OF THE HINDUS. 23 



of the preceding systems, Batukanath, the professor of the Kdpdlika, or 

 Bhairava worship, was permitted to attract followers : all these teachers were 

 converts and disciples of Sankara, and returned to his superintending guid- 

 ance, when they had effected the objects of their missions. 



The notice that occurs in the Serva Dersana of any of the sects which 

 have yet been mentioned, has been already incidentally adverted to : this work 

 is less of a popular form than the preceding, and controverts the speculative 

 rather than the practical doctrines of other schools : besides the atheistical 

 Bauddha and Jaina sects, the work is occupied chiefly with the refutation of 

 XhQ io\\oyNkii's, o£ Jaimini, Gautama, 2iriCL Patanjala, and we have no classes of 

 worshippers introduced but those of the Vaishnavas who follow Ramanuja, 

 and Madhwdchdrya, of the Saivas, the Fdsupatas, the followers of Abhi- 

 nava Gupta, who taught the Mantra worship of Siva ; and the alchemical 

 school, or worshippers of Siva's type in quicksilver, and the Rasendra Linga^ 

 most of these seem to have sprung into being in the interval between the 10th 

 and 13th centuries, and have now either disappeared, or are rapidly on the 

 decline : those which actually exist, we shall recur to in the view we are now 

 prepared to take of the actual condition of the Hindu faith. 



SECTION III. 



PRESENT DIVISIONS OF THE HINDUS, AND OF THE 

 VAISHNAVAS IN PARTICULAR. 



The classification adopted by the works, I especially follow, if not unex- 

 ceptionable, is allowable and convenient, and may, therefore, regulate the fol- 

 lowing details : it divides all the Hindus into three great classes or Vaislmavas^ 

 Saivas, and Sdktas, and refers to a fourth or miscellaneous class, all not com» 

 prised in the three others. 



