This was perhaps the root idea of the drama and the representation of sacred or heroic episodes on the stage.
64.

The common life.
Thus, resuming from paragraph 61, primitive man had no difficulty in conceiving of a life as shared between two or more persons or objects, and it does not seem impossible that he should have at first conceived it to extend through a whole species.

[141] A good instance of the common life is afforded by the gods of the Hindu and other pantheons.

Each god was conceived of as performing some divine function, guiding the chariot of the sun, manipulating the thunder and so on; but at the same time thousands of temples existed throughout the country, and in each of these the god was alive and present in his image or idol, able to act independently, receive and consume sacrifices and offerings, protect suppliants and punish transgressors.

No doubt at all can be entertained that each idol was in itself held to be a living god.