202 SKETCH OF THE 



The date of the events here recorded is not particularised, but from 

 various authorities, they may be placed with confidence in the early 

 part of the eleventh century*. 



The Mackenzie Collection, from which the above is taken, contains 

 a number of works j" of a similar description, in the ancient Kanara dialect. 

 There are also several works of the same nature in Telugu, as the Bdsaves- 

 wara Pur ana, Panditdrndhya Cheritra, and others. Although the lan- 

 guage of these compositions may now have become obscure or obsolete, it 

 is not invariably so, and at any rate was once familiar. This circumstance, 

 and the marvellous character of the legends they relate, specimens of which 

 have been given in the above account of the founder of the sect, adapted 

 them to the comprehension and taste of the people at large, and no doubt 

 therefore exercised a proportionate influence. Accordingly, Wilks, 

 Buchanan, and Dubois, represent the Lmgawants as very numerous in 

 the Dekhin, especially in Mysore, or those countries constituting ancient 

 Kanara, and they are also common in Telingana. In Upper India there 

 are no popular works current, and the only authority is a learned 

 Bhdshya, or Comment, by Nilkantha, on the Sutras of Vyasa, a work not 

 often met with, and, being in Sanscrit, unintelligible to the multitude. | 



* Colonel Wilks gives the same date, (Mysore 1, 506,) but terms the founder Chen Bas 

 Ishivar, intending clearly Chenna, (little) Bd&ava, the nephew of Bdsava, or Basaveswara. 

 Buchanan has the name Bdswana, (Mysore 1, 240,) but agrees nearly in the date, placing him 

 about seven hundred years ago. 



•j- As the Bdswana Purana, Chenna Bdsava Purdna, Prabhulinga Lila, Saranu Lildm- 

 rita, Viraktaru K&vyam; and others, containing legends of a vast number of Jangama Saints and 

 Teachers. — Mackenzie Collection, vol. 2. 



% Besides the Jangama priests of Keddrndth, an opulent establishment of them exists at 

 Benares: its wealth arises from a number of houses, occupying a considerable space, called the 

 Jangam Bart: the title to the property is said to be a grant to the Jangamas, regularly executed 

 by Man Sink, and preserved on a copper plate : the story with which the vulgar are deluded is, 



