RUDRA SAMPRADAYI, a sect of Vaishnava Hindus, founded by Vallabhacharya., who origin ated the worship of Bala Gopala, the infant Krishna. This worship is very widely diffused amongst all ranks of Indian society, but is perhaps best known as the religion of the Gokalastlia Gosains, the title of its teachers. Vallabha was the son of a Telinga Brahman. He taught that privation was not sanctity, and that it was the duty of the teacher and his disciples to worship their deity, not in nudity and hunger, but in costly apparel and choice food; not in solitude and mortification, but in the pleasures of society and the enjoyment of the world. The gosains or teachers, like Vallablia, are always married men, always clothed with the best raiment, and fed with the daintiest viands by their followers, over whom they have unlimited influence. The followers of the order aro especially nutnerous among-st the mercantile community, and gosains are constantly travelling over India under the pretence of pil grimage, but reconcile to themselves on the's° occasions tho profits of trade with the benefits of devotion. Zealous clisciples devote to the guru the threefold Samarpana, Tan, Ilan, Dhan, or body, mind, and wealth. The temples and houses of the sect have metal, often gold, imnges of Copal, of Krishna, and Radha, and other divine forms connected with the incarnation. The idol is richly decorated and sedulously attended in daily ceremonials. Besides their public demon strations of respect, this sect keep piettu.es and images of Gopal in their houses ; and before sitting down to any of th'eir meals, they take care to offer a portion to the idol. Those of the disciples who have performed the triple Samarpana, eat only front the liancla of each other ; and the wife or child that has not exhibited tho same mark of devotion, can neither cook for such a disciple nor cat in his society. Vitala Nat'h, the son and
successor of Vallnisha, had seven 8011B, all of whom were teachers, and their followers, though in all essential points the same, form eeparato commun ities. Those of Gokalnath, however, look on their own gosains as the only legitimate teachere of the faith. The worshippers of this sect are very numerous and opulent, the merchants and bankers, especially thorio from Gujerat and Malwa, belong ing to it. Their temples and establishmenta are numerous all over India, but particularly at Muttra and many hundreds at Bindraban. But at Sri 'Nat'l] Dwar, at Ajmir, is tho most cele brated, most highly venerated, and most richly endowed of all the gosain establiahments. It is a matter of obligation with metnbers of this sect to visit Sri Nat'l' Dwar at least once in their lives, and the head gosain presents them with a certi ficate to that effect. The indecent and immoral character of this sect was notoriously brought before the public of India in a trial for libel instituted in 1862, at Bombay, by one of the teachers of the sect, and known as the Maharaja case.' It was shown by the evidence then adduced that the women of the wealthiest of this sect deemed it an honour to receive their priest's at tentions, for which the priest withdrew with tho woman of his selection, selected in the midst of and from amidst hundreds of her fellow-wor shippers, and it waa also in evidence that the maharaja allowed people to seo him associating with his selection. In 1868, in Bombay, during the holi, indecent pantomimes were shown by this sect before a concourse of men and women. It is the Banya and Bhattya races who chiefly sup port this sect.—Rev. Dr. 1Vilson ; Times of India.