IINDU SECTS AND MODERN POPI'LAR FAITH. Under this designation may be comprised the sects which arose (hiring the last period of Hinduism and the beliefs which are common to the Hindus to-day. These believers suppose that their religion is countenanced by the Vedas; but its source in reality is to be found in the Puranas and Tantras. They have in common a general sort of ret•ognition of the Hindu trinity or triad—Brahma the creator. Vishnu the pre server. and Siva the destroyer—but in practice they are either Vishnuites or Sivites: for Brah ma is little more than an abstraction, and plays a very subordinate part to-day contrasted with his rivals. Sivaism may loosely In' said to be more popular in the northeast and south of In dia; Vishnuism rather in the northwest, but also in the south. The wives or female energies of these two gods also receive adoration. (See VADAINAvAs; SA I vA : SA KT.\ S. ) Common to them all are certain acts of worship; the ()tier ing of votive gifts, adoration in the temples, and the performance of special ceremonies, such as the fulfillment of vows by going on religions pilgrimages for the purpose of acquiring merit. The caste system also has a strongly religious bearing. although it tends to break down through with Occidentals. (See CARTE.) 'Be side the great seets there are likewise some of limited extent and total insignificance. such as
the worshipers of Agni, the god of fire; of Surya, the sun god: of CaneAa. the god of wisdom and remover of obstacles. Some of these latter sects were looked upon as partly unorthodox, partly heterodox, as early as the ninth and fourteenth centuries of our era. Regarding the sect of the Sikhs, which arose in the fifteenth century, ref erence may be made to the special article on that topic. Reform movements in India have been familiar since the early days of Buddhism and Jainism, down through sikhisin to the modern times. In the nineteenth century a special re ligions agitation was -et on toot by Rammohun Roy (1774-1S33) (9.v.), which resulted establishment of the Bralumesomaj (q.v.), a sort of national church of the Hindus. The movement has extended widely and, like the Arya-Somaj, it is eclectic in its ten deneies, seeking to combine the teachings of the Veda with the tenets of the Bible and the sacred hooks of other faiths. There are also in India 17.000 believers in the Jewish religion, and allusion has been made above to the pres ence of some 90,000 Parsis, who made their home in India more than a thousand years ago. These topics are treated under separate headings, and need only be referred to here.