The Ancient and Medieval Architecture of India: A Study of Indo-Aryan Civilisation c10.29

c10.29

but a popular sentiment like that of hero-worship could be spiritualised and prevented from sinking into gross superstition and idolatry. That was the motive of the ritual represented by the hieratic sculptures of the Asokan stûpas. Hînayâna Buddhism forbade the worship of the great Teacher as a divinity: it permitted the veneration of the symbols which represented the events of His life on earth and the principles of His teaching. It would not tolerate the superstition of Brahmanical sacrificial rites, but it allowed the Vedic altar to be used as a table for the symbols of the Buddhist Law, as a mound upon which to plant the Bodhi tree (fig. 16), or as a casket for the relics of saints.