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48
RELIGIOUS SECTS
condemned to feed in a place apart from the rest of the disciples: he was highly incensed at the order, and retired from the society altogether, establishing a schism of his own.
The residence of RÁMÁNAND was at Benares, at the Pancha Gangá Ghát, where a Math, or monastery of his followers, is said to have existed, but to have been destroyed by some of the Musalman princes: at present there is merely a stone plat- form, in the vicinity, bearing the supposed impression of his feet, but there are many Maths of his followers, of celebrity at Benares, whose Panchayat, or council, is the chief authority amongst the Rámávats in Upper India : we shall have frequent occasion to mention these Maths, or convents, and a short account of them may, therefore, here be acceptable.
Most of the religious sects of which we have to give an account, comprise various classes of individuals, resolvable, however, especially into two, whom (for want of more appropriate terms) we must call, perhaps, Clerical and Lay: the bulk of the votaries are generally, but not always of the latter order, whilst the rest, or the Clerical class, are sometimes monastic, and sometimes secular: most of the sects, especially the Vaishắavas, leave this distinction a matter of choice: the Vallabháchárís, indeed, give the preference to married teachers, and all their Gosáins are men of business and family: the preference, however, is usually assigned to teachers of an ascetic or cænobitic life, whose pious meditations are not distracted by the affections
