Govardhana Śila—A Gauḍīya Hallmark: Original and Modern Approaches: Journal of Vaishnava Studies

Abstract

We encounter worship of (or via) stones in many diverse cultures across the world. It is a particularly fascinating phenomenon because
it uniquely exemplifies “aniconic” worship. In contrast to the more prevalent iconic worship of an idol/statue, worship of a sacred stone is
aniconic because the stone does not have visible correspondence to the deity or principle it enables worship of.