152 On the Creed^ Customs and Literature of the Jangams. [Jaw, 



are as much bound by caste as other Hindus are. Yet they are sincere 

 believers in Christianity, and express a horror of idolatry. 



Lastly it remains to speak of " the four Aradhyas" visionary person- 

 ages of very great importance in the creed, but regarding whom I have 

 not succeeded in obtaining any definite information. 



Among Jangams as well as among Aradhyas, at all their various so- 

 lemnities whether marriage, birth, initiation or funerals, four vases of 

 water are solemnly placed in the name of " the four Aradhyas" or 

 prophets. 



These four sages are named R'evan Aradhya, Marul Aradhya, E'co' 

 Rama Aradhya, and Pandit Aradhya. In four ?»ges, it is said, these 

 four successively appeared as precursors of the divine Basava, 



And to this slender information only one point is added which is the 

 source of perpetual contention. The Aradhyas claim these sages as 

 being Bramins : which the Jangams deny, saying, these were our origi- 

 nal teachers, and could not have disobeyed Basava who abolished caste. 



The Aradhyas and Jangams who answered my que ies, however 

 frank in other respects are evidently in total ignorance about these ve- 

 nerated characters, who are spoken of in no book that I have met with. 

 The Pandit Aradhya Charitra is n;imed after the fourth prophet, but 

 is merely written in his name, and is acknowledged to be a modern com- 

 pilation. 



The Siddhanta Sikhamani, written in Sanscrit verse on the Aradhya 

 system contains a wild mythological tale tending to represent Revan 

 Aradhya as a human appearance of one of the Pramathas or ministers of 

 Siva. But this book is not considered good authority, an 1 tlie legend 

 is not current. lam also assured that the dt^iails are given in a book 

 (supposed to be written in Canarese) named Chatur matha Sthala nir^ 

 nayam, but I have not met with this book, and my informants know of 

 it only by report. 



Perhaps we may reasonably entertain a suspicion that these " four 

 sages" are analogous to the four peers of the Musulmans, who are des- 

 cribed by Dr. Herklots, in page 287 of his volume already quoted. 

 These peers or canonized spiritual guides certainly bear Musulman 

 names, but they play the same part, in the ceremony of making a 

 Musulman mooreed that the four Aradhyas do in that of making a Jan- 

 gam. They too, are described in an apostolical succession, and, to 

 crown the analogy, nothing satisfactory can be ascertained regarding 

 them, notwithstanding the high veneration in which they are held, 

 De nan entihus et not apparentibus eadem est ratioy and if these per- 

 sonages ever existed among the Jangams, how does it happen that these 



