188 L] A Sect of Hindu Dissenters. 155 



dissenters called " Kumbhupatias," who recently made an attack on the 

 Temple of Jaggannath in Puri, with the object of burning the idol of 

 Jaggannath, during which one of them was killed. The Chief Commis- 

 sioner of the Central Provinces gives the following account of the 

 sect. 



" There is a peculiar sect of Hindu dissenters in the Sambulpore dis- 

 trict, known as Kumbhupatias. The word Kumbhupatia is derived from 

 ' kumbhu,' the name of a kind of tree, and ' pat,' the bark of a tree, 

 and the sect is so called because its followers make ropes from the bark of 

 the tree and wear them round their waists. The religion is also known as 

 that of Alekh, and its followers claim revelation as its foundation. Alekh- 

 swamy, the god incarnate, used, it is said, to reside in the Himalayas, but 

 about the year 1864 he came to Malbaharpore in Banki, zillah Cuttack, 

 and revealed the religion professed by the Kumbhupatias to 64 persons, 

 the principal of whom was Govind Dass ; and it is chiefly owing to the 

 exertions of these disciples that the religion was propagated. Alekhswamy 

 (which signifies ' the lord whose attributes cannot be described in writing') 

 removed to Dhenkanal, a feudatory State in Cuttack, where, for three years 

 immediately preceding his death, he led the life of a mendicant and wander- 

 er. Although the religion originated in Cuttack, it spread more rapidly 

 in the district of Sambulpore, and men of all classes and castes, except the 

 Uriya Brahmans, are freely embracing it. It is not so much the peculiari- 

 ty of the rules of any particular caste or sect that tends to increase the 

 number of converts to it as the position in life of the converts themselves : 

 thus in Khinda the people of a whole village embraced the Kumbhupatia 

 religion because the Gaontia had done so. The names of some thirty vil- 

 lages are given as those in which the Kumbhupatias chiefly reside. 



"There are three sects of Kumbhupatias — (1) the Kumbhupatias pro- 

 per, who wear ropes made of the bark of trees ; (2) the Kanapatias, who 

 wear rags ; and (3) the Ashritas or Grosthes, who lead a family life. The 

 first two sects renounce the world and make no distinction of caste. They 

 eat food given by people of any caste, except by a Raja, who is supposed 

 to accumulate his wealth by oppressing and torturing his subjects ; by a 

 Brahman or bhandari, because he accepts gifts made in shradh ceremonies ; 

 by a washerman, because he washes the clothes of all classes of people ; 

 and by a liadi, because his occupation is filthy. The third sect do not 

 renounce the world nor deem celibacy essential, nor are they turned out of 

 caste. They look up to the other two sects as their ' gurus' or spiritual 

 guides, and follow their religion. They bathe in the early morning. 



" Each sect has a separate temple or place of prayer. They believe in 

 one Supreme Being, who is called Alekh ; truthfulness, obedience to spiri- 

 tual guidance, and faith are the principal tenets of their religion. They 

 believe in the existence of the thirty-three crores of Hindu gods and god- 



