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10
RELIGIOUS SECTS
considerable, but cannot be discriminated from NáBHÁJI's own, beyond the evidence furnished by the specificaction of persons unquestionably subsequent to his time. —NÁRÁYAŃ Dás probably wrote in the reign of Sháu JEHÁn. The brevity and obscurity of the original work pervade the additional matter, and to remedy these defects, the original text, or Múla, has been take as a guide for an amplified notice of its subjects, or the Tíká of KŘISHŃa Dás; and the work, as usually met with, always consists of these two divisions. The l'íká is dated Samvat, 1769 or A. D. 1713. Besides these, a translation of the Tíká, or a version of it in the more ordinary dialect of Hindustan, has been made by an anonymous author, and a copy of this work, as well as of the original, has furnished me with materials for the following account. The character of the Bhakta Málá will best appear from the extracts of translations from it to be hereafter introduced: it may be sufficient here to observe, that it is much less of a historical than legendary description, and that the legends are generally insipid and extravagant: such as it is, however, it exercises a powerful influence, in Upper India, on popular belief, and holds a similar place in the superstitions of this country, as that which was occupied in the darkest ages of the Roman Catholic faith, by the Golden Legend and Acts of the Saints ?.
* In further illustration of our text, with regard to the instrumentality of the Puranas in generating religious distinctions amongst the Hindus, and as affording a view of the Vaishnava
