MYSORE, CANARY, AND MALABAR. 
13 
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honour of the deities, and the amusement of their votaries ; and any CHAPTER 
familiarity between these girls and an infidel would occasion 
scandal. About three miles off, at the lesser Conjeveram , is another 
grand temple dedicated to Vishnu , who has here a Mandapam, for his 
reception at the two visits, which he makes in the year to Iswara. 
Ska returns the visit' once a year only. At these visits the worship- 
pers of the two gods, who are of different sects, are very apt to fall 
into disputes, occasioning abusive language, and followed by vio- 
lence; so that the collectors have sometimes been obliged to have 
recourse to the fear of the bayonet, to prevent the controversy from 
producing bad effects. 
I have no occasion to describe the Covils , or Pagodas , that having Temple, 
already been done with sufficient accuracy. I shall only remark, 
that they are great stone buildings, very clumsily executed both 
in their joinings, and carvings, and totally devoid of elegance or 
grandeur, although they are wonderfully crowded with what are 
meant as ornaments. The Rat’hs, Tar, or chariots, on which the 
images of the gods are carried in procession, are much superior 
to those I have seen in Bengal. There are here three Tar, one for 
Irnrnra, a second for his wife, and a third for his son Ganfara. In 
Bengal, the images of Vishnu only, and of this family, are conveyed 
in Rafhs ; Mahadeva, or Iswara , is never carried in procession. 
At Kunji there is a small mosque of very neat workmanship. The Mosque. 
Hindoos say, that it was originally a Covil, or Pagoda; but if it has 
been such, great alterations have been made on it for the better. 
The divisions of the Brahmans here, are different from those SectsofB/-<?A- 
f. i • t> j mans in tha 
round in Bengal. south . 
The most numerous class here, and which comprehends about one Smartal. 
half of all the Brahmans in the Lower Carnatic, is called the Smartal 
sect, and its members are followers of Sankara Achdrya, They are 
commonly said to be of the sect of Ska ; ( but they consider Brahmd, 
Vishnu , and Iswara, to be the same god, assuming different persons 
as the creator, preserver, and de troyer of the universe. They 
