1. Idolatry Non-Vedic As Expressed By Europeans Swami Mangalanda Puri

OM Idolatry Non = Vedic

As Expressed By EUROPEANS

BY

S. Mangal Ananda Pury. cļo Sannyasi Aushadhalaya Caunpore. 1,972,949,031 Creation Era. 1931.A .. D.

II Edition. Price ons and half anna. -/116

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OM

Idolatry Non-Vedic as Express

by Europeans.

PREFACE

( OF II EDITION. )

Though the present tract is a small one; but for its compilation, I have consulted nearly all the European authorities on the subject and have attempted to give here striking passages from them in the bope that they would carry conviction to the readers.

Reviews from the well - known

Scholars of the Arya Samaj.

( A) This is a small tract in which Swami Mangalanand Puri has collected the opinions of European and Indian Sanskrit scholars as well as of some Historiane to show that Idolatry is not sanc-

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tioned in the Vedas. The tract will be very useful in bringing home to such persons as believe that Idol worship is taught in the Vedas, the real vedic teach- ing on the subject. The traet sbould be freely dis- tributed among persons belonging to non-vedic per- suasions. (Sd) Ghasi Ram, M. A. L. I .. B.

Adhishthata Gurukula Brindaban

& President Arya P. N. Sabha U, P.( Meerut )

(B ) Opinion of Babu Shyam Sunderlal B. A., L. L. B., Vakeel, President Arya Samaj Mainpuri.

" Tdolatry Non- Vedic is another tract in English by Swami Mangalanand Pury-The author has quoted a good many European and Asiatic men of letters of admitted authority and world-wide celibrity to establish that the Vedas have no support for idolatry and has by cogent reasons suceeded in convincing that the real origin is in fact Christianity.

The tract is very instructive and interesting and the quotations in it form a very useful and inspiring reading. The author has done well in fixing a very low price for it which is but one anna and six pies only-"

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( C) Shreeman Rao ( Master ) Atma Ram ji Amritsari, one of the best lcaders of the Arya Samaj writes in Hindi :-

" Thanks are due to the antbor of this little tract (Holatry Non-Vedic) which is so good that Sabhas and Samajes sbould distribute its copies to all the college students and thosc of upper classes of the high schools. Though its price is very cheap but as regards its importance it is most valuable tract and will prove most useful to the young Hindu collegeans for their spiritual elevation as it would give them a lesson of worshipping the One Snpreme God, the Nirakara (bodyless) Brabma.

173, Atter Suiya,

( Prayaga ) Allahabad. ( U. P. India ) Mangal Ananda Pury. 1-10-31.

OM Idolatry Non-Vedic.

As Expressed by Europeans

The modern Hindus are Idolworshippers but Swamy Dayananda Saraswaty, the founder of the Aıya Samaj, taught the world that neither the ancient Hindus (Aryas ) were Idol worshippers, nor the Vedas and other authoritative books of the Aryas contain even a single word in fovour of Idolatry.

How far Swamy ji is correct, can be judged from the fact that many other impartial scholars of the Vedas also came to the same conclaeicn, and they too very strongly opposed idolatry. We are. therefore going to give here some quotations from the works of learned European and other well-known ucholars of Sanskrit. We give the reader liberty of self decision but would request him to attach proper importance to the opinions coilected here for his information and guidance.

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CHAPTER-I.

Several Buropeans on Idolatry.

(A ) Sir Monler Williams writes ;-

" It is very doubtful whether idolatry existed* in the time of Manus' - compilation of the Smrity" ( Indian Wisdom Page 226 )

( B) J. I. Wheeler says :-

• They appear to have had no temples but eithor performed their sacrifices in the open air or elsc in a sacrificial chamber set apart iu each dwelling. ". ( Wheeler's History ot India Introduction Page 11 )

*In the present Manu Smrity, in which thongh there are many interpolations, still no mention of Idolworship is to be found. The word " Deeg. mandira " is used, which may give an idea of Dharma-shala, Seminuty etc. (as ' Deva' means . the learned ones, or a place for performing Hacana Yagnya and Sandhya Upasana &e. But certainly there were no idols because there is no trace of it in the text. tThe Ancient Hindns.

