1840.] Notice regarding the Tengala and Vadagala Sects. 



301 



The prayers they use are similar, except as to the commencing 

 stanza. The Tengala mantram or verse runs thus : 



Sri Sailesa daya patram, dhi bhacty adi gim'arn'avam 

 Yatindra pravan'ara vande Ramyaja mataram munim. 

 But the Vadahalei exordium runs thus : 



Ramanuja daya patram, jnana vairagya bhushan'am 

 Sri madvencata nadharyam vande vedantaDes icam. 



In the former verse Ramyaja Matri is the name of Manavala ma- 

 muni : in the latter, Vedanta Desica is the title given to Vedanta- 

 chari. 



It seems that the former verse is used in all the temple at Com- 

 bacon''am, and that at Manjacuppani, north of Pondicherry ; perhaps at a 

 few others. 



This verse is used in private by the Vadagalas, but if they ever 

 venture to recite it audibly in a Tengala pagoda it is resented as blas- 

 phemy, and leads to great outrages. 



Ten- c a ^e/, denotes Southern Veda; and Vada-calei denotes the iVbr- 

 ihern creed. These words form the origin of Tengala and Vadagala, 



Among the Vadagalas widows are shaved. This custom the Ten- 

 galas reject. There are some other discrepancies. They intermarry 

 and eat together. 



But the discriminative mark in the forehead is the great sign, and so 

 important do they hold this that various Vishnu temples have the sec- 

 tarial mark cut in stone over the gate. 



The discussion regarding this mark is traced to a difference of opi- 

 nion as to the signification of a celebrated Sanscrit text or half verse, 

 which directs that the mark in the forehead shall be Ndsddl Icesa 

 Panjantam, " from the nose to the hair." Now the Vadagalas say 

 this expression from the nose denotes not any part of the nose, and 

 therefore they begin the line between the brows. 



The Tengalas deny this ; and dividing the nose into three parts, 

 declare that the upper third of the nose is included in the word adi. 

 For they argue that every thing has a beginning, a middle, and an 

 end; and in the verse in question the w^ord " adi," beginning, denotes 

 the first portion." 



This discussion (a counterpart to that of the big-endians in Swift's 

 description of Lilliput), has led to serious disturbances and the loss 

 of many lives. Nor does any annual feast occur without a recurrence 

 to the wrangling regarding the celebrated verse now cited. It is not 

 even satisfactorily ascertained in what book this verse is recorded. A 



