbits. The Earth is one such planet. She and the other planets resulted from a disintegration of the Sun. In the spiral nebula of the heaven there many stars older and stronger than our Sun. These stars were once liquid and gaseous, say the scientists. The Earth was supposedly formed when the heat decreased and gaseous vapors condensed in cloud and rain. By heat eruptions mountains formed; by rain, the rivers and seas.

 

Geology had its beginnings in the last half of the 18th century. James Hutton was its father. In a meeting of the Edinburgh Royal Society in 1781 he announced his findings. According to these findings, the heat of the Earth was the prime factor in creating its different elements. Due to it the mud in the sea formed ore, and hills were heaved into the air. Skeletons of sea animals have been found in the mountains. Before Hutton scientists could offer no explanation of this. Hutton offered the first scientific explanation.

 

From the findings of Hutton other scientists were able to calculate the age of the Earth and its animals. There are skeletons in every layer of the Earth. These skeletons are the zoologist’s minefield. Down to a depth of a million feet skeletons are found. We can guess that animals took birth before the accumulation of one million feet of earth surface! Geologists show certain rocks and skeletons that are more than 60 million years old. The archetypes of animals must be older than that. From comparative figures on the yearly heat of the Earth we can estimate how long it has taken this planet to arrive at her present position. Lord Calvin says the Earth began to form 1000 million years ago, and so it too must be older than that.

 

Granite in Norway is the oldest Earth surface material. Its age is about 1000 million years. Some scientists say the Earth is about 1250 million years old. One professor of geological survey, Dr. Ellsworth of Canada, basing his calculation on formation of silver from radio-active materials, has estimated that the Earth is at least 10,000 million years old. Ordinary geologists have compromised on a figure of about 2000 million.

 

The account of man’s past is twofold: historic and pre-historic. The latter period has been divided into ages: stone, copper, and iron. But the stone Age was sub-divided into paleolithic and neolithic. The difference between these two stone ages was that the neolithic had better stone implements. In the three ages of the pre- historic period man used successfully and successively stone, copper, and iron. But this development was not uniform throughout the world. When Egypt was becoming civilized, Europe was still in the Stone Age. When Greece was in the Iron Age, Italy was still in the Copper. Archeologists have dug up the tools of these three ages. About the same time geologists like Lyell, Evans and Taylor began to number the Earth’s layers as five. These may be charted with their corresponding times.

Layer                                Time

1. Quaternary Present or Post Glacial,

Pleistocene

Pliocene

Miocene

2. Cenozoic              Oligocene

Iocene

 

Cretacean

3. Mesozoic              Jurassic

Triassic

4. Paleozoic
5. Archean

 

In the Archean (oldest) Layer there is no trace of living things. In the fourth or Paleozoic Layer we find backbones of marine animals. From these animals fish developed, and from fish came the amphibians and reptiles of Mesozoic Times. In the Cenozoic Layer are found (in its Oligocene and Iocene Strata) bones of lemur and simia. In the Miocene layers apes occur, and finally in the Pliocene Strata are traces of men. The Pleistocene Period of the Quaternary Layer is another name for the Paleolithic Period. To the Post-Glacial Period is thus left the Neolithic, Copper, and Iron Age.

 

In his ‘Descent of Man’ (p. 240) Darwin says, “It is probable that Africa was formerly inhabited by extinct apes closely allied to the gorilla and chimpanzee, and as these two species are man’s nearest allies, it is somewhat more probable that our early progenitors lived in the African Continent than elsewhere;. but it is useless to speculate on this subject, for two or three anthropomorphous apes nearly as large as a man existed in Europe in the Miocene Age.”

 

Dr. Warren in his book ‘Paradise Found’, said that the origin of man was at the North Pole. Wallace claimed that man had his beginnings in the level ground of Eurasia. And Max Muller was of the opinion that the Iranian Valley was his starting place. Some scientists say that the Aryan, Mongolian, Dravidian, Negro, and Semitic Races developed practically simultaneously. But these races are not found of the same family. They have different progenitors according to the scientists.

 

The Earth is moving in its orbit around the Sun at an angle of 66 ₂¹⁰ inclination to its axis. Due to this angle the Sun’s rays hit the equator at a slant, and the Earth experiences seasons. In the Paleozoic Age there were no seasonal changes. We first find seasonal variations in the Mesozoic and Cenozoic Times. In the Pleistocene period of the Quaternary age we note that the ‘climatic changes were not very marked. After the Pleistocene some change occurred in the Earth, and the climate changed radically. Ice formed around the North Pole. It covered a million square miles including North America, Greenland, Scandinavia, North Sea, England, Germany and Russia up to the Urals. The depth of the ice was thousands of feet. Yet in Pliocene Age just preceding the Pleistocene the North Pole must have been habitable; for we find there traces of men and other creatures in a paleolithic culture stage. The Arctic Ocean is less than 600 feet deep. Geologists say that without seasons there would be no seas. Then in pre-glacial days the Arctic Ocean may have been Arctic Land.