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(C ) Professor W. D. Brown says :-

r "And the strongest proofs show to the thoughtful student that the ancient Hindus were neither the practisers of Idolatry nor the unlearned, uncivilised barbaric race. "

( D ) Mr. Mill Says: -

Idolatry is an altogether after-growth: Springing from the minds incapable of entertaining the elevated abstract notions of the premitire creed. The Declension explains itself. The obscuration and weakening of the idea of the Divine unity were indicated firat by the impersonation of the several discoveries made of the Supreme Being in the operations and effects These impersonations were not so many distinct and · independeut deties, but representatives of One and the great Diety contemplated under particular as. pects. " ( Mills' British India, quoted in the Vedic Magazine for May 1918 l'age 117.)

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(B) Again Maxmuller adds that :--

" It has, sometimes, been asserted that the Vedic religion is* extinct in India, that the modern Brab. menic religion, as founded. on the Paranas and. tentras consists in a belief in Vishnu, Shica and' Brabama and manifests itself in the worship of the most hideous idols ". ( Origin and Growth of Re- ligions Page 154. )

(,0 ). Farther on Profesgor Max Maller says :-

" If we conld ask Vashishtha or Vishioamitra or any of the old Aryan Poets, whether they really thought that the san, the goklen ball-which they saw, a,man. with legsand arms, with a heart and lungs; they would, no doubt, laugh at us, and tell us that thopgh we understood their language, we did not

*But our great Swamy Dayananda Saraswaty: did his best to bave the Vedio text explained. prop-v erlv and thereby to regeneraton.the. true Vedio Dharma.

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understand their thoughts."." ( Origin & Growth of Religions Page 275. )

CHAPTER-III.

R. C. Dutt on Idolatry.

Romesh Chandra Dutt, one of the most' distin: guished of Indian Scholars, and by no meahs ad' Arya Samajist, writes :-

('A' )' " There is no 'mention of idols in the Rigveda none of temples or places of worship "

( Civilization of ancient' Indta Vot. 1 Pago 66. by R. C. Dutt. )

*Vashishtha etc, were the the Rishis of the Vedio times: Their names wererecorded on the top of the hymns, known after them. A Rishi is the seer of the mantra.

Such are the thoughts contatned in the Puranas that the Sun, the Moon, the" Matd'and the Saturn" etc. have their bodies. have "got" wives and children" etc. as we have. Here Protessor Max Mulier meinn tovay that such ideas are" not to be tound in the' Vedas.

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( B ) Again R. C. Dutt writes ;-

" And the practieal necessity for Geometrical studies no longer exirted ju tudia when the Hindus began to worship images in the /auranio Age, and the tetting up of sarred 'fires in the worshippers' house was *discontinued, and the construction :of altars was forgotten "

(Civilization of ancient India Vol, 1 Page 269-274);

( C ) Further on he adds thus :-

" ... and knew of no image-worship.

• It is a fact that image worship took the place of Havna and Yujnya for which the sacred fires were preserved. In the Vedic times, deometriral know- ledge was highly needed for construction of altars which were: of different . shapes viz- Rectangular, Pentagonel. Hexagonal and Octagonal &c. when the Hindus instituted Idolatry insteat of the Havana and Yajnya, there; was no necessity of the Rokha. Ganita ((eometry), consequently that science was neglected,

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2. Buddhism generated into idolworsbip in the cent uries after the Christian Kra, and it is impossible not to suspect that modern Hinduism borrowed into imugeworship from Buddhism.

3. It is certain when the code of Manu was com- piled, in the Buddhist age, worship was gaiuing ground, and was condemned by that conservative Law-giver.

4. The worship of images in temples was unknown to Hindus, before the Buddhist revolution; but seeme to bave come into fashion when Buddhism was the prevailing religion.

5. That Manu ..... , indignantly classed temple- priests with vendors of liquor and sellers of *meat.

( Civilisation of Ancient India by R. C. Datt Vol Il Page 189 to 195. )

• The Arya Samajic scholare are sure that there are many interpolations in modern Mans Smriti and that is one of them. Such shlokas were mixed in the text in toe Buddhist period when Idolatry wus institoted, But even from this shloka, it is clear how indignantly the author bates idolatry.

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( D ) " ...... Such in brief is the ceremony of the Agniachana or the fetting up of sacrificial fires, which formed an important duty in the life of every Hindu house-holder in ancient days, when the gods were worshipped by cach man in his fireplace; and temples and idols were unknown, "*

( His Civiligation Vol. I Page 134 )

( E) Regarding the Pilgrimages, R. C. Duttd writes thus -

" Pilgrimages, which were rare or unknown in very ancient times, were organised on a stupendous scalc. The great towns of India were erowned with temples and new gods and new images found sanctuaries in stone cdifice, and in the heartsof ignorant worship pers." ( Civilization Vol: II Tage 195 )

( F ) Further on R. C. Dutt, mentions :- " At the time of Chinese Traveller Hown Trang's arrival in 629 A. D., there was no trace of the modern big temples at Jagannath Puree. " ( Civilisation Vol, (I Page 151. )

*The Italic are ours,

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CHAPTER-IV.

