his is the belief of some philosophers of India, one of who is Swami Dayananda Saraswati. Swami Dayananda began to question his faith in idol worship despite being brought up in an orthodox Shaivite family. It was on the auspicious Shivaratri that he had observed mice lingering around the Shiva Lingam of which was so highly worshipped but which now seemed a helpless image. Dayananda couldn't reconcile the aniconic image of Shiva before him and the Great Mahadeva as described in the scriptures. Dayananda condemned the act of idol worship for two main reasons, both seem to root from his reliance on the Veda. The first of his arguments was that idol worship was never mentioned in the Vedas and so there was no justification for doing so. He stated in a pivotal debate at Kashi Shastrartha that, "None of the vedic texts quoted on the favoring of idol worshiphow could they (the rival pundits) show idol worship in the Vedas, when there was none?" (Arya & Shastri 71)And to this, some authors are quick to support, that image making at the time of Vedas was unjustified rather India adopted the form from Buddhists, "The art of idolatry of ancient India (Vedic India) owes its rise to Buddhism" (Shah 1).Dayananda's claim had held true. That is, to some extent. It doesn't seem evident that the act of idol worship is clearly stated in Samhita text of the Veda, as one author supports the fact that in the Vedas:We can scarcely get (in Vedas) such things as consecration or installation of sacred objects(Only in texts) that are affiliated with the Vedas (that is, other texts) can give abundant references to image-worship (Shah 4).That is why we find that upon Dayananda's argument, the Pundits at Kashi Shastrartha had "ultimately side-tracked the issue" (Arya & Shastri 71). Nevertheless, as one examines the Vedas closely, one finds that there is ample evidence that the Vedas do allude to anthropomorphic images of gods and goddesses in the Vedas. For exam...
