1882.] On a sect of Hindu Dissenters. 3 



He lived for a long time in Puri as an Achari Vaishnava, and was known 

 as the Dhula Babaji from the fact of his daubing his body with 

 ashes. 



" 2. About thirty years ago he left Puri and came to Dhenkanal, one 

 of the Tributary States of Cuttack, where he selected as his dwelling-placa 

 the Kapilas hills near a shrine of Mahadev. During the first twelve years of 

 his residence at Kapilas, Mukund Das lived on fruits and accordingly was 

 known as the Phalahari Babaji. The next twelve years were passed on 

 milk and water which secured him the cognomen of Kshira-nira-payi. 



" During his sojourn at Kapilas, he was known to be a devout wor- 

 shipper of the local idol, and took much pains in improving the place by 

 cutting the jungle, making gardens, looking after the Bhog or sacred food of 

 the idol, and taking care of the pilgrims who visit the hills periodically. 

 This procured him the respect of the mother of the late Maharaja of 

 Dhenkanal, who supplied his food. He gradually succeeded in securing the 

 respect of the people of the surrounding villages, and the popular belief 

 was that he was in secret communion with the idol and could successfully 

 intercede with it on behalf of its votaries. The currency of this belief 

 was further facilitated by the fact of his taking special care of the sick 

 people who resorted to Kapilas for the benefit of their health, and very 

 generally succeeded in getting it restored, and his visiting the temple at 

 the dead of night while every one had retired to rest. 



" 3. After thus remaining at Kapilas for several years, and finding that 

 he had sufficiently established his reputation and secured the respect of the 

 people, Mukund Das left the place and began to preach that Mahadev and 

 the other idols worshipped by the Hindus were nothing else but stone and 

 wood, and that the worship of these destructible articles was useless and 

 of no avail, that the Creator of the universe was Alekh or Mahima (which 

 literally means ' glorious') a spiritual Being without form, omnipresent and 

 omniscient, and that he alone could hold communion with him and get his 

 prayers granted. He eschewed his kaupin (waist cloth) and kanthi (wooden 

 beads worn round the neck), the two distinctive features in the raiment of 

 a Vaishnava, and wore kumbhipat (the bark of a tree called kumbhi) to 

 cover his nakedness. 



" 4. From Kapilas, Mukund Das went to Puri, where he remained 

 for some time in a hut on the sands near the temple of Lokanath Mahadev. 

 He next came to Daruteng in tlie Government state of Khorda in Puri 

 where he built a tungi (a place of worship), and commenced to propagate 

 the new doctrine. It was at this place that Mukund Das was deified and 

 began to be addressed as the Mahima Gosain. It appears that one Gobind 

 Das was his first, and Narsing Das his second disciple ; others followed their 

 example, and in course of time all these followers dispersed on all sides for 



