, at any
rate a parallel development more nearly allied to it than anything in
the Vedic religion.[410] For the Buddhist shrine was a monument built
over a receptacle containing relics and the essential feature of Hindu
temples is a cell containing an image or emblem and generally
surmounted by a tower. The surrounding courts and corridors may assume
gigantic proportions, but the central shrine is never large. Images
had no place in the Vedic sacrifices and those now worshipped in
temples are generally small and rude, and sometimes (as at
Bhuvaneshwar and Srirangam) the deity is represented by a block or
carved stone which cannot be moved, and may have been honoured as a
sacred rock long before the name of Vishnu or Siva was known in those
regions.[411] The conspicuous statues often found outside the shrine
are not generally worshipped and are merely ornaments. Buddhism did
not create the type of ritual now used in Hindu temples, yet it
contributed towards it, for it attacked the old Brahmanic sacrifices,
it countenanced the idea that particular places and objects are holy,
and it encouraged the use of images. It is strange that these
widespread ideas should find no place in the Vedic religion, but even
now-a-days whenever the old Vedic sacrifices are celebrated they are
uncontaminated by the temple ceremonial. More than this, the priests
or Pujaris who officiate in temples are not always Brahmans and they
rarely enjoy much consideration.[412] This curious and marked feature
may be connected with the inveterate Indian feeling that, though it is
well to multiply rites and rules for neophytes, no great respect is
due to men occupied with mere ceremonial. But it also testifies to a
dim consciousness that modern temples and their ceremonies have little
to do with the thoughts and mode of life which made the Brahmans a
force in India. In many ways the Brahmans dissociate themselves from
popular religion. Those of good family will not perform religious
rites for Sudras and treat the Brahmans who do so as inferiors.[413]

The simplest ceremonial in use at the present day is that employed in
some Sivaite temples. It consists in placing leaves on the linga and
pouring holy water over it. These rites, which may be descended from
prehistoric stone worship, are generally accompanied by the reading of
a Purana. But the commonest form of temple ritual consists in treating
the image or symbol as an honoured human being.[414] It is awa