History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c33.s5.5.1

v3.c33.s5.5.1

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).