At the North Pole six months at a stretch are without light. Then there are six months of light. In the long dark period the temperature falls radically. Let us speak a little of this Arctic Climate.

 

The horizontal rays of the rising and setting sun last only an hour or two at the Equator, but at the North Pole they last 90-120 days at a stretch. At the Equator they remain till the sun is 16° below the horizon. Then they are lost in the upper atmosphere. In the temperate zones they last longer, and in the Arctic the longest of all. President Dr. Warren of Boston University describes a full arctic year in his book, ‘Paradise Found’ p. 64: “On the 16th March the sun rises, preceded by a long dawn of 47 days; namely, from the 29th January, when the first glimmer of light appears. On the 25th of September the sun sets and after a twilight of 48 days, namely, on the 13th November, darkness reigns supreme; so far as the sun is concerned, for 76 days, followed by one long period of light, the sun remaining above the horizon 194 days. The year therefore is thus divided at the Pole- 194 days of sun, 76 days darkness, 47 days dawn, and 48 days twilight.” Then we can see that in the Arctic Region darkness remains only 2.5 months, not six months. Moreover, in the darkness a current of light known as the Aurora Borealis appears in the sky, making the darkness pleasant. Mr. Herschel, witnessing the arctic year, describes it as spring-like.

 

Famous Balagangadhar Tilok describes in the ‘Arctic Home of The Vedas’, p. 390: “It is upon Vedic passages and legends examined and the avestic evidence discussed that we mainly rely for establishing the existence of the primeval Aryan home in Arctic Regions; when these both are taken together, we get direct traditional testimony for holding that the original home of the Aryans was destroyed by the advent of the Glacial Epoch, and that the Indo-Iranians who were compelled to leave the country migrated southward, and passing through several provinces of Central Asia, eventually settled in the valleys of the Oxus, Indus, Khuba and Rasa, from which regions we see them again migrating-the Indians to the East and the Persians to the West.’

 

Except for Christ and Mohammed all prophets have been born in India. Moreover, countless saints, seers, and sadhus have lived here. After the migration from Central Asia some Aryans settled on the bank of the Indus and thenceforth became known as Indians. They meditated for thousands of years on religion, science, politics, society and literature. They became so mighty that other Aryans could not compete with them. Without undue pride or prejudice we may say that the Aryans of India became superior to all others.

 

In our Purans there is mention of ten Incarnations and therein we feel the pulse of the evolutionary theory. Nabin Chandra has put it in verse:

“First fishes in the seas,

Then crocodiles on the Niles.

And as the muddy banks grew firm,

Trees, bushes, plants and fern.

In time appeared the hungry swine,

And a wonder creature called Man-Lion.

But man of awkward shape could find

No space to live in among his kind.

The Earth was full of beast and bush,

Until Parshuram came and gave a push.

His axe cut clean, the Earth was cleared,

And rejoiced men more when Ram appeared.”

 

We have accepted Darwinism as truth, but his main idea of stages of evolution was announced long ago in the Purans. Geologists say that the Archean Age is the oldest and that there was then no life. We can call the crocodile a development of the serpent. The evolution of fish, crocodiles described in the Purans may be included in the Paleozoic Age of the modern geologists. Mammals are ascribed to the Mesozoic. Later in the Miocene Period of the Cenozoic Age we find ape-man and lion-man, and in the next period called the Pliocene appears man himself. We may put Parshuram, Ramchandra and Sree Krishna in the Post-glacial period. In the Vagavat there is a description of the latest incarnate: “When the world will be guided by destruction, the incarnate will come again to show the way”. It will not be fanciful to compare the ages described in the Purans with those of the modern geologists.

 

Geological Ages	Puranic Ages.
Paleozoic	Ascidian and Amphibian
Mesozoic	Mammalian
Cenozoic	Ape-man, Lion-Man Parshuram, Ramchandra,
Post Glacial	Krishna, Buddha, etc.
	up to the present.

In the Vishnupuran the stages of evolution are described as follows: tree, fish, crocodile, bird, beast, monkey, man. In the ‘Origin of Species’ Darwin wrote, “I believe that animals are descended from, at most, only four or five progenitors, and plants from an equal or lesser number. Analogy would lead us one step farther; namely, to the belief that animals or plants are descended from one prototype.

 

In the Santa Shastra evolution is described as having three regions: a purely spiritual region, a spiritual-material one, and the other a material-spiritual. We can call these regions the finer and the grosser causes of evolution. In the Holy Bible it is written, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” An original Word or Sound therefore is the original cause of both the finer and the grosser worlds, and we shall have to pass through the three stages, with the help of the original vibration, to reach the Supreme. This is what religion says. Following this path, men generally become more godly. Man passes through different stages of youth and middle age before he becomes an old man. In this civilization we may have deviated from the source of life, but there are stages for us through which to evolve and feel our ceaseless, intrepid expansion toward the One. The Purans declare the present civilization as the best of all. Who will say them nay?