RELIGIOUS SECTS OF THE HINDUS. 209 



of the Danili and Alit orders, or men who have no inclination for a life 

 of study or business : when weary of the vagrant and violent habits of 

 the Ndga, they re-enter the better disposed classes, which they had first 

 quitted. The Saiva Ndgas are very numerous in many parts of India, 

 though less so in the Company's provinces than in any other: they were 

 formerly in great numbers in Bundelkand,* and Himmet Bahadar 

 was a pupil of one of their Mahants, Rajendra Gir, one of the 

 lapsed Dasnimi ascetics. These Ndgas are the particular opponents of 

 the Vairagi Ndgas, and were, no doubt, the leading actors in the bloody 

 fray at Haridwar, \ which had excluded the Vaishnavas from the great 

 fair there, from 1760, till the British acquired the country. The leader 

 of the Saiva party was called Dhokal Gir, and he, as well as the spiritual 

 guide of Himmet Bahadar, was, consequently, of the Dasndmi order, which 

 would thus seem to be addicted to violent and war-like habits. With res- 

 pect to the sanguinary affray at Haridwar, in which we are told eighteen 

 thousand JBairdgis were left dead on the field, there is a different legend 

 current of the origin of the conflict, from that given in the Researches, 

 but neither of them is satisfactory, nor indeed is any particular cause 

 necessary, as the opposite objects of worship, and the pride of strength and 



* A party of them attacked Colonel Goddard's troops in their march between Dorawal and 

 Herapur, the assailants were no more than four or five hundred, but about two thousand hovered 

 about the rear of the army : they are called Pandarums in the narrative, but were evidently Saiva 

 Ndgas. Pennant's Hindustan, 2, 192. The Vindicator of the Hindus, speaking of them, observes, 

 that they often engage in the rival contests of the Indian Chiefs, and, on a critical occasion some 

 years ago, six thousand of them joined the forces of the Mahratta Chief Sindiah, and enabled him, 

 with an equal number of his own troops, to discomfit an army of thirty thousand men, headed by 

 one of his rebellious subjects. 



f A. It. 11. 455. It may be observed, that a very accurate account is given in the same place 

 of the general appearance and habits of the Saiva Samjdsis and Jogis, the Vuishnava Vairdgis, and 

 Uddsis of Nanchshah. The term Gosain, as correlative to Saiiyasi, is agreeable to common usage, 

 but, as has been elsewhere observed, is more strictly applicable to very dial-rent characters. 



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