________________
54
RELIGIOUS SECTS
exceptions to this innocuous character, and robberies, and murders have been traced to these religious establishments.
The especial object of the worship of RÁMÁNANDA'S followers is VISHŃU, as RÁMACHANDRA: they, of course, reverence all the other incarnations of VISHŃU, but they maintain the superiority of RÁMA, in the present or Kali Yug; hence they are known collectively as Rámávats, although the same variety prevails amonst them, as amongst the Rámánujas, as to the exclusive or collective worship of the male and female members of this incarnation, or of Róma and Sítá, singly, or jointly, or Sítá Rámat: individuals of them also pay particular veneration to some of the other forms of VISHNU, and they hold in like estimation, as the Rámánujas, and every Vaishnava sect, the Sálagrám stone and Tulasi plant; their forms of worship correspond with those of the Hindus generally, but some of the mendicant members of the sect, who are very numerous, and are usually known as Vairagís, or Viraktas, consider all form of adoration superfluous, beyond the incessant invocation of the name of KŘISHŇA and RÁMA.
The practices of this sect are of less precise nature than those of the RÁMÁNUJAS, it being the avowed object of the founder to release his diciples from those
Amongst the temples of this sect at Benares, are two dedicated to Rádhá Krishna, although attached to Maths belonging to the Rámávat order, and not at all connected with the followers of VALLABIA, or of CHAITANYA and NiTYÁNAND.
