40 ^: RELIGIOUS SECTS 



or four to thirty or forty, but in both cases there are always a number of 

 vagrant or out-members : the resident Chelas are usually the elders of the 

 body, with a few of the younger as their attendants and scholars ; and it is 

 from the senior and more proficient of these ascetics, that the Mahant is 

 usually elected. 



In some instances, however, where the Mahaiit has a family, the situa- 

 tion descends in the line of his posterity : where an election is to be 

 effected, it is conducted with much solemnity, and presents a curious picture 

 of a regularly organised system of church policy, amongst these apparently 

 unimportant and straggling communities. 



The Maflis of various districts look up to some one of their own order 

 as chief, and they all refer to that connected with their founder, as the com- 

 mon head : under the presidence, therefore, of the Mahant of that establish- 

 ment, wherever practicable, and in his absence, of some other of acknowledg- 

 ed pre-eminence, the Mahants of the different Mafhs assemble, upon the 

 decease of one of their brethren, to elect a successor. For this purpose they re- 

 gularly examine the Chelas, or disciples of the deceased, the ablest of whom 

 is raised to the vacant situation : should none of them be qualified, they choose 

 a Mahant from the pupils of some other teacher, but this is rarely necessary, 

 arid unless necessary, is never had recourse to. The new Mahant is then regu- 

 larly installed, and is formally invested with the cap, the rosary, the frontal 

 mark, or Tiled, or any other monastic insignia, by the president of the assem- 

 bly. Under the native Government, whether Mohammedan or Hindu — the 

 election of the superior of one of these establishments was considered as a mat- 

 ter of sufficient moment, to demand the attention of the Governor of the pro- 

 vinccj who, accordingly, in person, or by his deputy, presided at the election : 

 at present, no interference is exercised by the ruling authorities, and rarely 

 by any lay character, although occasionally, a Raja, or a Zemindar, to whose 



