70
HISTORY OF INDIA.
[Book IV.
The Rama' wats.
A.D. — where they have many establishments. Their worship is addressed to Vishnu and Lakslnni, and their respective incarnations either singly or conjointly; the
The Kam.T,- most Striking peculiarities in their practice are the individual preparation and scrupulous privacy of their meals. Each person cooks for himself, and if seen by a stranger while thus engaged, or while eating, would bury the viands in the ground. Beside the marks above mentioned, they wear a necklace of the wood of the tulasi, and carry a rosary composed of its seeds or those of the lotus. Their chief reliofious tenet is that Vishnu was before all worlds, and the creator of all, and is, in fact, Brahm, the one self-existent principle, not however devoid of form or quality, but endowed with all good qualities, and with a twofold form — the supreme Spirit, or cause, and the universe or matter, the effect.
The most important branch of the Ramanujyias is the Ramawats or Ramnan- andls, so called from their founder, Ramanand, who, though sometimes said to be an immediate disciple of Ramanuja, seems not to be earlier than the end of the fourteenth century. He was, however, of the sect of Ramanuja, till the scruples of some of its members drove him from its communion. As he had travelled much, they thought it impossible that he could have observed that privacy in his meals to which they attach so much importance. On this gi-ound they condemned him to take his food by himself He resented the treatment, and breaking off all connection with the Ramanujyias, founded a sect of his own. He resided at Benares, where he is said to have had a math which the Mahometans destroyed, and where a stone platform bearing the sup- posed impression of his feet is still shown. In Benares, as well as in many parts of Uppei' Hindoostan, his followers are numerous and influential. In their worship they recognize all the incarnations of Vishnu, but attach themselves particularly to that of Ramachandra. Hence their name of Rama wats. They also take the name of Aradhuta, or liberated, from discarding the peculiar strictness of the Ramanuja sect as to eating, leaving every one in this to follow his own inclination, or comply with common practice.
The most celebrated of Ramanand's disciples was Kabir, the founder of a Vaishnava sect known by the name of the Kabir Panthis. He is entitled to particular notice from the boldness with which he assailed the whole system of idolatrous worship, and ridiculed the learning of the Pundits and tlie doctrines of the Shasters. As usual, his followers have given him a divine origin, by making him an incarnation of Vishnu. The legend is — that Nima, the wife of Nuri, a weaver, found him when an infant floating on a lotus in a pond near Benares. From this circumstance he has received the surname of the "Weaver." It is not ea.sy to fix the date when he flouri.shed, because a life protracted to three hundred years is gravely claimed fur him; but he probably belongs to the first half of the fifteenth century. Tlie distinguishing feature of the sect is the refusal to worship any Hindoo deity, or perform any Hindoo rite. At the same time, the members enjoy considerable latitude, and if so disposed, may
The Kabir
Panthis.
