History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c37.6.3

v3.c37.6.3

If we look at the Vedic cult described in the Brāhmaṇas where sacrifices of butter, cakes and boiled rice or other grain are offered to several deities in the fire, or animal and soma sacrifices are described at great length, it is clear that the ancient sages hardly ever thought of the worship of idols, but of deities in the abstract to whom they ascribed different functions and poetically represented them as being endowed like human beings with hands and feet and other limbs. It cannot be denied that here and there occur a few passages that suggest images as objects of worship. For example, in the Tai. Br. II. 6. 17 occurs the passage 'may the hotṛ priest worship the three goddesses, that are golden, that are endowed with beauty (or ornaments) that are great ones' &c. It looks as if golden images of the three goddesses are meant.¹⁶⁹⁰ One can say without much fear of contradiction that the religious practices among the higher strata of the Vedic Aryans did not include the worship of images in the house or in temples. But we have hardly any literary materials for judging what the religious practices of the lower or ignorant masses of Vedic India were. In Ṛg. VII. 21. 5 Vasiṣṭha prays to Indra 'may the *śiśna-devas* not overwhelm our ṛta' (religious order or practices); similarly in Ṛg. X. 99. 3 the prayer is 'may he (Indra) striking (or killing) the *śiśnadevas* overcome them by his form or power'.