1840.] On the Creed^ Customs and Literature of the Jangaras. loo 



On being asked how they would treat the corpse of one who died 

 in such a deserted state they answer that it is a case that never hap- 

 pened, and they cannot say what must be dane. As for his soul rhey 

 suppose but very doubtingly, that it has forfeited immortality and must 

 undergo the Hindu metamorphosis. The same also they say regarding 

 the soul of an infant were it possible that it should be buried or lost 

 in the sea without the performance of this solemn initiation. 



Whether the person who has lost the image be an Aradhya, a guru, 

 or a common paria, all castes, including Brainins are bound to unite in 

 the rile of restoration just as all must unite at a funeraL 



Regarding their Books. 



The books read in this sect were originally written in Canarese, and 

 are of two descriptions. Those universally popular as the Basava 

 Puran and the Prabhu LingaLila: and those peculiarly intended for 

 Aradhyas, as the Pandit Aradhya Charitra. They generally speak of 

 these three books as " the Puran, the Lila, and the Charitra." 



The Aradbyas are very fond of Sanscrit reading: the Vedas, the 

 Gila (or Bhagavad Gita), the Nilacantha Bhashyam, the various Aga- 

 mas and the writings of the celebrated theologian Sancar Achari, re- 

 garding whom the reader is referred to Professor Wilson's Essay on 

 Religious Sects, Asiatic Researches, vol. 17, under the head "Dandis." 

 These are eagerly studied but are not locked up from the people at large. 

 For we shall find excellent Sanscrit scholars among the Jangam gurus, 

 and many who are competent even to convey instruction in the Vedas. 



They pretend to found their creed on the venerated Sanscrit treatises 

 now named. But after long enquiry I find that their reliance on these 

 is fictitious. It is easy enough for them to adduce certain texts from 

 these books and the Vedas, on behalf of their cree I,* and in parlicular 



* We sometimes find a similar mode of argument in Christian writers. For instance 

 in the Vedanta Rasayanam, a well known Telugu poem (in padya metre, in four 

 books), written by Ananda, san of Mangala giri Timmaya, which is a little more than 

 a century old. The beauty and poetical vigour of style exhibited in this work render 

 it very attractive, but in the first book the learned author labours (as does the author of 

 the Charitra) to confute Bramins and other idolaters on their own ground, adducing 

 arguments from the Vedas and Puranas in support of his doctrine- Having omitted to 

 mention this poem in a former essay I will take the present opportunity to describe it. 

 The second book brings the historj' only as far as the birth of our Lord : having com- 

 menced with the Fall. The third gives a brief selection from the Gospels describing the 

 baptism, the descent of the Holy Spirit (whom the poet, using Latin words, denomi- 

 nates Sancta S^iriia), the temptation, some miracles, particularly the raising of Lazarus 

 the Last supper: the departure to the Mount of Olives (which the author calls Nandaua 



