460 Notes on the " Mahapurushyas." [No. 6. 



rulers of the country, the remainder have no endowment, but they are 

 nevertheless maintained in much better order than the generality 

 of Shostros and temples to which extensive grants have been made, 

 being well supported by a numerous and respectable body of disciples 

 who all pay a very devout attention to the externals of religion. 



Of the actual number of this sect I am unable to form any estimate, 

 and from the Shostro manuscripts no information on the subject was 

 to be derived, as they keep no record of their proselytes ; but they 

 form a considerable proportion of the population of this district (Kam- 

 riip). I know of two villages each containing two or three thousand 

 inhabitants, the one a village of weavers, the other a village of oil- 

 pressers, all of whom are disciples of Borpetah ; and they are numerous 

 in all parts of the district. They also muster strong in Gowsilparah and 

 Cooch-Behar, and are found, I believe, even in the Dacca district. 

 Wherever they reside they appear to regard Borpetah, with as much 

 reverence as the Mohammadans pay to Mecca, though their great saints 

 and founders, Saiikar and Madhab, neither died nor were born there, 

 Many respectable men holding offices in the courts of Gowhatty, or 

 fiscal charges of Pergunnahs, have their permanent residences in, and 

 never remove their families from, the sacred grove of Borpetah. They 

 regard it as " the loveliest spot on earth," and a protracted absence 

 from it, they cannot endure. Of the inhabitants of the grove generally 

 I may safely say there is not a more intelligent or a more industrious 

 community in the whole province. 



They are most of them traders as well as cultivators of the soil, and 

 their boats with agricultural produce, pottery, &c. are to be found in 

 every creek in Asam, and as far down the Brahmaputra as Serajgunje. 

 In point of education the proportion of those amongst them, that can 

 read and write is far greater than amongst any other class of Asamese 

 that I am acquainted with. The rising generation appear to be nearly 

 all receiving instruction in letters. 



As the sect of the Mahapurushyas have sprung up within the last 

 four hundred years it ought not to be very difficult to trace their 

 history, but the desire of the disciples to deify their founders has some- 

 what mystified their origin. 



From the memoirs of his life and writings preserved in manuscript 

 by his followers, Sankar was born, or, I beg his pardon, the Avatar of 



