RELIGIOUS SECTS OF THE HINDUS. 177 



assume the character of this class of mendicants. These constitute the 

 DaiiUis simply so termed, and are regarded as distinct from the primitive 

 members of the order, to whom the appellation of Dasndmis is also appli- 

 ed, and who admit none but Brahmans into their fraternity. 



The Dasnami Dafidis, who are regarded as the descendants of the 

 original members of the fraternity, are said to refer their origin to Sankara 

 Acharya, an individual who appears to have performed a part of some im- 

 portance in the religious history of Hindustan i and to whom an influence 

 has been often attributed much exceeding that which he really exercised. 

 His biography, like that of most of the Hindu saints, is involved in consi- 

 derable obscurity ; but a few facts may be gleaned from such accounts as 

 we have of him, upon which reliance may be placed, and to which it 

 may not be uninteresting here briefly to advert. 



A number of works are current in the South of India relating to 

 this teacher, under the titles of Sankara Cheritra, Sankara Kathd, Sankara 

 Vijaya, or Sankara Digvijaya, following much the same course of narra- 

 tion, and detailing little more than Sankara's controversial victories over 

 various sects ; in most cases, no doubt, the fictions of the writers. Of the two 

 principal works of the class, one attributed to Anandagiri, a pupil of 

 Sankara, has already been noticed.* The other is the work of Madhava 

 Acharya, the minister of some of the earliest chiefs of Vijayanagar, and 

 who dates, accordingly, in the fourteenth century. This is a composition of 

 high literary and polemical pretension, but not equally high biographical 

 value. Some particulars of Sankara's birth and early life are to be found 

 in the Kerala Utpatti, or political and statistical description of Malabar, 



* See Asiatick Researches, vol. XVI. page 10. 

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