The worship of the followers of Rámánuja is addressed to Vichnu and to Lakchmî, his wife, and to their respective incarnations, either singly or conjointly; wherefore they are also named Srí Váichnavas, consisting of several subdivisions. The chief religious tenet of the Rámánujas is the assertion that Vichnu is Brahma; that he was before all worlds, and was the cause and the creator of all. They maintain three predicates of the universe comprehending the deity: it consists of chit, “spirit;” achit, “matter;” and Iśwára, “God.”
These sectaries are not allowed to eat in cotton garments, but, having bathed, must put on woollen or silk, and their meal, whilst they are eating, must not attract the eyes of a stranger, or it becomes instantly spoiled, and should be buried in the ground. The marks of the Rámánujas are the same as those of the Rámánandis, before described (see note, p. 181), excepting that the central perpendicular streak on the forehead is red, made with red sanders or roli, a preparation of turmeric and lime. Besides other marks on their bodies, not enumerated here, they wear a necklace of the wood of tulasi, and carry a rosary of the seeds of the same plant, or of the lotus—(See, for a further account of this sect, the work quoted, pp. 27-36).
[313] सम्प्रदाय a sect, a schism, a particular doctrine, and exclusive worship of one divinity.
[314] The most celebrated of the twelve distinguished disciples of Rámánandra (see note, p. 180) was Kabir. I omit the miraculous circumstances of his birth. He was taken up near Benares, a foundling, by the wife of a weaver, named Nimá, and brought up by her and her husband Nuri. Such is the uncertainty prevailing about Kabir’s time, that he is placed by different authors within the space of not less than three centuries, that is, from 1149 to 1449. According to Professor Wilson, he flourished probably about the beginning of the 15th century. The philosophic and religious notions of the Kabir Panthir are in substance the same as those of the Pauranic sects, especially of the Váichnava division. They admit but one God, the creator of the world, and, in opposition to the Vedanta notions of the absence of every quality and form in him, they assert that he has a body formed of the five elements of matter, and that he is endowed with the three gunas, or qualities of being, of course of ineffable power and perfection.
The works attributed to Kabir himself, or to his disciples, are written in the usual form of Hindi verse; twenty of them are enumerated in Professor Wilson’s account of this sect (pp. 58 and 59), and appear very voluminous.
This sect is very widely diffused in India, and split into a variety of subdivisions. At a great meeting near Benáres, no fewer than 35,000 Kabir-Panthis of the monastic and mendicant class are said to have been collected. A place called “the Kabir Cháura,” at Benares, is an establishment pre-eminent in dignity, and constantly visited by wandering members of this sect, as well as by those of other kindred heresies: its Mahant, or Superior, receives and feeds these visitors whilst they stay; the establishment itself is supported by the occasional donations of its lay-friends and followers—(See the work quoted, pp. 53-75).
[315] According to Professor Wilson’s account (p. 56-57), in the midst of the dispute respecting the disposal of his corpse, Kabir himself appeared amongst them, and having desired them to look under the cloth supposed to cover his mortal remains, immediately vanished; on obeying his instructions, they found nothing under the cloth but a heap of flowers; one half of them the Hindus burnt in Benáres, and deposited the ashes in a spot now called Kabir Chaura, whilst the Muselmans erected a tomb over the other portion at Magar, near Gorakhpur, where Kabir died.
[316] In Sanskrit यति yati, called also Séwra s; they are a body of pious mendicants, who live in celibacy, and in general employ their time in the cultivation of medicine, astrology, and divinity—(See On the Jainas of Guzerat and Marwar, by Lieut.-Col. W. Miles. Transact. R. A. Soc., vol. III. p. 335).
[317] मुण्ड shaved, bald.
[318] Hardwar, or Hara-dwara, “the gate of Hara,” is a place in the province of Delhi, situated on the west side of the Ganges, where this river issues from the northern hills. Lat. N. 29° 57´; long. E. 78° 2´. The event above stated took place in the 12th year of the reign of the emperor Shah Jehan, who mounted the throne in the year 1628, and resigned it to his son Aurengzeb in 1658.