But while the Jewish nation, for instance—regarded so long as the first and oldest in the order of creation—knew nothing of arithmetic and remained utterly ignorant of the decimal scale of notation—the latter existed for ages in India before the actual era. To become certain of the immense antiquity of the Âryan Asiatic nations and of their astronomical records one has to study more than the _Vedas_. The secret meaning of the latter will never be understood by the present generation of Orientalists; and the astronomical works which give openly the real dates and prove the antiquity of both the nation and its science, elude the grasp of the collectors of ollas and old manuscripts in India, the reason being too obvious to need explanation. Yet there are Astronomers and Mathematicians to this day in India, humble Shâstris and Pandits, unknown and lost in the midst of that population of phenomenal memories and metaphysical brains, who have undertaken the task and have proved to the satisfaction of many that the _Vedas_ are the oldest works in the world. One of such is the Shâstri just quoted, who published in _The Theosophist_(643) an able treatise proving astronomically and mathematically that: If the Post‐Vaidika works alone, the Upanishads, the Brâhmanas, etc., down to the Purânas, when examined critically carry us back to 20,000 B.C., then the time of the composition of the _Vedas_ themselves cannot be less than 30,000 B.C., in round numbers, a date which we may take at present as the age of that Book of books.(644) And what are his proofs? Cycles and the evidence yielded by the asterisms. Here are a few extracts from his rather lengthy treatise, selected to give an idea of his demonstrations and bearing directly on the quinquennial cycle spoken of just now. Those who feel interested in the demonstrations and are advanced mathematicians can turn to the article itself, “The Antiquity of the _Vedas_,”(645) and judge for themselves.