The members of this sect are in the north of India called S'ri Vaishn'avas, and are decidedly hostile to the S'aivas ; nor are they on friendly terms with those Vaishn'avas who worship Krishna, although they acknowledge that deity to be an incarnation of Vishn'u.
Towards the end of the thirteenth century of our era, RamAnanda, originally one of the earliest teachers of the tenets professed by the preceding sect, retired from the society, and established a schism of his own at Benares. The principal object of worship of RamAnanda's followers is Vishn'u as Ramachandra : they of course reverence also the other Avataras, but they maintain the superiority of Rama in the present or Kali yuga; hence they are collectively known as Reintavats. They also reverence the SAlagrAma stone and the Tulasi plant, and their forms of worship correspond with those of the Hindus in general ; but some mendicant members of tho sect consider all forms of adora tion superfluous, beyond the incessant invocation of the name of KrIshn'a, and Rama. They are known as Vairagth or Viraktas. There are many subdivisions of this school, which it would be tedious to enumerate.
A sect of great influence, to which the most opulent part of the population of India belongs, is that of the Rudra-Sampradaya, or Vallabhttcharis. They attach themselves to the worship of Krishna and his mistress RidhA, one of the Gopis of Vrindavana, either singly or conjointly. There is, however, another form which is more popular• still, although much interwoven with the other. This is the Bala GopAla, or the Infant GopAla (Cowherd—a name of Krishna), the worship of whom is very widely diffused amongst all ranks of Hindu society, and which originated with the founder of the Rudra Sam pradAya, Vallabha Acharya. Tho worship of Krishn'a as one with Vishn'u dates evidently from the MahA-Bhtrata, and his juvenile forms are brought pre-eminently to notice in the account of his infancy in the Vishn'u and other PurAn'as; but none of these works discriminate him from Vishn'u, nor do they recommend his infantinc or adolescent state to peculiar veneration. Eight times a day ceremo nial worship is paid, and the procession of JugganAtha is (or was) held in his honour. The most popular festival at Benaree is the Janamash t'aml, the nativity of Krishna, on the eighth day of Bhadra (August). Another is the RAsa-yAtra, or annual commemoration of the dance of the frolicksome deity with the sixteen Gopts. This last is a very popular festival, and is celebrated with the greatest solemnity.
The Brahma SampradAya is a sect instituted in the south of India by Marlboro Achlrya, who was born in the Saka year 1121 (o.n. 1199). The doctrine of the members of this acct is similar to that of the Rudra SampradAya, with the exception that they deny the Moksha, or final emancipation ; they also hold the Yoga to he impracti cable : for according to them life is one and eternal, dependent upon the Supreme (Vislin'u), and indissolubly connected with, but not the same with him; they quote the following lino from the lIallopaniahad: As the bird and the string, as juices and trees, as rivers and oceans, as fresh water and salt, as the thief and his booty, as man and objects of sense—ao are Cod and life distinct, and both are ever indefinable ;" and this one front the Garud'a-Puriftn'a " From the difference between omniscience and partial knowledge, omnipotence and Inferior power, supremacy and subservience, the union of God and life cannot take place." This division of the N'aielin'avas is however confined to the
peninsul*, and is altogether unknown In Gangetic, Hindoetan.
Besides these sects, which are the most conspicuous, the Vaishil'avas comprehend the Khakis, Mahar Daais, Senate, Mira-Baia, Nimilvate, Chorea's-DIAL., (to.
This account of the Vaishn'are sects has been chiefly derived from Professor Wilson's valuable paper in the fifteenth volume of the ' Asiatic Researches,' to which we refer the reader fur fuller information.
Most of these religious sects aro divided into clerical and lay members, as it were : the bulk of the votaries, though not always, belong to the latter ; while the rest, or clerical class, are sometimes monastic and sometimes secular. Of the ocenobitic members of the different communities most pursue a wandering and mendicant life; ' indeed all of them at sonic period have led such a life ; but when old and infirm they sit down In some previously existing math, or monas tery, or establish one of their own.
The Maths, Asthals, or AkAras, the residences of the monastic com munities, are scattered over the whole country; they generally com prehend a set of byte or chambers for the Mahanta, or superior, and his permanent pupils; a temple sacred to the deity whom they wor ship, or the SamAdh, or shrine of the founder of the sect, or some emi nent teacher; and a Dharrna Salk one or more sheds or buildings for the accommodation of the mendicants or travellers, who are constantly visiting the Math. Ingress and egress are free to all : and indeed • restraint upon personal liberty seems never to have entered into the conception of any of the religious legislators of the Hindus.
Of the Inanimate objecta sacred to Vishn'u the SAlagrAma stone is the principal ; it forma a profitable object of traffic, and enjoys the highest veneration of most of the Vaislin'avaa. The SAlagramna are mostly annnonitee, found in the bed of the Gandhakl river, of the size of an orange. The reasons why this stone is worshipped are very contradictory and by no means satisfactory. We refer to the most plausible ones in the ' As. Res.,' rot ill; W. Hamilton, of Hindoetan,' vol. L ; Forbes,' Oriental Memoirs,' von and Ritter, Erdkiintle; vol. iv.