The Development of Hindu Iconography c9.22.2

c9.22.2

then such commonly found expressions as vapuḥ, tanu, rūpa, etc., used in connection with some of the Vedic gods, have particular reference to their images : the word sandṛś, found in some Vedic texts, is one of the oldest expressions most probably denoting an image. Thus argued Bollensen in support of his contention that the images played a very prominent part in the religious practice of the early Vedic Indo-Aryans.¹ S. V. Venkateswara, another exponent of this view, went still further and adduced more textual evidence in its support. While he was engaged in a controversy with Macdonell about the development of early Hindu iconography, carried on in the pages of the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1916, 1917 and 1918, he mentioned, among others, the following passages which contained according to him definite reference to the images of the gods: R. V., I. 21, 2—Indrāgnī śumbhatā naraḥ (men decorate Indra and Agni) ; R. V., VIII. 69, 12—sūrmyaṃ suṣirāmiva (like a hollow tube; Ballantyne has rendered this passage as ‘a beautiful perforated iron image,’ cf. his Mahābhāṣya); Indra is referred to in many Rgvedic passages as *suśipra* (having beautiful cheeks and jaws), Rudra as *kapardin* (wearing braided coil of hair), Vāyu as *darśata* (striking to the eye, beautiful); *R. V.*, IV.