30 RELIGIOUS SECTS 



the primitive teacher j his spiritual throne, in fact, to which his disciples are 

 successively elevated.* This circumstance gives a superiority to the Achdryas 

 of the Dekshina, or south, over those of the Uttaray or north, into which they 

 are at present divided. 



The worship of the followers of Ramanuja, is addressed to Vishnu and 

 to Lakshmi, and their respective incarnations, either singly or conjointly ; 

 and the Sri Vaishnavas, by which general name the sect is known, consist of 

 corresponding subdivisons, as Narayana, or Lakshmi, or Lakshmi Narayan, 

 or E-ama, or Sita, or Sita Rama, or Krishna, or Rukmini, or any other modi- 

 fications of Vislmii, or his consort, is the preferential object of the venera- 

 tion of the votary.t The S7i Fishnava worship in the north of India, is 

 not very popular, and the sect is rather of a speculative than practical nature, 

 although it does not require, in its teachers, secession from the world : the 



* According to information obtained by Dr. Buchanan, Ramanuja founded 700 Mails, of 

 which four only remain; one of the principal of these is at Mail Cotay, or Dakshina Badarikdsrama, 

 the Badari station of the soutli. Ramanuja also established J-l hereditary Guruships amongst his 

 followers, the representatives of which still remain and dispute the supremacy with the Sanydsi 

 members of the order; these last, however, are generally considered of the highest rank, (Buch. My- 

 sore, 2, 75). In another place (1, 144), he says that 89 Guruships were established, 5 in, the San- 

 yasi class, and 84 in the secular order : the Matams of the five former are Ahobalem, Totiidri, 

 Itamenwara, Sri Rangam., and Kdnji, 



■j- Ml'. Colebrooke, A. R. 7, says the Rdmdnujas are of three classes, those who worship Rama 

 alone, Sita alone, and Sita and Rama conjointly. One of my authorities, Mathura Ndth, says, they 

 worship Mahd Lakshmi, and other information agrees with his ; from the texts quoted in the Serva 

 Dersana Sangruha, Vishnu as Vasudeva, is the deity to be worshipped, but no doubt all the varie- 

 ties exist : without, however, affecting the identity of the sect, the real object of whose devotion is 

 Vishnu, as the cause and creator of the world, and any of his, or his Sakti's, more especial manifes- 

 tations, are consequently entitled to reverence. The term Sri Vaishnavas, most commonly applied to 

 them, denotes an original preference of the female deity or Mahd Lakshmi: the worship of Rama is 

 more properly that of the jRdmdnandis, and they may be the persons intended by Mr. Colebrooke's 

 informants, as those of the Rdmdnvjiyas, who worship Rama only (A.R. 7, 281). It may also be 

 observed, that the Rdmdnvjiyas unite with Krishna, Rukmini, not Rddhd, the latter being his mis- 

 tress only, not his wife, and being never named in the Bhdgavat, except in one ambiguous passage. 



