Why do Hindus worship a murti, and is it right to call it an idol?
A murti is a sacred image of a deity, made by the rules of tradition. In a temple it is first installed with a rite of consecration (pratishtha, often called prana-pratishtha), through which the deity is held to be present in it. Most Hindus do not take the stone or metal itself to be God. They treat the murti as a form in which God is present and can be served with water, flowers, food and light. The Gita says that even a leaf, a flower, a fruit or water, offered with devotion, is accepted (9.26). The Sanskrit word murti means a form or an image, and this page uses it in place of “idol”. Traditions explain the presence in different ways, and some reform movements use no images.
Written for Pujadeep and checked against the sources listed.
What the schools say
Vaishnava (Pancharatra and Sri Vaishnava)
The Sri Vaishnava tradition names five forms of the Lord: the supreme form (para), the emanations (vyuha), the descents or avatars (vibhava), the inner ruler in every heart (antaryamin), and the archavatara, the Lord present in a consecrated image. In the image the Lord chooses to be near, so that anyone can see and serve him. The murti is worshipped as the Lord himself, not as a picture of him.
Sources for this reading
- Sri Bhagavad-Gita with Sri Ramanujacharya's Visishtadvaita commentary, translated by A. Govindacharya (Madras, 1898) (translator's Cosmological Table after Lecture VII, Explanations (H), p. 258 (leaf n262): the five sub-categories of Isvara, Para, Vyuha, Vibhava, Antaryamitva and Archavatara; also note 1, p. 9 (leaf n25); checked on the page images)
- A. Govindacharya, translator's note 1 on Gita 4.11 in The Bhagavad-Gita with Sri Ramanujacharya's Commentary (1898), calling that verse “an authority for image-worship”; Ramanuja's comment there that the Lord shows himself in whatever form his devotees seek, so that they can see him and enjoy him with every sense. Summarised; checked on the page image. (p. 144 (leaf n154))
- R. G. Bhandarkar, Vaisnavism, Saivism and Minor Religious Systems (Strassburg: Karl J. Trübner, 1913; title page leaf n1), chapter XV, Ramanuja: the five modes of Isvara, the fifth being images set up in houses, villages and towns, “in which he dwells with a body not made up of matter”. Bhandarkar died 1925: public domain. Checked on the page image. (p. 53 (leaf n55))
Advaita (Shankara)
Shankara treats a sacred image or symbol as a support for the mind. Brahman is everywhere, yet a person can hold it more easily in one place; Shankara compares this to the way Hari is contemplated in the sacred salagrama stone. In his commentary on Brahma Sutra 4.1.5, a symbol such as the sun is to be seen as Brahman, and Brahman is not to be reduced to the symbol. The image helps the worshipper; the goal is knowledge of Brahman beyond all form.
Sources for this reading
- Brahma Sutra 1.2.7, Shankara's commentary, in George Thibaut (tr.), The Vedânta-Sûtras with the Commentary by Sankarâkârya, Part I (Sacred Books of the East, vol. 34, Oxford, 1890). Thibaut died 1914: public domain. Summarised in our words. (p. 114 (leaf n243), checked on the page image)
- Brahma Sutra 4.1.4–5, Shankara's commentary, in Thibaut (tr.), Part II (Sacred Books of the East, vol. 38, Oxford, 1896). Public domain. Summarised in our words. (pp. 340–343 (leaves n351–n354); the reply on 4.1.5 is on p. 343)
Shaiva
Shiva is worshipped both in the linga, a form without a human shape, and in images with a human form. The linga is one of the most common objects of worship, in temples and in homes; many homes keep a small natural stone linga, the bana-linga, for daily worship. Like the images of other deities, an image of Shiva in a temple is first set up with a rite of installation (pratishtha), and an old rule stated by Varahamihira even names who should perform it. In 1888 the Kerala reformer Narayana Guru consecrated a linga at Aruvippuram to found a temple open to people of every caste.
Sources for this reading
- T. A. Gopinatha Rao, Elements of Hindu Iconography, vol. 1, part 1 (Madras: The Law Printing House, 1914). Gopinatha Rao died 1919: public domain. Summarised in our words: bana-lingas worshipped in homes on ordinary days (p. 9, leaf n48; described on p. 12, leaf n55); Varahamihira's rule on who performs the pratishtha of each deity's image, Shiva's included (p. 25, leaf n68). Checked on the page images of pp. 9, 12 and 25. (pp. 9, 12 and 25)
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Shiva” (worshipped in temples and private shrines in the form of the lingam, and in images such as Nataraja). Read in the Wayback Machine copy (snapshot October 5, 2026). Cited, not copied.
