OF THE HINDUS. 103 



the descendants of this teacher above the Ghats, and the superiors visit Udipi 

 from time to time, but never officiate there as pontiffs. 



The superiors, or Gurus of the Mddhtva sect, are Brahmans and Sanydsis^ 

 or profess coenobitic observances : the disciples, who are domesticated in the 

 several Maths, profess also perpetual celibacy. The lay votaries of these 

 teachers, are members of every class of society, except the lowest, and each 

 Owrw has a number of families hereditarily attached to him, whose spiritual 

 guidance he may sell or mortgage to a Brahman of any sect. 



The ascetic professors of Madhwacharya's school, adopt the external ap- 

 pearance of Da7idis, laying aside the Brahmanical cord, carrying a staff and a 

 water pot, going bare-headed, and wearing a single wrapper stained of an 

 orange colour with an ochry clay : they are usually adopted into the order from 

 their boyhood, and acknowledge no social affinities nor interests. The marks 

 common to them, and the lay votaries of the order, are the impress of the 

 symbols of Vishnu^ upon their shoulders and breasts, stamped with a hot iron, 

 and the frontal mark, which consists of two perpendicular lines made with 

 Gopichandana, and joined at the root of the nose like that of the Sri Vaish- 

 7iavas ; but instead of a red line down the centre, the Mddhwdchdris make a 

 straight black line, with the charcoal from incense offered to Ndrdyana, ter- 

 minating in a round mark made with turmerick. 



The essential dogma of this sect, like that of the Vaishnavas in general, is 

 the identification of Vishnu with the Supreme Spirit, as the pre-existent 

 cause of the universe,* from whose substance the world was made.t This 



* In proof of these doctrines, they cite the following texts from the Sruti, or Vedas, 

 "m^ •JTTT^'^ W^fT*! "^"^r «T "^ 'ST'^Ti \ Ndrdyana alone was; not Brahma nor Sanhara, 

 ■^T«!'5^ T3[^"'3[^r'!J '^^^TT^Wl TT^l I Happy and alone before all was Nardyana the Lord. 



I The whole world was manifest from the body of Vishnu, f^'^T^'^T'^1Wl^t%Trr€t?T I 



