““The Sanskrit Brihatsamhita, written perhaps in the sixth century, warns, ‘If a Shiva linga, image, or temple breaks apart, moves, sweats, cries, speaks, or otherwise acts with no apparent cause, this warns of the destruction of the king and his territory.’ Acting on this premise that religious images held political power, Hindu kings targeted one another’s temples beginning in the seventh century, regularly looting and defiling images of Durga, Ganesha, Vishnu, and so forth. They also periodically destroyed each other’s temples. Some Hindu kings even commissioned Sanskrit poetry to celebrate and memorialize such actions.””
![“[Ellora] is one of the finely crafted marvels of the real, transcendent Artisan [i.e., God]. —Aurangzeb describing the Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist temples at Ellora” quote by Audrey Truschke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/9ef/audrey-truschke-46674_hinduism_ellora-is-one-of-the-finely-crafted-marv_1522133.jpg)
