2 RELIGIOUS SECTS 



nature, and endeavoured assiduously, if not successfully, to obtain just no- 

 tions of the cause, the character and consequence of existence. This distinction 

 prevails even in the Vedas, which have their Karma Kdnoia and Jnydna 

 Kdndat or Ritual and Theology. 



The worship of the populace being addressed to different divinities, the 

 followers of the several gods, naturally separated into different associations, 

 and the adorers of BrahmX, Vishnu, and Siva or other phantoms of their 

 faith, became distinct and insulated bpd^es, in the general aggregate : the 

 conflict of opinion on subjects, on which human reason has never yet agreed, 

 led to similar differences in the philosophical class, and resolved itself into 

 the several Dersa7iaSj or schools of philosophy. 



It may be supposed, that some time elapsed before the practical wor- 

 ship of any deity was more than a simple preference, or involved the asser- 

 tion of the supremacy of the object of its adoration, to the degradation or 

 exclusion of the other gods:* in like manner also, the conflicting opinions 

 were matters rather of curiosity than faith, and were neither regarded as 

 subversive of each other, nor as incompatible with the public worship: and 

 hence, notwithstanding the sources of difference that existed in the parts, 

 the unity of the whole remained undisturbed : in this condition, indeed, the 

 apparent mass of the Brahmanical order at least, still continues: professing 

 alike to recognise implicitly the authority '9f the Vedas, the worshippers of 

 Siva, or of Vishnu, and the maintainers of the SdnFhya or Nydya doctrines, 



* One division of some antiquity, is the preferential appropriation of tlie four chief divinities to 

 the four original casts ; thus Siva is the Adideva of the Brahmans, Vishnk of the Kshettriyas, 

 Brahma of the Vaisyas, andGANESA of the Sudras. 



