The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c19.s6.10

v1.c19.s6.10

It is possible to draw a distinction between the cases of the deities of the plougher and the warrior, and those of the priest. In his case the presence of the deity at the sacrifice may be held to be the cause why the instruments of the sacrifice are treated with so much reverence, while in the former cases the reverence is not due to anything save the essentially valuable character of the objects, and the mystic powers which are deemed by man to lie within them. It is particularly easy to understand how the arrow or even the plough can be regarded as animate: the worship of the priestly implements would thus be rather more fetishistic in origin than real and direct worship of the implements for themselves, and this is perhaps the more accurate manner of considering the question.⁶