RELIGIOUS SECTS OF THE HINDUS. 187 



In referring to the origin of this system, we must, no doubt, go back 

 to some antiquity, although the want of chronological data renders it 

 impossible to specify the era at which it was first promulgated. That it 

 was familiarly known and practised in the eighth century, we may learn 

 from the plays of BHAVABHtJTi, particularly the Malali and Madhava>* 

 and from several of the Saiva Purdnas, in some of which, as the Kurma 

 Purdna, we have a string of names which appear to be those of a 

 succession of teachers. \ The cavern temples of the South of India, in 



paper. — " The only apparatus seen is a piece of plank, which, with four pegs, he forms into a kind 

 of long stool ; upon this, in a little brass saucer or socket, he places, in a perpendicular position, a 

 hollow bamboo, over which he puts a kind of crutch, like that of a walking crutch, covering that 

 with a piece of common hide : these materials he carries with him in a little bag, which is shown to 

 those who come to see him exhibit. The servants of the house hold a blanket before him, and 

 when it is withdrawn, he is discovered poised in the air, about four feet from the ground, in a sitting 

 attitude, the outer edge of one hand merely touching the crutch, the fingers of that hand delibe- 

 rately counting beads; the other hand and arm held up in an erect posture. The blanket was then 

 held up before him, and they heard a gurgling noise like that occasioned by wind escaping from a 

 bladder or tube, and when the screen was withdrawn he was again standing on terra firma. The 

 same man has the power of staying under water for several hours. He declines to explain how he 

 does it, merely saying he has been long accustomed to do so." The length of time for which he 

 can remain in his aerial station is considerable. The person who gave the above account says that 

 he remained in the air for twelve minutes ; but before the Governor of Madras he continued on his 

 baseless seat for forty minutes." — Asiatic Monthly Journal for March, 1829. 



* See especially the opening of the 5th Act, and Notes. 



f Siva, it is said, appeared in the beginning of the Kali age as Sweta, for the purpose of 

 benefiting the Brahmanas. He resided on the Himalaya mountains, and taught the Yoga. He had four 

 chief disciples, one also termed Sweta, and the others Swetasikha, Swetaswa, and Swetalohita. 

 They had twenty-eight disciples — Sutdra, Madana, Suhotra, Kanhana, and twenty-four others. Of 

 these, four, whose names are not mentioned, had ninety-seven disciples, masters of the Yoga and 

 inferior portions of Siva. Those Brahmanas who recite the names of these teachers and offer to them 

 libations acquire Brahmavidya, or knowledge of spirit. That this long string of one hundred and 

 twenty-five names is wholly fictitious, seems improbable, although the list is possibly not very 

 accurate. The four primitive teachers may be imaginary ; but it is a curious circumstance that the 

 word Sweta, white, should be the leading member of each appellation, and that in the person 

 of Siva, and his first disciple, it should stand alone as Sweta, the ivhite. Siva, however, is always 



