RELIGIOUS SECTS OF THE HINDUS. 229 



votaries are said to deposit their upper vests in a box in charge of the 

 Guru. At the close of the usual rites, the male worshippers take each a 

 vest from the box, and the female to whom the garment appertains, be 

 she ever so nearly of kin to him, is the partner for the time of his licen- 

 tious pleasures.* 



KERARI. 



The Kerdri is the worshipper of Devi, in her terrific forms, and 

 is the representative of the Aghora Ghanta and Kdpdliha,^ who, as 

 lately only as seven or eight centuries ago, there is reason to suppose 

 sacrificed human victims to Kali, ChamundA, Chhinnamastaka, and 

 other hideous personifications of the Sakti of Siva. The attempt to offer 

 human beings in the present day, is not only contrary to every known 



* This sect appears in the Sankara Vijaya, as the Uchchishtha Ganapati, or Hairamba sect, 

 who declare that all men and all women are of one caste, and that their intercourse is free from fault. 



The same sort of story is told, but apparently with great injustice of the Mohammedan 

 Byabahdris or Borahs, and of a less known Mohammedan sect, the Cheraghkesh: something of the 

 same kind was imputed to the early Christians by their adversaries. 



f The following description of the Kdpalika, is from the Sankara Vijaya of Anandagiri. 



His body is smeared with ashes from a funeral pile, around his neck hangs a string of human 

 skulls, his forehead is streaked with a black line, his hair is wove into the matted braid, his loins are 

 clothed with a tiger's skin, a hollow skull is in his left hand, (for a cup) and in his right he carries 3 

 bell, which he rings incessantly, exclaiming aloud, Ho, Samblui, Bhairava — ho lord of Kali. 



M 1 



