All the dates given to origins of idol worship in India are based on textual evidences only and have textual determinism underlying the dating method. 

If the Indian cultural strands such as the Vedic, which have early textual records do not indicate existence of idol worship in that strand, then it should be reasonable to suspect the source/origin of idol worship in the Indian cultural strands outside these textually recorded ones, i.e., folk cultural traditions outside the Vedic, Buddhist or Jain. 

Though the origin dates of cultural elements of these strands is difficult to establish with certainty, it is equally problematic to rule out a pre-Asokan date of origin of idol worship in these traditions as to conclusively settle a pre-Asokan date for the same. 

On Fri, May 26, 2017 at 12:48 PM, Valerie Roebuck via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:

The idea that image (‘idol’) worship was common in Aśoka's time is surely anachronistic.

Valerie J Roebuck

Manchester, UK

On 26 May 2017, at 07:46, Artur Karp via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:

Dear List, 

From B. R. Ambedkar's address to an international gathering at Colombo (on 5 June 1950): 

<<In India, like the village deity and national deity, there were family deities also who were worshipped through the Brahmins. The priests who used to go for worshipping these deities started influencing the affairs of the State through the queens. Asoka after embracing Buddhism discontinued this practice and removed the idols of such deities. Asoka said, "As I venerate the Buddha, the Enlightened One, there is no need to worship any other deity".>>

The address is quoted in Lella Karunyakara's "Modernisation of Buddhism. Contributions of Ambedkar and Dalai Lama-XIV" Gyan Publishing House, New Delhi 2002, p 225 - without any comment. 

It is quoted again - in a different context, but also without comment - in Himanshu Prabha Ray's "Interpreting the Mauryan Empire: Centralized State or Multiple Centres of Control", in: Grant Parker and Carla Sinopoli eds. Ancient India in its Wider World, University of Michigan 2008, footnote 3. 

And again in 2015, at:

https://drambedkarbooks.com/2015/06/05/5th-june-in-dalit-history-dr-ambedkar-conferred-with-honorary-degree-of-doctor-of-laws-by-columbia-university/ (accessed on 25.V.2017)

Which Aśokan edict could Dr. Ambedkar have had in mind while claiming that Aśoka "removed the idols of such deities"?

Regards, 

Artur Karp (ret.)

Katedra Azji Południowej

Instytut Orientalistyczny

Uniwersytet Warszawski

Polska

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Nagaraj Paturi

 

Hyderabad, Telangana, INDIA.

BoS, MIT School of Vedic Sciences, Pune, Maharashtra

BoS, Chinmaya Vishwavidyapeeth, Veliyanad, Kerala

Former Senior Professor of Cultural Studies

 

FLAME School of Communication and FLAME School of  Liberal Education,

 

(Pune, Maharashtra, INDIA )