Handbook of History of Religions

SR No.: 007634
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Edward Washburn
Publisher: Sanmati Tirth Prakashan Pune
Total Pages: 678
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 2 MB

Page 527

[Footnote 89: Among the Vallabhas (above, p. 505). The Teacher is the chief god of most of the Vallabhas (Barth, p. 235). For the Vist.]h[t.]hal view of caste see 1A. XI. 152.]
[Footnote 90: It is true of other sectaries also, Ramaites and Civaites, that the mere repetition of their god's name is a means of salvation.]
[Footnote 91: Now chiefly in the South. The Dabist[=a]n gives several divisions of sun-worshippers. For more details see Barth, p. 258. Apollonius of Tyana saw a sun-temple at Taxila, JRAS. 1859, p. 77.]
[Footnote 92: More direct than in the form of Vishnu, who at first is merely the sun. Of the relation with Iranian sun-worship we have spoken above.]
[Footnote 93: They brand themselves with the Vishnu-mark, are generally high-caste, live in monasteries, and profess celibacy. They are at most unknown in the North. They are generally known by their founder's name, but are also called Brahma-Samprad[=a]yins, 'Brahma-adherents.']
[Footnote 94: So the P[ra]cupata doctrine is that the individual spirit is different to the supreme lord and also to matter (p[ra]ça, the fetter that binds the individual spirit, paçu, and keeps it from its Lord, pacupat[=i). The fact is that every sectary is more a monotheist than a pantheist. Especially is this true of the Civaite. The supreme is to him Çiva.]
[Footnote 95: Wilson gives a full account of this sect in the As[=ijatick Researches, xvi, p. 100.]
[Footnote 96: Of the Kab[=i]r Panth[=i]s Wilson says: "It is no part of their faith to worship any Hindu deity." A glance at the Dabist[=a]n will preclude the possibility of claiming much originality for the modern deism of India. This work was written in 1645, and its Persian author describes, as a matter of every day occurrence, religious debates between 'Jews,