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RELIGIOUS SECTS
The MACKENZIE Collection, from which the above is taken, contains a number of works' of a similar description in the ancient Kanara dialect. There are also several works of the same nature in Telugu, as the Basavesvara Purána, Panditárádhya Charitra, and others. Although the language of these compositions may now have become obscure or obsolete, it is not invariably so, and at any rate was once familiar. This circumstance, and the marvellous character of the legends they relate, specimens of which have been given in the above account of the founder of the sect, adapted them to the comprehension and taste of the people at large, and no doubt therefore exercised a proportionate influence. Accordingly WILKS, BUCHANAN, and DUBOIS represent the Lingavants as very numerous in the Dekhan, especially in Mysore, or those countries constituting ancient Kanara, and they are also common in Telingana. In Upper India there are no popular works current, and the only authority is a learned Bhashya, or Comment, by NÍLKANTHA, on the Sutras of VYÁSA, a work not often met with, and, being in Sanskrit, unintelligible to the multitude".
As the Basrana Purána, Chenna Basava Purána, Prabhulinga Lila, Saranu Lilámrita, Viraktaru Kávyam, and others, containing legends of a vast number of Jangama Saints and Teachers. MACKENZIE Collection, Vol. 2, [pp. 12-32. See also Madras Journal, Vol. XI, p. 143 ff. and GRAUL, Reise nach Indien, Vol. V, p. 185 and 360.]
2 Besides the Jangama priests of Kedáranáth, an opulent establishment of them exists at Benares: its wealth arises from
