Essays Lectures on Religion of Hindu Vol 01

SR No.: 007688
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: H H Wilson
Publisher: Trubner and Company London
Publication Year: 1861
Total Pages: 480
Language: English
Classification: Interfaith & Hinduism
File Size: 28 MB

Page 66

50
RELIGIOUS SECTS
extent, according to the property of which the proprietors are possessed; but they generally comprehend a set of huts or chambers for the Mahant', or Superior, and his permanent pupils; a temple, sacred to the deity whom they worship, or the Samadhi, or shrine of the founder of the sect, or some eminent teacher; and a Dharma Sálá, one or more sheds, or buildings for the accommodation of the mendicants or travellers, who are constantly visiting the Math: ingress and egress is free to all; and, indeed, a restraint upon personal liberty seems never to have entered into the conception of any of the religious legislators of the Hindus.
1 The following description of the residence of MANDANA Miśra, from the Sankara Vijaya of ANANDA Giri, is very applicable to a modern Math.
“At the distance of four Yojanas, west from Hastinapur, was a square plot of ground, extending a cos on each side; in the centre of it stood a large mansion, constructed of the timber of the Tal, and exactly facing it another a hundred cubits in length; upon the top of this last were many cages full of parrots, and within it resided five hundred pupils, occupied in the study of various Sástras: the first was the dwelling of the Teacher, like Brahmá with four heads, like the Serpent King, with a thousand faces, and Rudra, with a five-fold head, amongst his disciples like the waves of the ocean, and enabling them to overcome the universe in unparalleled profundity and extent of knowledge: lie was attended by numerous slaves of both sexes: attached to his dwelling were wells and reservoirs, and gardens and orchards, and his person was pampered with the choicest viands procured daily by his disciples. In his court-yard were two Temples, on a circular mound, for the worship of the l'išvadevas and the Sálagrám, in the form of Lakshmi Náráyana.”