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and mind; or word, deed, and thought: a joint reference to the literal and figurative sense of the term has given rise to a religious distinction termed Danda Grahanam, the taking up of the staff, or adopting the exercise of the moral restraints above-mentioned, and carrying, as emblematic of such a purpose, either one, or, as in the present instance, three small wands or staves. Tridandi designates both these characteristics of the order.
RELIGIOUS SECTS
The Tridandi Sannyasis are such members of the Rámánuja, or Śrí Vaishnava sect, as have past through the two first states of the Brahmanical order, and entered that of the Sannyasi, or the ascetic life: their practices are, in some other respects, peculiar: they never touch metals nor fire, and subsist upon food obtained as alms from the family Brahmans of the Sri Vaishnava faith alone: they are of a less erratic disposition than most other mendicants, and are rarely met with in upper India: they are found in considerable numbers, and of high character, in the south: in their general practices, their religious worship, and philosophical tenets, they conform to the institutes and doctrines of RÁMÁNUJA.
VAIRÁGÍS.
The term Vairagí implies a person devoid of passion', and is therefore correctly applicable to every religious mendicant, who affects to have estranged
From Vi privative prefix, and Raya passion.
