in llELIGIOUS SECTS 



in tuition and controversy, and in receiving the visits of his disciples, who 

 came annually, particularly the Bengalis, under Adwaita and Nityanand, to 

 Nildchal, in the performance of acts of self denial, and in intent meditation on 

 Krishna : by these latter means he seems to have fallen, ultimately, into a state 

 of imbecility approaching to insanity, which engendered perpetually beatific 

 visions of Krishna, Radha, and the Gopis : in one of these, fancying the sea 

 to be the Jumna, and that he saw the celestial cohort sporting in its blue wa- 

 ters, he walked into it, and fainting with ecstasy, would have been drowned, if 

 his emaciated state had not rendered him buoyant on the waves : he was 

 brought to shore in a fisherman's net, and_ recovered by his two resident dis- 

 ciples, Swarupa and Ramanand : the story is rendered not improbable, by 

 the uncertain close of Chaitanya's career: he disappeared: how, is not known: 

 of course his disciples suppose he returned to VaikunfJia, but we may be al- 

 lowed to conjecture the means he took to travel thither, by the tale of his ma- 

 rine excursion, as it is gravely narrated by Krishna Das : his disappearance 

 dates about A. D. 1527. 



Of Adwaitanand and Nityanand, no marvels, beyond their divine perva- 

 sion, are recorded : the former, indeed, is said to have predicted the appearance 

 of Krishna as Chaitanya ; a prophecy that probably wrought its own comple- 

 tion : he sent his wife to assist at the birth of the saint, and was one of his first dis- 

 ciples, AdwaitXnand resided at Santipur, and seems to have been a man of 

 some property and respectability : he is regarded as one of the three Prabhus, 

 or masters of the sect, and his descendants, who are men of property, residing 

 at Santipurt are the chief Gosains, or spiritual superiors, conjointly with those 



numerous votaries collected, neither is there any passage that could be interpreted, as commendatory 

 of the practice : it is, in fact, very contrary to the spirit of Vaishnava devotion, and is probably a 

 modern graft from Saiva or Sdlda superstition. Abulfazl does not notice the practice, although 

 he mentions that those who assist in drawing the car, thinii thereby to obtain remission of their sins. 



