198 SKETCH OF THE 



The clerical members of the sect usually stain their garments with red 

 ochre. They are not numerous in Upper India, and are rarely encounter- 

 ed, except as mendicants, leading about a bull, the living type of Nandi, 

 the bull of Siva, decorated with housings of various colours, and strings of 

 Cowri shells : the conductor carries a bell in his hand, and thus accom- 

 panied goes about from place to place, subsisting upon alms. In the 

 South of India, the Lingayets are very numerous, and the officiating priests 

 of the Saiva shrines, are commonly of this sect,* when they bear the desig- 

 nations of Arddhya and Pandaram:\ The sect is also there known by the 

 name of Vira Saiva. The following account of the restorer, if not the 

 founder of the faith, as well as a specimen of the legends by which it is 

 maintained, are derived from the JBdsava Purdna. 



According to die followers of this faith, which prevails very extensively in the Dekhin } 

 Bdswa, Bdsava, Botswana, or Basisoapa or Bdsavappa, different modes of writing his name, 

 only restored this religion, and did not invent it. This person, it is said, was the son of 

 Mddiga Rdya, a Brahman, and Madevi written also Madala arasu and Mahdmbd, inhabi- 

 tants of Hingules'war Parvati Agraliaram, on the west of Sri Saila, and both devout wor- 

 shippers of Siva. In recompense of their piety, Nandi, the bull of Siva, was born on earth 

 as their son, becoming incarnate by command of Siva, on his learning from Nareda, the 

 decline of the Saiva faith, and prevalence of other less orthodox systems of religion. The 

 child was denominated after the Bdswa or Bdsava, the bull of the deity. On his arriving 

 at the age of investiture, he refused to assume the thread ordinarily worn by Brahmans, 

 or to acknowledge any Guru, except Iswara or Siva. He then departed to the town of 

 Kalijdn, the capital of Bijala or Vijala Rdya, and obtained in marriage Gangdmbd, the 

 daughter of the DandandyaJc, or minister of police. From thence he repaired to Sangames* 

 tsar a, where he received from Sangameswara Swdmi, initiation in the tenets of the Vira Saiva 

 faith. He was invited back from this place to succeed his father-in-law upon his decease, 

 in the office he had held. 



* They also officiate in this capacity at the temple of Keddrnuth, in Benares. 



\ This word seems to be properly Pdnduranga, (trpi^l 7 :) pale complexiohed, from their 

 smearing themselves with ashes. It is so used in Hemachandrds history of Mah&vira, when speaking 

 of the Saiva Brahmans. 



