\ ■;' 



44 - ■ • , RELIGIOUS SECTS ' - 



to the tenets of the Ramdnandis : there is no difference, they say, between 

 the BhagavXn and the Bhakt, or the deity and his worshipper ; but Bhaga- 

 VAN appeared in inferior forms, as a Yish^ a Boar^ a Tortoise, &c., so therefore 

 the Bhakt may be born as a Chama, a Korij a Ch'hipi, or any other degraded 



caste. 



The various character of the reputed disciples of Ramanand, and a con- 

 sideration of the tenets of those sects which they have founded, lead to a con- 

 clusion, that this individual, if he did not invent, gave fresh force to a very 

 important encroachment upon the orthodox system : he, in fact, abrogated the 

 distinction of caste amongst the religious orders, and taught, that the holy cha- 

 racter who quitted the ties of nature and society, shook off, at the same time, 

 all personal distinction — this seems to be the proper import of the term Ava- 

 d'huta, which Ram\nand is said to have affixed to his followers, and they were 

 liberated from more important restraints than those of regimen and ablution : 

 the popular character of the works of this school, corroborates this view of 

 Ramananda's innovation ; Sankara and Ramanuja writing to and for the 

 Brahmanical order alone, composed chiefly, if not solely, Sanscrit commenta- 

 ries on the text of the Vedas, or Sanscrit expositions of their peculiar doctrines, 

 and the teachers of these opinions, whether monastic or secular, are indispen- 

 sably of the Brahmanical caste — it does not appear that any works exist which 

 are attributed to Ramanand himself, but those of his followers are written in 

 the provincial dialects, and addressed to the capacity, as well as placed within 

 the reach of every class of readers, and every one of those may become a 

 Vairagi, and rise, in time, to be a Guru or Mahant. 



We shall have occasion to speak again particularly of such of the above- 

 mentioned disciples of Ramanand, as instituted separate sects, but there are 

 several who did not aspire to that distinction, and whose celebrity is, neverthe- 

 less, still very widely spread throughout Hindustan : there are also several 



