H I N D O 
their difciples in any branch of knowledge, which may 
snake them revered among the vulgar. • A band of thefe 
mendicant deiperadoes attacked general Goddard on the 
banks of the river Cane, and drove away two elephants 
and a few camels; but a detachment from the general’s - 
army foon recovered them, and killed or wounded twenty 
of the Yogeys. Two thoufand more of thefe religious 
hovered in their rear, but fled on the firft appearance of 
an attack.” See Pennant’s View of Hindooftan, vol. ii. 
P- 1 9 1 - 
Thefe tribes, which all bear alike the epithet of Fakeers, 
are to be met with more or lefs in every part of Hindoo¬ 
ftan ; but chiefly in the neighbourhood of great temples, 
both from religious motives, and in order to colleft gifts 
from the perfons who refort thither. Contrary to the 
practice of the Hindoos in general, many of them wear 
their hair; and, by frequently rubbing it with the oil of 
the cocoa-nut, it grows to an extraordinary degree of 
length and thicknefs. Some let it hang loofe on their 
bodies, extending to the ground; others have it plaited 
in many trefies, and wound round the head in the form 
of a great turban. See the figure of a Yogey in the an¬ 
nexed Engraving. 
To elucidate more obvioufly.the character and purfuits 
•of the Saniafties, out of which all the other devotees feeni 
:to have arifen, we fliall give an account of two or three 
who came peculiarly under the notice of the Englifli, as 
Hated by J. Duncan, efq. in the fifth volume of the Afiatic 
Kelearches. The particulars are as follow' c- 
Purana Poori is a-Saniafly diftinguifhed by the epithet 
€ordhbahu, from his arms and hands being kept in a fixed 
pefition above his head. He became famous as a great 
traveller. He is a native of Canouge, and of the Khatri 
or Rajapout'tribe. At nine years of age he fecretly with¬ 
drew from his father’s houfe, and proceeded to the city 
of Betliour, on the banks of the Ganges, where he refolved 
to become a Fakeer. With this determination he went to 
Allahabad, at the time of the great annual meeting of pil¬ 
grims ; where, bearing.of the merits attached to what he 
defcribes as one of the eighteen kinds of Tupifya , or modes 
of devotional difeipline, lie made choice of that of Oord/i- 
bahu, above noticed; the firft operation of which he re- 
prelents to be extremely painful, and to require prepara¬ 
tion by a previous courle of abftinence. After exercifing 
himfelf for fome years in the functions ofthis new calling, 
ferving at the temples in the lealbns of their various rites 
and lacrifices, waiting on the Brahmins, and eftablifliing 
his character as a truly devout Saniaffy, he determined on 
making a pilgrimage to all the great pagodas in every 
part of Hindooftan; where he might be occafionally no¬ 
ticed by the principal rajahs and chiefs of the different 
diftrifts, and vie with all the 'other Saniaflies in ftriftnefs 
of difeipline and feverity of morals; and thus acquire a 
name among the Brahmins of every feel. 
Fie let out from Allahabad to vifit Ramilher, which is 
fituated oppofite to Ceylon; taking his route by Calpi, 
Oujein, Burhampour, Aurangabad, and Elora; the fur- 
prifing excavations at which place lie beheld with admira¬ 
tion ; and, crofting the Godavery at Tounker, he palled 
by Poonah, Settarah, and various other intermediate towns, 
to Bednore, of which a ranny, or princefs, was the fove- 
reign. From thence he went to Seringapatam, then in 
pofteflion of its rightful Hindoo prince, from whole fon 
Hydpr Ali leized it. He then defeended through the 
Tamerchery Pafs. into Malabar, and arrived at Cochin; 
■whence he crofted the peninlula through a defert tracl of 
country to Ramilher; after viftting which, he returned up 
the Coromandel coaft to the temple of Jagan-Nath in 
Oriffa, where he fpent a confiderable time with the various 
lech| aflembled at that famous pagoda. 
