OP THE HINDUS. 37 



Ramanand is sometimes considered to have been the immediate disciple 

 V of IlAMANUjA,butthis appears to be an error : a more particular account makes 

 him the fifth in descent from that teacher, as follows — the pupil and successor 

 of RXmanuja was Devananda ; of Devananda, Harinanda ; of Harinanda, 

 Raghavanand, and of this last, Ramanand, an enumeration which, if correct, 

 would place Ramanand about the end of the 13th century:* there is great 

 reason, however, to doubt his being entitled to so remote a date, and con- 

 sequently to question the accuracy of his descent from Ramanuja: we shall 

 have occasion to infer, hereafter, from, the accounts given of the dates of other 

 teachers, that Ramanand was not earlier than the end of the 14ithj or begin- 

 ning of the 15th century. 



According to common tradition, the schism of Ramanand originated in 

 resentment of an affront offered him by his fellow disciples, and sanctioned by 

 his teacher. It is said, that he had spent some time in travelling through vari- 

 ous parts of India, after which he returned to the Mafh^ or residence of his 

 superior : his brethren objected to him, that in the course of his peregrina- 

 tions, it was impossible he could have observed that privacy in his meals, 

 which is a vital observance of the Ramanuja sect, and as Raghavanand ad- 

 mitted the validity of the objection, Ramanand was condemned to feed in a 

 place apart from the rest of the disciples : he was highly incensed at the order, 

 and retired from the society altogether, establishing a schism of his own. 



The residence of Ramanand was at Benares, at the Pancha Gangd Ghdf, 

 where a Mat'h, or monastery of his followers is said to have existed, but to have 

 been destroyed by some of the Musselman princes : at present there is merely 

 a stone plat-form in the vicinity, bearing the supposed impression of his feet, 



* The enumeration in the Bkak(a32dld is different : it there occurs 1 Ramanuja, 2 Deva- 

 chArj, 3 Raghavanand, i Ramanand ; making him the fourth. 



