[3] Maclagan, para. 88.
[4] Maclagan, loc. cit.
[5] Ibbetson, para. 265.
[6] Maclagan, para. 95.
[7] Tribes and Castes, article Suthra Shāhi.
Parmārthi Sect
Parmārthi Sect.—A Vishnuite sect of which 26,000 persons were returned as members in the census of 1901. Nearly all of these belonged to the Uriya State of Kālāhandi, since transferred to Bihār and Orissa. The following account of the sect has been furnished by Rai Bahādur Panda Baijnāth, formerly Diwān of Kālāhandi State.
This sect penetrated the State from the Orissa side, and seems to belong to Bengal. In the beginning it consisted only in pure devotion to the worship of Krishna, but later it has been degraded by sexual indulgence and immorality, and this appears to be the main basis of its ritual at present. Outwardly its followers recite the Bhāgavad Gīta and pretend to be persons of very high morals. Their secret practices were obtained from one of his officials who had entered the sect in the lowest grade. On the day of initiation there is a great meeting of members at the cost of the neophyte. A text is taught to him, and the initiation is completed by all the members partaking together of a feast without distinction of caste. The food eaten at this is considered to be Mahāprasād, or as if offered to Vishnu in his form of Jagannāth at Puri, and to be therefore incapable of defilement. The mantra or text taught to the disciple is as follows:
O Hari, O Krishna, O Hari, O Krishna,