From Jagan-Nath he returned by nearly the fame route 
to Ramilher; whence he palled over into Silan, or Ceylon, 
and proceeded to its capital, where Khundi Maha Rauje was 
the reigning prince,. Further on he arrived at Catlgang, 
on a river called the Manic Gunga, where there is a tem- 
¥ol, X. No. 649, 
O S T A N. HO 
pie of Carticeya, the fon of Mahadeo, to whom he paid 
his devotions, and then went on to vifit the Sreepud, or 
“ Divine Foot,” which the Mohammedan geographers call 
“ Adam’s Foot;” fituated upon a mountain of extraordi¬ 
nary height; on one part of which there is alfo (according 
to this Fakeer’s defeription) an extenfive miry cavity, 
called the Bkoput Tank, and which bears alfo the name of 
the Tank of Ravan, or Raban, (the b and.o being pro¬ 
nounced indifferently in various parts of India,) one of 
the former kings of this illand, well known in the Hindoo 
legends for his wars with Rama, and from whom this 
tapu, or illand, may probably have received its ancient 
appellation of Taprobanc, (i. e. the ifle of Raban.) Leav¬ 
ing this tank, he proceeded to a ftation called Seeta Koond, 
(where Rama placed his wife Seeta, on the occafion of his 
war with her ravilher Ravan,) arid then reached at length 
to the Sreepud, on a moft extenfive table or flat, where 
there is (he obferves) a bungalow built over the print of 
the divine foot; after worfhipping which, he returned by 
the fame route. * 
From Ceylon, Purana Poori pafled over among the Ma¬ 
lays, whom he defcribes as being MufiuLmans; but there 
was one capital Hindoo merchant, a native of Ceylon, fet¬ 
tled there, at whofe houfe he lodged for two months, and 
who then procured him a paflage to Cochin, on the coaft 
of Malabar, up which he proceeded by land; particulariz¬ 
ing, with a wonderful tenacity of memory, the feveral 
towns and places through which he pafled, with their in¬ 
termediate diftances. In this direction he proceeded, along 
the coaft of Bombay, and pafled on to Dwarac Tatta Hin- 
gulaj, or Henglaz, and through Moultan, beyond the 
Attock, whence he changed his route to the ealtward, and 
arrived at Hurdwar, where the Ganges enters the plains 
of Hindooftan; and from that place of Hindoo devotion 
he again departed in a wefterly direction, through the up¬ 
per parts of the Punjab to Cabul, and thence to Bamian, 
where he mentions with admiration the number of ftatues 
that (till exift, notvvithftanding the deftrubtion which had 
been made for feven hundred years, by the Muflulman 
invaders. 
In the courfe of his pilgrimage in this quarter of the 
country, he .fell in with the army of Ahmed Shah Ab¬ 
dallah, in the clofe vicinity of Ghizni; and that king, 
having an ulcer in his nofe, confulfed this Fakeer, to know 
if, being an Indian, he could preferibe a remedy for it; 
on which occafion the latter acknowledged that, having 
no knowledge of furgery or medicine,'he had recourle to 
his wits, by infinuating to the prince, that there moft; pro¬ 
bably did fubfift a connexion between the ulcer and his 
fovereignty, fo that it might not be advifable to feek to 
get rid of the one, left it ihould rilk the lofs of the other; 
a fuggeftion that met (he adds) with the approbation of 
this warlike prince and his minifters. 
Purana Poori afterwards travelled through Khorafiin, 
by the way of Hei'at and Mulhhed, to Aftrabad, on the 
borders of the Cafpian Sea, and to the Maha or Buree 
Jowalla Mookhi, or Juala Muchi, terms that mean a 
“ Flaming Mouth,” as being a fpot in the neighbourhood 
of Bakee, on the weft fide of the fea in queftion, whence 
fire iffues; a circumftance that has rendered it of great 
veneration with the wandering Hindoos; the Fakeer adds, 
that locally it is called Daghejlan ; a word which in Sanlkrit 
means “ The Region of Heat.” After fojourning eleven 
months at this Jowalla Mookhi, he embarked on the Caf¬ 
pian, hnd obtained a paflage to Aftrachan ; where he men¬ 
tions to have been courteoufly received by the Hindoos 
refiding in that place. 
The Fakeer next proceeds to notice, that a river (mean ¬ 
ing, no doubt, the Volga) flows under Aftrachan, and is, 
he fays, frozen over, lb as to admit of- paflengers travel¬ 
ling on it, during four months in the year; and thence, 
he mentions, in eighteen days journey, he proceeded to 
Mofcow, the ancient capital of Ruflia, (the fovereign of 
which was, he obferves, a bcely, or lady,) and that he 
halted there during five days in the ArmenianyDay; and 
