CHAPTER VI.
Of the present State of Learning among the Hindoos.
SECTION I.
Learned Men.
In former ages, the Hindoo philosophers were unquestionably men of deep erudition, and, having spent many years in acts of rigid austerity, were honoured as persons of so great a sanctity of character, that they attracted universal homage and applause: some of them had more than a thousand disciples or scholars. Shŭnkŭracharyŭ, for instance, after his arrival at Benares, placing himself under the care of Govindacharyŭ, who taught the doctrines of the Védantŭ philosophy, became the most celebrated philosopher of his day: here he took the staff of the dundēē, and embraced the life of this class of ascetics, which had then almost sunk into total disrepute. Shŭnkŭrŭ, however, was determined to raise his sect, and, having collected a prodigious number of disciples, he resolved to make the tour of India, to dispute with the learned, and to gain proselytes.—In this pilgrimage he was every where so successful, that he was styled the conqueror of the world. As his terms of dispute were, that if he was unable to obtain the victory he would embrace a secular life, while, if he defeated his antagonist, this antagonist should become a dundēē, multitudes were constrained to enter into this order of ascetics.—The effects of this journey and of these labours are visible to this day: it is said, that not less than 4000 dundēē now reside at Benares. Four small elevations are still shewn in Dravira, upon which it is said this sage used to sit and deliver discourses to his disciples; and in Dravira there is still an annual assembly of dundēēs to the number, it is said, of 10,000.
Thus, in former times, the learned Hindoos were almost invariably ascetics or mendicants, following in this respect the principle adopted by almost every philosophical sect, that to renounce the world was an essential characteristic of a true philosopher.
In the lists of works inserted in this volume at the head of the different divisions of
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