Vedic Mythology c7.s7.16

c7.s7.16

C. Symbols. Material objects are occasionally mentioned in the later Vedic literature as symbols representing deities. Something of this kind (possibly an image) must be meant even in a passage of the RV., in which the poet asks, ‘Who will buy this my Indra for ten cows? When he has slain his foes he may give him back to me’ (4, 2410; cp. 8, 15). References to idols¹⁵ begin to appear in the later additions to the Brāhmaṇas and in the Sūtras¹⁶.