1835.] Hindu Schismatics in Western India. 75 



directed to examine him on the soundness of his belief, and to make 

 him thoroughly conversant with the tenets on which their religion is 

 founded. Should their report be favourable, the name of the convert 

 is changed, supposing he enter the hierarchy, but not otherwise, and 

 he is received into the order, after undergoing a novitiate of forty days. 



Some brahmans have enrolled themselves, but converts have been 

 made principally from the mahesri* and agarval tribes of baneas. 

 There are no certain accounts of the number of Ramsanehis dispers- 

 ed over Western India ; they abound chiefly in Rajwara and Gujarat, 

 are met with in the neighbourhood of most large cities and towns, such 

 as Bombay, Surat, Hydrabad, Punah, and Ahmedabad, and there are 

 some at Benares. 



When we consider the strict rules by which the ecclesiastics are 

 bound, and the hardships by which they are expected to subdue the 

 body, it is not surprising their number should augment but slowly ; but 

 the superior assured me, they had much increased of late years through 

 the quiet which Western India enjoys under British pi-otection. 



Worship. 



Worship is performed three times a day, but the laity, busied in 

 their worldly avocations, do not all go at one hour, though once seated, 

 they remain in the temple till the service is over. The book of pray- 

 er is always read aloud by a layman, who makes a pause at the end of 

 every second or third verse, to enable the mahant, and in other taber- 

 nacles, a priest of superior acumen, to expound and comment on the 

 texts in the dialect of the country. Not more than six or seven Sabd 

 are read in a day, and continued concordant to order, until the whole 

 have been explained to the congregation ; thus two years are frequent- 

 ly occupied in going through the sacred writings. 



The Sadh rise at midnight, and continue at their devotions until the 

 first watch of the morning (8 a. m.), when the laity attend for a cou- 

 ple of hours, and the service concludes with a couple of Sabd or songs 

 of praise chaunted by females. Mid-day prayer commences at one or 

 two p. m., and lasts for several hours ; and evening service, at which 

 only men are present, begins at dusk, and terminates in an hour, during 

 which time, two arthi or hymns, are sung. As observed in another 

 place, men and women never sing together, and they sit apart in the 

 temples ; and when the priests are alone, they pass hours together in 

 silent abstraction, and at other times, count their beads, repeating at 

 intervals the holy name of Ram. 



* Mahesri from Mahesvar, a name of Mahadeva : both tribes worship the 

 god under different energies. 

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