JOURNAL 



OF 



THE ASIATIC SOCIETY 



No. 38.— February, 1835. 



I. - Some Account of a Sect of Hindu Schismatics in Western India, 



calling themselves Rdmsanehi, or Friends of God. By Capt. G. E. 



Westmacott, Asst. to the Gov. Gen's Agent, N. E. Frontier. 

 Of the Mahant or Religious Superiors of the Order. 



Ramcharan, the founder of the Ramsanehis, was a Ramavat Byra- 

 gi, born A. D. 1719*, at Sorahchasen, a village in the principality of 

 Jypur. The precise period, nor the causes, which led him to abjure 

 the religion of his fathers, do not appear : but he steadily denounced 

 idol-worship, and suffered on this account great persecution from the 

 Brahmans. On quitting the place of his nativity in 1 750, he wan- 

 dered over the country, and eventually repaired to Bhilwara, in the 

 Udfpur territoiy, where after a residence of two years, Bhim Singh, 

 prince of that state, and father of the present Rana, was urged by the 

 priests to harass him to a degree which compelled him to abandon the 

 town. 



The then chief of Shahpura, who also bore the name of Bhim 

 Singh, compassionating his misfortunes, offered the wanderer an 

 asylum at his court, and prepared a suitable escort to attend him : the 

 sage, while he availed himself of the courtesy, humbly excused himself 

 from accepting the elephants and equipage sent for his conveyance, 

 and arrived at Shahpura on foot, in the year 1767 ; but he does not 

 seem to have settled there permanently until two years later, from 

 which time, it may be proper to date the institution of the sect. Ram- 

 charan expired in the month of April, 1798, in the seventy-ninth 

 year of his age, and his corpse was reduced to ashes in the great 

 temple at Shahpura. 



* A. Samvat 1776. 



