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RELIGIOUS SECTS
The origin of the founder of this sect is variously narrated, although in the main points the traditions are agreed: the story told in the Bhakta Máló is, that he was the son of the virgin widow of a Brahman, whose father was a follower of RÁMÁNAND: at his daughter's repeated request, he took her to see RÁMÁNAND, and that teacher, without adverting to her situation, saluted her with the benediction he thought acceptable to all women, and wished her the conception of a son: his words could not be re-called, and the young widow, in order to conceal the disgrace thus inflicted on her, contrived to be privately delivered, and exposed the child: it was found by a weaver and his wife, and brought up as their own.
The followers of Kabir do not admit more than the conclusion of this legend: according to them, the child, who was no other than the incarnate deity, was found floating on a Lotus in Lahartalab, a lake, or pond near Benares, by the wife of a weaver, named Niná", who, with her husband Núri, was attending a wedding procession: she took the child up, and shewed it to her husband, who being addressed by the child, and
gions owe to the real or supposed Kabir, I find him avowedly or unavowedly cited by Babá La, and in the writings of the Sádhs, the Satnámís, the Srí Náráinis and Sünyávádís, and I am told that the Dádi Panthis, and Daryú Däsis are equally indebted to him.
* [According to the text of the Bhakta Malá, as printed in Price's „Hindee and Hindustanee Selectious?", Calcutta: 1827. Vol. I, p. 84. Kabir was found by a weaver of the name of Ali (a Muhammedan?), – TET a OTET.]
