176 On the Creeds Customs and Literature of the Jangams. [Jan, 



Conclusion, 



The statements now made may be summed up in a few lines. The 

 Jangams are a sect of Hindus who have lasted about seven hundred 

 years. They adore Siva as the one God, and wear his image hung on 

 their breasts. They call themselves primitive worshippers, and look 

 upon others as idolaters. They say that they reverence the Vedas, the 

 Bhagavad Gita, and the doctrines of Sancar Achari, the great reformer 

 of the Saiva creed who in point of time preceded their teacher Basava. 

 But rejecting the Bharata, the Bhagavat, and the Ramayan they deny 

 the authority of Bramins: by wliom tliey therefore are detested as 

 hereticks. They are the disciples of Basavn, and as all Hindus are apt to 

 exalt their teachers into gods, they declare Basava to be the god Siva 

 himself. Basava though born a Bramin's son abolished every one of the 

 braminical observances; particularly caste, pilgrimage, and penance, 

 Svime Bromins joined his creed, being in all probability his personal 

 friends ; he persuaded them to lay aside their name, and call themselves 

 ArddhyaSy or Reverend (^koXoi^ whence Caloyer the modern Greek 

 name for a priest). But he could not induce them to lay aside the 

 braminical thread: the rite of assuming which requires prayer address- 

 ed to the sun, as a god. Hence the Jangams assert that these, like other 

 Bramins are idolaters : and accordingly the Aradhyas are rejected by 

 them and treated with scorn. 



They are a peaceable race of Hindu puritans: though at times they 

 have been more warlike : and when their tenets became correctly known 

 to the English there will appear no reason for excluding them from 

 that patronage which has hitherto been extended only to Bramins, or 

 those Hindus who reverence Bramins. Various prejudices have hitherto 

 existed against the Jangams : these have now been investigated, and 

 the result unreservedly communicated to the reader; v,'ho will find that 

 the Jangam literature, however abhorred by Bramins furnishes an agree- 

 able introduction to the various languages of Southern India, 



Postscript. 



The able reports printed in the Madras Journal have shewn the 

 literary value of the Mackenzie manuscripts. But it is much to be 

 reeretted that a large collection now lying untouched in the India 

 House is not transmitted to Madras, where the books might prove very 

 useful. I allude to about eighteen hundred volumes of manuscripts, 



