OP THE HINDUS. ly 



foreign rulers, have very much ameliorated the character of much of the Hindu 

 worship : if the licentious practices of the Saktas are still as prevalent as ever, 

 which may well be questioned, they are, at least, carefully concealed from ob- 

 servation, and if they are not exploded, there are other observances of a more 

 ferocious description, which seem to have disappeared. The worship of Bhai- 

 KAVA, still prevails amongst the Saktas and the Jogis ; but in upper India, at 

 least, the naked mendicant, smeared with funeral ashes, armed with a trident or 

 a sword, carrying a hollow skull in his hand, and half intoxicated -with the 

 spirits which he has quaffed from that disgusting wine-cup, prepared, in short,; 

 to perpetrate any act of violence and crime, the KdpdUka of former days, is 

 now rarely, if ever, encountered. In the work of Ananda Giri, we have two 

 of these sectaries introduced, one a Brahman by birth, is the genuine KdpdUka: 

 he drinks wine, eats flesh, and abandons all rites and observances in the spirit 

 of his faith, his eminence in which has armed him with supernatural powersj, 

 and rendered Bhairava himself, the reluctant, but helpless minister of his 

 will. The other KdpdUka is an impostor, the son of a harlot, by a gatherer of 

 Tari, or Palm juice, and who has adopted the character as an excuse for throw- 

 ing off all social and moral restraint. The KdpdUkas are often alluded to in 

 controversial works, that appear to be the compositions of a period at least 

 preceding the tenth century.* 



The next classes of sectaries, confuted by Sankara, were various infidel 

 sects, some of whom avowedly, and perhaps all covertly, are still in being : the 

 list is also interesting, as discriminating opinions which, in the ignorance sub- 

 sequent to their disappearance from Hindustan, have very commonly been, and^ 

 indeed, still are frequently confounded. These are the ChdwdkaSy or Simya 

 Vddis, the Saugatas, the Kshapa^iakaSy the Jainas, and the Bauddhas, 



* See the Prabodha Chandrika, translated by Dr. Taylor. 



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