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 CHAPTER I

THE BUDDHA AS GURU AND AS KING

dictum that the Aryans of Vedic India had no temples needs some qualification, but it seems certain that Vedic ritual on the whole was not idolatrous. Aryan society even in Vedic times included many foreign elements, and the respect shown to the idols of foreigners is shown by the incident of King Dasaratha of Mitanni sending an image of the Assyrian goddess Ishtar to his brother-in-law, the King of Egypt, already referred to. There is one passage in the Mahābhārata which alludes to the idols in the temples of the Kurus, but so far no Aryan images of pre-Buddhist times, or representations of them, have been discovered.

The Buddha maintained the aniconic character of Vedic religion for the very good reason that his teaching was altogether agnostic. The members of the early Buddhist Sangha were as strict in excluding any picture or image of the Blessed One from their stūpas and stūpa-houses as the early Muhammadans were in obeying the injunctions of the Prophet in regard to painting and sculpture. It is not at all probable, however, that this rule was observed as strictly by Buddhist laymen who did not take the vows of the Order. An early legend refers to the Buddha allowing his own portrait to be drawn in silhouette by one of 151