OF THE HINDUS. 109 



lace and rosary of the stem of the Tulasi : the objects of their worship are 

 Krishna and RAdha. conjointly : their chief authority is the Bhdga'vat, and 

 there is said to be a BMshya on the Vidashy Nimbarka. : the sect, however, is 

 not possessed of any books peculiar to the members, which want they attribute 

 to the destruction of their works at Mathurd in the time of Aurengzeb. 



The Nimdwats are scattered throughout the whole of Upper India. They 

 are met with of the two classes coenobitical and secular, or Viraktas and Grihas-- 

 thas, distinctions introduced by the two pupils of Nimbarka, Kesava Bhatt, 

 and Hari Vyas : the latter is considered as the founder of the fa mily which 

 occupies the pillow of Nimbarka at a place called Dhrma Kshetra, upon the 

 Jumna, close to Mathura : the Mahant, however, claims to be a lineal des- 

 cendant from Nimbarka himself, and asserts the existence of the present 

 establishment for a past period of 1400 years : the .antiquity is probably 

 exaggerated : the Nmiwats are very numerous about Mathurd^ and they are 

 also the most numerous of the Vaisknava sects in Bengal, with the exception 

 of those who may be considered the indigenous offspring of that province. 



vaishnavas of bengal. 



The far greater number of the worshippers of Vishnu, or more properly 

 of Krishna, in Bengal, forming, it has been estimated, one-fifth of the popula- 

 tion of the province,* derive their peculiarities from some VaisJmava 

 Brahmans of Nadiya and Santipur, who flourished about the end of the 

 fifteenth century. The two leading men in the innovation then instituted. 



* Ward on the Hindus, 2. 175. In another place he says five-sixteenths, p. 



Dd 