Elphiastone on Idolatry.

( A ) Mr. M. Elphinstone writes ;-

" There seems to have been no images and ne visible types of the objects of worship. " ( Elphinstone's History of India Page 40 ) (B ) Again Mr. Elphinstone says :- " ...... at the same time, they erected no temple and addressed no worship to the true God ... "

(Elphinston's History of India Page 98-94)

(C ) Further on he adds :- " Mr. Colebrooke avowedly confines himself to the five* sacraments which existed in Manu's time; but there is a new sort of worship never allud- ed to in the institutes, which now forms one of the principle duties of every Hindu.

• Five " Mahayajnyas" which are the daily perfor-

Vaishya.) mances of every Dwija ( Brahmna, Kshatriya and

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This is the worship of images before whom many + prostration and other acts of adoration must daily be performed " ( Elphinstone's History of India Page 110) CHAPTER-V.

Wilson on Idolutry.

( 1) Professor H. H. Wilson saye :-

" There is (in the Vedas,) no mention of any temple, nor any reference to public place of wor- ship and it is clear that the worship was entirely domestic. " (Wilson's Rig Veda-Introduction, Volume I, l'age XV ) ( 2 ) Again Professor Wilson adds :- " The name of Siva, of Mahadeva, of Durga of Kali, of Rama, of Krishna never occur, as far as we are yet aware, we have a Rudra, who in after times is identifed with Sioa. " ( 3 ) Again he writes :- (Ibid P. XXVI)

" And there is not the slightest allusion to the form io which, for the last ten centuries at least.

tThrowing down or falling.

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he seems to hare been almost exclusively worshippad in India that of the Linga or Phullus. Niether is there the slightest bint of another important featare of later Ainduism, the Trimurty or tribune com- bination of Brabma, Vishnu and Siva." (Ibid Page XXVII ). ( 4 ) Farther on he remarks :-

" And yet Manu notices no Avatara, no Rama, no Krisbna; and is, consequently, admitted to belong anterior to the growth of their worship as set forth in the Romayana and Mahabharata."'

(Ibid P, XI, XII) ( 5 Mr. Miil quotes H. H. Wilson's opinion following :- " ...... but they (Brahmanas) never, like the priests ... of otber pagan nations, or those of the Jews, conduct- ed publie worship, worship for individuals indiscrimi- nately, worship in temples or make offerings to idols A Brahmana who makes offerings to idols is

feasta." held as degraded and unfit to be invited to religious

(Manu: II 152, 180)-(Mill's Hietory of B. India Vol. Il page 192 F. N.)

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( 6 ) Again Professor H. H. Wilson BAJS :-. . "But the worship of deified heroes is no part of that system, nor are the incarnations of dieties suggested in any other portion of the text, which I have yet seen, though such are sometimes hinted at br the commentators."

" It is also true that the worsbip of the Vedas is for the most part, domestic worship. consisting of prayers and ob lations offered in their own houses, not in temples by individuals, for individual good, and addrersed to unreal presences, not to visible types. " In a word, the religion of the Vedas is not .idolatry." (H. H. Wilsone' Vishnu purana prcface page 111 ) ( 7) Again he remarks :- " ... The want of discrimination betwcen the creature and creator is the usual progress of idolatry. The type becomes mistaken for the proto type: nor is sufficient allowance made for the mysticism that evidently pervades much of the Vedas and gives a character other than literal* to their phrascology." (Mill's History of British India Vol 1 page 392 F. N) * Just as it is stated in the Vedas that the sky is Es heade the Non is His eye, the air His car,

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(8 ) Moreover he romarks :- ...... ... But this practice is modern, Japannatha- himaelf is modern and has no place in the Vaishnava Puranas-It is not improbable that the present shrine attained reputation as a place of pilgrimage no longer ago than a century"* ( Mill's History of British India page 416, F. N.)

CHAPTER-VI.

. Mohammadan Scholars on Idoiatry ..

