History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c33.s5.5

Language: English

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We may pause here a little and reflect upon the superstitious debasement of idolatry into which the Hindus had drifted at this time. It indeed seems to us that the iconoclastic inroads of Mahmud had come upon the Hindus as an eye-opener and as a chastisement. Unfortunately the Hindus did not then take the lesson which these disasters taught them nor have they learnt it even now. This is not a place to enter into the question whether idol-worship is countenanced by the Vedas or whether it is reasonable. There is not the smallest doubt, however, that idol-worship is accepted by Hinduism and perhaps properly accepted as leading to concentration of the mind on the deity. But idol-worship almost always leads the human mind into some superstitious beliefs, especially to the belief that the idol itself possesses the powers of the deity it represents. Belief in the miraculous powers of idols prevailed in ancient times throughout all countries and prevails to this day wherever idol-worship is practised. Buddhism began with almost the denial of the Deity and drifted later into rampant idolatry viz: the worship of the Buddha himself and however learned and philosophic Hiuen Tsang may be, he believed in the miraculous powers of Buddha's relics and Buddha's idols as described in Volume I (p. 103).

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Hindus too amongst whom idolatry was already prevalent to a certain extent and who became still more idolatrous through the example of Buddhism which they supplanted believed to such an extent in the miraculous powers and sanctity of certain idols that the Pratihāra emperors of Kanauj, though powerful enough to capture Multan, were always held back by the threat of the Mahomedan possessors of Multan that if the Hindus advanced they would break the famous sun-idol of Multan (see Vol. II p. 166). Even in the west the Romans and the Greeks who were in advance of other peoples in philosophy believed in the miraculous powers of certain idols. And Christianity in the beginning preached the formless God and often progressed among the pagans by actually proving to the world that no such miraculous powers existed. The frantic but unavailing prayers of the worshippers of Somnath to destroy the sacrilegious conqueror remind us of a similar spectacle at Alexandria about six hundred years before at the demolishing of the idol of Serapis by the order of the emperor Theodosius (389 A. D.), so graphically described by Gibbon. "Alexandria which claimed his peculiar protection gloried in the name of the city of Serapis. His temple which rivalled the pride and magnificence of the capitol was erected on the spacious summit of an artificial mound raised one hundred feet above the level of the city.

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The sacrifices of the pagans prohibited by Theodosius were still tolerated in the city and temple of Serapis owing to the superstitious terrors of the Christians themselves as they feared to abolish these rites which alone could secure the inundation of the Nile, the harvests of Egypt and the subsistence of Constantinople. But at length an explicit order from Theodosius arrived to demolish the temple and the idol. A great number of plates of different metals artificially joined together composed the majestic figure of the deity which touched on either side the walls of the sanctuary. He held in the right hand an emblematic monster the head and body of a serpent branching into three tails terminated by the heads of a dog, a lion and a wolf. It was confidently affirmed that if an impious hand should move to offend the majesty of the god, the heavens and the earth would instantly return to their original chaos. An intrepid soldier armed with a battle-axe ascended a ladder and even the Christian multitude expected with anxiety the result of the combat. He aimed a vigorous blow against the cheek of Serapis and the cheek fell to the ground; but the heavens and the earth continued to preserve their accustomed order and tranquillity. The victorious soldier repeated his blows and the limbs of Serapis broken into pieces were ignominiously dragged through the streets of Alexandria.

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The Nile, though late, with its usual flood fertilized the plains of Egypt and falsified the prediction of false prophets. Many attributed their conversion to this impotence of the tutelary deity of Alexandria".