Indian Sculpture and Painting, Illustrated by Typical Masterpieces, with an Explanation of their Motives and Ideals c7.274

c7.274

Buddha's own teaching was animated by an intense love of humanity and of nature, though it did not disregard the spiritual life. Thus when Buddhism, like other creeds, fell from the high ideals of its founder and lapsed into superstitious idolatry, it was an idolatry in which human, or semi-human, forms predominated. Orthodox Hinduism, on the other hand, holding aloof from all things of this world, was inclined towards pure symbolism in its ritual, leaving idolatry to the ignorant masses who were incapable of grasping the abstract ideas of its high philosophy.