8 RELIGIOUS SECTS 



devotees of the Valshnava order. This work is entitled the Bhakta Mala. The 

 original, in a difficult dialect of Hindi, was composed by Nabhaji, about 250 

 years ago, and is little more than a catalogue, with brief and obscure references 

 to some leading circumstances connected with the life of each individual, and 

 from the inexplicit nature of its allusions, as well as the difficulty of its style, 

 is far from intelligible to the generality even of the natives. The work, in its 

 present form, has received some modifications, and obvious additions from a 

 later teacher, NarXyan DAs, whose share in the composition is, no doubt, consi- 

 derable, but cannot be discriminated from Nabhaji's own, beyond the evi- 

 dence furnished by the specification of persons unquestionably subsequent to 

 his time. — NarXyan Das probably wrote in the reign of Shah Jehan. The bre- 

 vity and obscurity of the original work pervade the additional matter, and to 

 remedy these defects, the original text, or Mula, has been taken as a guide for 

 an amplified notice of its subjects, or the Tikd of Krishna Das ; and the work, as 

 usually met with, always consists of these two divisions. The Ttkd is dated /Srtm- 

 vat, 1769 or A. D. 1713. Besides these, a translation of the Tikd, or a version 

 of it in the more ordinary dialect of Hindustan, has been made by an ano- 

 nymous author, and a copy of this work, as well as of the original, has furnish- 

 ed me with materials for the following account. The character of the Bhakta 

 Mala will best appear from the extracts of translations from it to be hereafter 

 introduced: it may be sufficient here to observe, that it is much less of a his- 

 torical than legendary description, and that the legends are generally insipid 

 and extravagant : such as it is, however, it exercises a powerful influence in 

 Upper India, on popular belief, and holds a similar place in the superstitions of 

 this country, as that which was occupied in the darkest ages of the Roman 

 Catholic faith, by the Golden Legend and Acts of the Saints.* 



* In further illustration of our text, with regard to the instrumentality of the Purdnas in ge- 

 nerating religious distinctions amongst the Hindus, and as affording a view of the Vaishiava feelings 

 on this subject; we may appeal to the Padma Purdna. In the Uttara Khan(ta, or last portion of 



