The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c32.s4.20

v2.c32.s4.20

For the purpose of protection the use of amulets is very common indeed: it is not indeed quite clear exactly what idea was conceived to be embodied in the use of these amulets. In the opinion of Oldenberg,¹ the view taken of the amulet was, in the first instance, that there was in it a spirit which took its abode therein, but in the period of the Vedic belief the view had been altered by a process of development, so that the effect of the amulet is produced by a substance resident therein.² It is, however, a little difficult to accept this view of the development of ideas. The view that the first element is spirit, and that the belief in the utility of the amulet is due to the view that a spirit is living in it, is unnecessarily refined: the fact, admitted by Oldenberg, that the amulet is not rarely addressed and treated as having an actual spirit in it, is most naturally of all explained by the fact of animatism: the amulet is conceived to be a living substance: only by a natural development of thought is there any element of a non-spiritual substance found. Animism in the strict sense of the word, therefore, need hardly come into operation, in so far as it postulates the belief in a mere detachable spirit.