•6' . RELIGIOUS SECTS 



i 



the character of those which have latterly disappeared, or to investigate the 

 remote history of some which still remain and are apparently of ancient date, 

 are tasks for which we are far from being yet prepared : tlie enquiry is, in itself 

 so vast, and so little progress has been made in the studies necessary to its elu- 

 cidation, that it must yet remain in the obscurity in which it has hitherto been 

 enveloped; so ambitious a project as that of piercing the impenetrable gloom 

 has not instigated the present attempt, nor has it been proposed to undertake 

 so arduous a labour, as the investigation and comparison of the abstruse notions 

 of the philosophical sects.* The humbler aim of these researches has been 

 that of ascertaining the actual condition of the popular religion of the inha- 

 bitants of some of the provinces subject to the Bengal Government; and as a 

 very great variety prevails in that religion, the subject may be considered as 

 not devoid of curiosity and interest, especially as it has been left little better 

 than a blank, in the voluminous compositions or compilations, professing to 

 give an account of the native country of the Hindus. 



The description of the different sects of the Hindus, which I propose to 

 offer, is necessarily superficial i it would, indeed, have been impossible to have 



of those who have neither intellect nor spirit." After ridiculing the Sraddha, shrewdly enough, he 

 says ; 



Hence it is evident, that it was a mere contrivance of the Brahmans to gain a livelihood, to or- 

 dain such ceremonies for the dead, and no other reason can be given for them. Of the Vedas, he says : 



The three Authors of the Vedas were Buffoons, Rogues, and Fiends— and cites texts in proof of 

 this assertion. 



* Something of this has been very well done by Mr, Ward, in his account of the Hindus : and 

 since this Essay was read before the Society, the account given by H. T. Colebrooke, Esq. in the 

 first part of the Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society, of the Sankhya and Nyaya Systems, 

 has left little more necessary on this subject. 



