^4 RELIGIOUS SECTS 



The worshippers of Vishnu, Siva, and Sakti, who are the objects of the 

 following description, are not to be confounded with the orthodox adorers 

 of those divinities : few Brahmans of learning, if they have any religion at 

 all, will acknowledge themselves to belong to any of the popular divisions of 

 the Hindu faith, although, as a matter of simple preference, they more especi- 

 ally worship some individual deity, as their chosen, or Ishta Devata : they 

 refer also to the Vedas, the books of law, the Puranas, and Tantras, as the 

 only ritual they recognise, and regard all practices not derived from those 

 sources as irregular and profane : on the other hand, many of the sects seem 

 to have originated, in a great measure, out of opposition to the Brahmanical 

 order : teachers and disciples are chosen from any class, and the distinction 

 of casts is, in a great measure, sunk in the new one, of similarity of schism : 

 the ascetics and mendicants, also, in many instances, affect to treat the Brah- 

 mans with particular contempt, and this is generally repaid with interest 

 by the Brahmans. A portion, though not a large one, of the populace is still 

 attached to the Smdrta Brahmans, as their spiritual guides, and are so far dis- 

 tinct from any of the sects we shall have to specify, whilst most of the fol- 

 lowers, even of the sects, pay the ordinary deference to the Brahminical order, 

 and especially evince towards the Brahmans of their own fellowship, of whom 

 there is generally abundance, the devotedness and submission which the ori- 

 ginal Hindu Code so perpetually inculcates. 



Excluding, therefore, those who may be regarded as the regular worship- 

 pers of regular gods, we have the following enumeration of the several spe- 

 cies of each class : 



Vaishnavas. 



- > : 1 Ramanujas, or Sri Sarapradayis, or Sri Vaishnavas^ 

 ^ Eamanandis, or Ramawats. 



