234 HINDOO MYTHOLOGY. 



devoured by tigers on the island of Saugor, or other spots 

 near the mouth of that sacred river. 



While over all India the same deities are worshipped, 

 and the same books held sacred, there is still found scope 

 for the love of novelty and the propensity intural to man- 

 kind to separate into sects ; each party esteeming them- 

 selves wiser and holier than the rest of the world. Mr. 

 Wilson even considers the successive books of the Vedas, 

 the Puranas, and the Mahabarat as constituting really 

 new systems, since, amid the veneration expressed for the 

 ancient doctrines and modes of worship, they introduce 

 others essentially different. Zealots in general select some 

 particular deity, of whom, in preference to all others, they 

 profess themselves the votaries. Brama, as already ob- 

 served, notwithstanding his supremacy in the Hindoo pan- 

 theon, does not stand at the head of any sect. Vishnu 

 and Siva, the two powers next to him, divide in a great 

 measure the worship of Indian devotees. The writer just 

 named reckons that among forty-three leading denomina- 

 tions, twenty attach themselves to Vishnu, nine to Siva, 

 four to his wife Doorga, under the name of Saktas, while 

 ten select inferior objects of adoration. The zealous ad- 

 herents of the rival sects of Vishnuvites and Sivites, ad- 

 dicting themselves, according to Indian usage, to pilgrimage 

 and mendicity, rove through the country in large bands, 

 who have a great resemblance to sturdy beggars. These 

 sectaries, exalting to an extraordinary degree the object of 

 their own special' homage, view one another with great an- 

 tipathy, and often engage in violent contention. The 

 symbols and creed of each are on such occasions held up 

 by their opponents to odium and derision. When they 

 meet at Hurdwar, or anv other place of religious resort, the 

 collision becomes formidable, and often ends in bloodshed. 

 But the most important schism is that between the dis- 

 ciples of Brama and the adherents of Boodh. The latter 

 have objects of worship, a creed, ceremonies, and institu- 

 tions entirely peculiar. They are even stigmatized as 

 atheists, not yielding divine honours to any great First 

 Cause, hut solely to deified mortals. The priests of this 

 order reside in spacious convents, where they devote them- 

 selves to celibacy and other observances so closely allied to 

 the Romish church that the less enlightened missionaries 



