60 RELIGIOUS SECTS 



There are also a variety of stanzas, called Jgams, Bdnls, S^c. composing 

 a very formidable course of study to those who wish to go deep into the doc- 

 trine of this school, and one in which the greatest proficients amongst the 

 Kahir Panfhis are but imperfectly versed. A few Sdk'his, Sabdas and Rekh'taSf 

 with the greater portion of the VijeJc, constituting their acquirements : these, 

 however, they commit to memory, and quote in argument with singular readi- 

 ness and happiness of application ; the Gosht'his, or disputations of Kabir with 

 those opposed to him, as Gorakhnath, Ramanand, and even in spite of chro- 

 nology with Mohammed himself, are not read till more advanced, whilst the 

 Su¥h Nidhdriy which is the key to the whole, and which has the singularity of 

 being quite clear and intelligible, is only imported to those pupils whose stu- 

 dies are considered to approach perfection. 



The author or compiler of the BijeJc or Vtjeky was Bhagodas* one of 

 KABf r's immediate disciples : it is the great authority amongst the Kabir 

 Panfhis in general ; it is written in very harmonious verse, and with great 

 ingenuity of illustration : its style, however, is more dogmatical than argumen- 

 tative, and it rather inveighs against other systems than explains its own : in 

 the latter respect it is, indeed, so inexplicit and obscure, that it is perhaps, 

 impossible to derive from it any satisfactory conclusion as to the real doc- 

 trines of Kabir. The followers of the Seci admit this obscurity, and much 

 difference of opinion prevails amongst them in the interpretation of many 

 passages : some of the teachers have a short work professedly written as a 

 key to the most difficult parts, but this is in the hands of a chosen few : it is of 



details of its cosmogony, are, with very few exceptions, exceedingly different from those notions 

 entertained by the followers of Kabir, as explained in the Bijeks, or Suk'h Nidhdn. The extract 

 published in the Mines, appears to be a portion, the second book, of some work, thus described " II 

 libro primario dei Cabiristi (Specie di riforma della gentilita,) si chiama Satnam Kabir: questo libro 

 e fra le carte di Propaganda." 



* Of the shorter work : it is undoubtedly the one most generally current. 