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Narayana Guru” (in 1888 he consecrated a lingam at Aruvippuram to establish a temple; his temples welcomed people of all castes). Read in the Wayback Machine copy of the article (snapshot May 7, 2026). Cited, not copied.
Arya Samaj and Brahmo Samaj (Dayananda Sarasvati; Ram Mohan Roy)
Some reform movements of the nineteenth century do not worship images. The Arya Samaj, founded by Dayananda Sarasvati, and the Brahmo Samaj, founded by Ram Mohan Roy, hold that God has no form and should be worshipped without one, in prayer and meditation; the Arya Samaj also keeps the Vedic fire rite (havan). Worship through images remains common in Hindu temples and homes.
Sources for this reading
- Lala Lajpat Rai, The Arya Samaj: An Account of Its Origin, Doctrines, and Activities (London: Longmans, Green, 1915): God held to be “formless” (the Samaj's rules, pp. 54–55); Dayananda as an opponent of image-worship (p. 7); the daily Homa and worship by contemplation and prayer (p. 132). Lajpat Rai died 1928: public domain. Read in the OCR of the scan; “formless” checked on the page image. (pp. 7 (leaf n40), 54–55 (leaves n87–n88) and 132 (leaf n167))
- Monier Monier-Williams, Hinduism (London, 1877): Ram Mohun Roy founded the Brahma-samaj on a monotheistic reading of the Veda, and the Adi Samaj “publicly renounced idolatry”; the Arya-samaj of Dayananda. Monier-Williams died 1899: public domain. Summarised; the author's own judgements are not repeated. (pp. 149–150 (leaves n158–n159))
- Trust deed of the Brahmo Samaj (Calcutta, 1830), printed in Sophia Dobson Collet, The Life and Letters of Raja Rammohun Roy, 2nd ed., ed. Hem Chandra Sarkar (Calcutta, 1914; title page leaf n6): the building is for “the worship and adoration of the Eternal, Unsearchable, and Immutable Being”; “no graven image, statue or sculpture, carving, painting, picture, portrait or the likeness of any thing, shall be admitted”; prayers and hymns must tend “to the promotion of the contemplation of the Author and Preserver of the Universe”. The deed's text dates from 1830 (Roy died 1833). Checked on the page image. (p. 160 (leaf n249))
Sources
- T. A. Gopinatha Rao, Elements of Hindu Iconography, vol. 1, part 1 (Madras, 1914): “it is not the object, as such, which is worshipped in reality: the object, whatever it may be, is understood to represent the deity intended to be worshipped”. Gopinatha Rao died 1919: public domain. Supports the sentence that most Hindus do not take the stone or metal itself to be God. (p. 16 (leaf n59))
- The Bhagavadgîtâ with the Sanatsugâtîya and the Anugîtâ, translated by Kâshinâth Trimbak Telang (The Sacred Books of the East, vol. VIII, ed. F. Max Müller) (Bhagavad Gita 9.26 (SBE 8, p. 85, leaf n98), checked on the page image: “Whoever with devotion offers me leaf, flower, fruit, water, that, presented with devotion, I accept from him whose self is pure.”)
- T. A. Gopinatha Rao, Elements of Hindu Iconography, vol. 1, part 1 (Madras, 1914): images worshipped in temples and in private households (p. 9); the rules laid down in the Agamas and the Tantras for the making of images (Introduction, p. 31). Public domain. Checked on the page images. (p. 9 (leaf n48); Introduction, p. 31 (leaf n74))
- Monier Monier-Williams, Brahmanism and Hinduism, 4th ed. (New York: Macmillan, 1891; title page leaf n10): a carved image is “not held sacred until the Brahmans have consecrated it by a long ceremony called Prana-pratishtha”, after which it “is supposed to have filled them with the spirit (prana) of the god they represent” (p. 70); the sixteen acts of homage (upacara) of domestic worship, among them invocation, foot water, bathing, flowers, incense, light (dipa) and food (naivedya) (p. 415). Monier-Williams died 1899: public domain. Diacritics dropped; the author's own judgements are not repeated. Checked on the page images. (p. 70 (leaf n105); p. 415 (leaf n450))
- Monier Williams, A Sanskrit-English Dictionary (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1872; title page leaf n6), the entry murti: “body, form, visible shape … an image, statue, figure, form”. Public domain. Checked on the page image. (p. 786, first column (leaf n817))
More questions
Source and licence
- Our explanation
- Written for this site from the sources listed here, and checked against them. Free to quote with credit.
- Checked
- Checked against the sources listed, October 16, 2026.