Now we produce opinions of two most learned Mohammadan gentlemen of medieval India, who

the Earth His foot etc. In such passages surely His ( God's ) shape is not mentioned. He, accord- ing to the Vedas, is Nirakare ( baving no. body or shape ) and hence has.no limbs eye and car etc. But it means that the Almighty Lord is present in each and every being and the whole universe,. if personified, is to be as if a body of that Omnipresent God. . All these are the allegories and metaphors of the Vedic literature. *The Italics are ours.

SALAR JUNG

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also declare that Hinduism has no connection with Idol-worbip :- ( 1 ) Maulana Abul Fazal, the Prin e Minister of Akbar, the Great writes :- "They ( Hindus ) one and all believe in the unity of God - head and although tbey hold images in high veneration, yet they are by no means *idolators as the ignorant suppose.,' ( Ayeen Akbari, translated by F. Godwin Vol VI page 204 ) ( 2 ) Maulana Alberuni, a great Scholar of Arabie and Sanskrit who came into India, with Mahmud of Ghazni in 1024 A. D. writes :- ...... But we declare at once that they (i. e. the Idols) are held only by the common uneducated people. For those who march on the path to liberation' or those, who study l'hilosphy and Theology and who deeire abstract truth which they call sara, are entirely free from worshipping anytbing but uod alone, and would never dream of worsbipping an image manu- factured to represent Him ". ( Alberani's Jndis tsanslated by loctor E. C. Sochou Vol I Chapter Xute26 112-113) *The Italies are onrs.

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(3) Again Maulana Alberuni adds thus :- "Our object in mentioning all this mad raving (about several idole etc.,) was to teach the reader the description of an idol, if he bappens to see one, and to illustrate what we huve said before, that such idols are erected only for uneducated low class people of little understanding, that the Hindus never made an idol of any supernatural being, much less of God."

(Ibid Page 112)

CHAPTER-VII.

Origin of Idolatry is Christianity.

Our Mohammadan and Christian bretheren proclaim that Hinduism is the Chief Origin of "Idolatry" in the world, but surely they are wrong. The above quotations speak for themselves that our ancient fore fathers were not idolators. Swami Rama Tirtha though he was not an European bnt of course who proved a teacher of many Europeans and Americans, asks-

.What brought idolatry into India ? To day the Christian folk tell you that the people are idol- worshippers. But in the voluminous Vedic writings in the writings on Poetry, Grammer, Mathematics.

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Architecture and Music in India, we And not the least reference or allusion to idolatry. Wherefrom then did this Idolatry come? It forms no part cf the religion in India. This idolatry in India came through the Cbristians, People have not read that page of hislory yet. but thie iuvestigation of mine will be issued* in printed form?

"I prove it from external as well as internal eridence, that between the 4th and 5th cent ries after Christ, some Roman Catholic Christians are still present in India to-day. They are called St. Thomas Christians living in the Sonthern part of India. These Christ ans intreduced Idelatry. Then from internal evidence, I prove that the greatest advocate of idolatry, Ramanuja, had for his prereptor one of these St. Thomas Christians The first statue before which these men bowed, l know and we see in this first statve that its face is no oriental one.

"This shows my bleased ones, that the origin of ldolatry is from what you call Christianity. you took it there. The missionaries come to-day denouncing idolatry. pulling it down on the one *Unfortunately his early death prevented him

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hand and on the other they mike these images and sell thein to make money. This is how you ( Christian missionaries ) want to convert those people. Will, these idols, which they make and sell to the people, have a greater force than the Gospel? It is for you to decide."

( In Woods of God-realizrtion Volume II page 311-812 ) On production of so many quotations from Europeane and other Sanskrit Scholars, we need not write much on the subject. The reader can now decide for himself how far an attempt to search out g passage of the Veda in support of idolatry can be successful.

In short, we know that :-

(A) ..... The God of the Old Testament talks with Adam and Eve and eats from the kitchen of Abraham and appears in the clouds to have a talk with Moses.

(B) ...... The God of the Chrietfanity or New Testament can send an angel to canse virgin to become impregnant and thereby have the "ONLY SON" born in the worl

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(C) ..... The God of the Quran is ever ready to appear before Adam, Noah and Abraham.

(D) ...... But the God of the Vedas is One, Who is not confined in any limited arca or in a body, but surely is present every where, in every thing and being.

O Sanatanist Hindu Gentlemen! you bave read the above quotations and come to understaud that it is not only Dayananda who recornmends you to leave Idol-worship but that all others who have gone through the Vedas and other ancient shastras, give you the same idea; and therefore you should please accept the truth as' you know the Upanishads :-

"Truth only will be Victorious." END.