RELIGIOUS SECTS OF THE HINDUS. 291 



Bhishana Panthis carry their aversion to external emblems still farther, 

 and discard the use of images altogether. The Dundiyas and Samvegis 

 are religious orders : the former affect rigorous adherence to the moral 

 code, but disregard all set forms of prayer or praise, and all modes of 

 external worship : the Samvegis follow the usual practices, but subsist 

 upon alms, accepting no more than is indispensable for present wants. 



The whole of the Jains are again distinguished into clerical and lay, or 

 into Yatis and Srdvakas : the former lead a religious life, subsisting upon 

 the alms supplied by the latter. According to the greater or less degree 

 of sanctity to which they pretend, are their seeming purity and outward 

 precision, shewn especially in their care of animal life : they carry a 

 brush to sweep the ground before they tread upon it; never eat nor 

 drink in the dark, lest they should inadvertently swallow an insect, 

 and sometimes wear a thin cloth over their mouths lest their breath 

 should demolish some of the atomic ephemera that frolic in the sun- 

 beams ; they wear their hair cut short, strictly they should pluck it out 

 by the roots ; they profess continence and poverty, and pretend to 

 observe frequent fasts and exercise profound abstraction. Some of them 

 may be simple enthusiasts ; many of them, however, are knaves, and 

 the reputation which they enjoy all over India, as skilful magicians, 

 is not very favourable to their general character : they are, in fact, not 

 unfrequently Charlatans, pretending to skill in palmistry and necromancy, 

 dealing in emperical therapeutics, and dabbling in chemical, or rather 

 alchemical manipulations. Some of them are less disreputably engaged 

 in traffic, and they are often the proprietors of Maths and temples, 

 and derive a very comfortable support from the offerings presented by 

 the secular votaries of Jina. The Yatis, as above remarked, never 

 officiate as priests in the temples, the ceremonies being conducted by a 

 member of the orthodox priesthood, a Brahman, duly trained for the 

 purpose. The Yatis are sometimes collected in Maths, called by them 



