MAHARAJA, an honorific appellation of the head of a sect of Hindus styled the Rudra Sampradayi, also Vallabhacharya, also Gokal astha. The sect arose about the 15th century, from the teachings of Vallabhacharya, a Telinga Brahman, and his doctrines are best known as those of the Gokalastha gosai, the title of its teachers, who are usually in Bombay styled Maha raja. The doctrine of Wallabha was that priva tion was not sanctity, and that the duty of , teachers and disciples was to worship the deity, not in nudity and in hunger, but in costly apparel and choice food. The followers of this sect are very numerous and opulent ; the merchants and bankers, especially those from Gujerat and Malwa, belong to it. Their temples and establishments are numerous all over India, but particularly at Mathura and at Bindraban ; but at Sri Nat'h Dwar, at Ajmir, is the most celebrated and most richly-endowed of all the Gcsain establishments. The disciples who are devout make the threefold Samarpana, tan, man, d'han, of body, mind, wealth, to the guru, whom many of the Bhattia race regard as an incarnation of Krishna, the worship of whom, as Bala Gopala, they follow. There are about 60 or 70 maharajas in India. Of these, the maharaja at Sriji is said to be the chief, and he has a great temple near Udaipur. When the people wish to worship a maharaja, they fetch him to their houses, offer him flowers, wave a light round him, present him with money, and prostrate themselves at his feet. The maharajas worship the gods much in the same way, and in addition they bathe and dress the images. On certain occasions it is customary to worship the idol by swinging it ; and at these swinging festivals, swinging the maharaja is a religious ceremony which is performed by the female members of the different families of the disciples. Whilst the maharaja is swinging he throws the red powder called gulal amongst his devotees, and some of it falls upon the necks and breasts of the women. If any one else threw gulal upon women, it would, excepting on the Boll festival, be regarded as an insult. Nautch dances are occasionally given by the maharaja, but in a different part of the temple to that which the idols are placed, and female devotees occasionally visit the maharaja's family in a separate part of the temple. The maharajas have temples in Bombay, and sometimes there are several residing in the island. When Gokalnath maharaja originally visited Bombay, in 1811, all the Vaishnava sect requested his holiness to settle permanently with his family, for the puri fication of their souls, offering at the same time to build a temple for him, and to make arrangements to meet his expenses in connection with the temple. Accordingly a tax upon articles of trade was determined upon ; and all the Vaishnava merchants, who in Bombay possess a monopoly in almost every important article of trade, solemnly bound themselves to add it to the price of every article they might buy or sell. The result is that
about Rs. 1,62,000 are raised every year for six different maharajas, of whom the maharaja of Bombay receives about half a lakh per annum.
According to the doctrines of the Vallabha charya sect, every maharaja is considered as the husband of his female devotees ; but in 1855 the followers held a meeting, at which it was resolved that none of their daughters or wives should be allowed to resort to the maharajas for worship except at certain stated hours, when the maharajas would be necessarily occupied in ceremd ies at the temple. Many amongst them no doub were as 7, ignorant as the public in general were before the trial took place in 1862, of the habits' f the maharajas; or, if they knew what was done, \they considered such practices to be sanctioned' by their religion. Bold and earnest words fitly con cluded Sir Joseph Arnould's judginent—' It is not a question of theology that has been before us ; it is a question of morality. The principles for which the defendant and his witnesses have been contending is simply this,—that what is morally wrong cannot be theologically right ; that when practices which sap the very foundations of morality, which involve a violation of the eternal and immutable laws of right, are established in the name and under the sanction of religion, they ought for the common welfare of society, and in the interest of humanity itself, to be publicly denounced and exposed. The defendants have denounced and have exposed them. At a risk and at a cost which we cannot adequately measure, these men have done determined battle against a foul and powerful delusion. They have dared to look custom and error boldly in the face, and pro claim before the world of their votaries that their evil is not good, that their lie is not the truth. In thus doing they have done bravely and well. It may be allowable to express a hope that what they have done will not have been in vain, that the seed they have sown will bear its fruit, that their courage and constancy will be rewarded by a steady increase in the number of those whom their words and their example have quickened with thought and animated to resistance, whose homes they have helped to cleanse from loathsome lewdness, and whose souls they have set free from a debasing bondage.' Their persons are deemed very sacred. At the trial in 1862, Jadunathji Brijruttonji Maharaj, the plaintiff in the case, when under cross-examination in the witness box by the late Mr. Anstey, was shown a document for identification. Mr. Anstey, who stood near the witness-box, stretched forth his hand holding the paper, in order to deliver it to the maharaj. The latter shot back into the furthermost corner of the box. Mr. Anstey felt indignant, and his indignation increased when the interpreter of the court explained to him the Wallabhacharyan doctrine of touch. He told the witness through the interpreter, I would not touch you with a pair of tongs.'