OF THE HINDUS. 7 



adopted the only unexceptionable method of acquiring an accurate 

 knowledge of their tenets and observances, or of studying the numerous 

 works in Sanscrit, Persian, or the provincial dialects of Hindi, on which they 

 are founded. I have been obliged to content myself, therefore, with a cursory 

 inspection of a few of those compositions, and to depend for much of my in- 

 formation on oral report, filling up or correcting from these two sources, the 

 errors and omissions of two works, on this subject professedly, from which 

 I have derived the ground work of the whole account. 



The works alluded to are in the Persian language, though both were 

 written by Hindu authors : the first was compiled by SItal Sinh, Munshi to the 

 Raja of Benares ; the second by Mathura Nath, late librarian of the Hindu 

 College, at the same city, a man of great personal respectability and eminent 

 acquirements : these works contain a short history of the origin of the various 

 sects, and descriptions of the appearance, and observances, and present condi- 

 tion of their followers : they comprise all the known varieties, with one or two 

 exceptions, and, indeed, at no one place in India could the enquiry be so well 

 prosecuted as at Benares.* The work of Mathura NAth is the fullest and 

 most satisfactory, though it leaves much to be desired, and much more than I 

 have been able to supply. In addition to these sources of information, I have 

 had frequent recourse to a work of great popularity and extensive circulation, 

 which embodies the legendary history of all the most celebrated Bhaktas or 



* The acknowledged resort of all the vagabonds of India, and all who have no where else to 

 repair to : so, the Kdsi K'haHd. 



To those who are strangers to the Sruti and Smriti, (Religion and Law) , to those who have 

 never known the observance of pure and indispensable rites ; to those who have no other place to 

 repair to ; to those, is Benares an asylum," 



