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OF THE HINDUS.
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out his excuses: his astonishment and the Rájá's were alike, but the discernment of the latter was more acute, for he immediately comprehended the whole business, fell at his barber's feet, and elected for his spiritual guide an individual so pre-eminently distinguished by the favour and protection of the deity.
RUDRA SAMPRADAYIS, or VALLABHÁCHÁRÍS.
The sects of Vaishnavas we have hitherto noticed are chiefly confined to professed ascetics, and to a few families originally from the south and west of India, or, as in the case of the Rámávats and Kabir Panthis, to such amongst the mass of society, as are of a bold and curious spirit; but the opulent and luxurious amongst the men, and by far the greater portion of the women, attach themselves to the worship of KRISHNA and his mistress RÁDHÁ, either singly, or conjointly, as in the case of VISHNU and LAKSHMI, amongst the Rámánujas, and Sírá and RAM, amongst the Rámávats. There is, however, another form, which is perhaps more popular still, although much interwoven with the others. This is the BALA GOPÁLA, the infant KRISHNA, the worship of whom is very widely diffused amongst all ranks of Indian society, and which originated with the founder of the Rudra Sampradayi sect, VALLABHA ÁCHÁRYA; it is perhaps better known, however, from the title of its teachers, as the religion of the Gokulastha Gosáins.
The original teacher of the philosophical tenets of this sect is said to have been VISHNU SWAMÍ, a com
