Religious Studies 1023E Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Horse Length

• School: Western University
• Department: Religious Studies
• Course: Religious Studies 1023E
• Professor: Jonathan Geen

Document Summary

Temple ritual worship (puja) of the idols: whole new form of hinduism. Consequences: originally not accepted by brahmin priests. Claimed that it wasn"t part of hinduism because it wasn"t in the vedas: brahmins were the ritual experts of the vedas and fire sacrifices. After rise of gods they became temple priests. Had to accept times were changing &they had to adapt: brahmin priests didn"t want to associate with low class people. Temple priests were forced to come in contact with everyone. Idea of the image being inhabited by a god and they can see out of this image: go to the temple to see &be seen by the deities. Go for darshan (seeing) rather than ritual worship. People cannot go and do worship (need temple priests) but they can go for darshan without the help of temple priests. Gods/goddesses images treated like beings because they are believed to embody the gods o. Put to sleep, woken, washed, cared for, dressed.