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OF THE HINDUS.
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therefore, compelled to decline: to remove the difficulty, the host stopped the further descent of the sun, and ordered him to take up his abode in a neighbouring Nimb tree, till the meat was cooked and eaten: the sun obeyed, and the saint was ever after named Nimbárka, or Nimbáditya, or the Nimb tree sun.
The Nímávats are distinguished by a circular black mark in the centre of the ordinary double streak of white earth, or Gopichandan: they use the necklace and rosary of the stem of the Tulasi: the objects of their worship are KRISHNA and RÁDHÁ conjointly: their chief authority is the Bhagavat, and there is said to be a Bhashya on the Vedas by NIMBÁRKA: the sect, however, is not possessed of any books peculiar to the members, which want they attribute to the destruction of their works at Mathurá in the time of Aurengzeb.
The Nimávats are scattered throughout the whole of Upper India. They are met with of the two classes, cœnobitical and secular, or Viraktas and Grihastas, distinctions introduced by the two pupils of NIMBÁKRA, KESAVA BHATT, and HARI VYás: the latter is considered as the founder of the family which occupies the pillow of NIMBÁRKA at a place called Dhruva Kshetra, upon the Jamna, close to Mathura: the Mahant, however, claims to be a lineal descendant from NIMBÁRKA himself, and asserts the existence of the present establishment for a past period of 1400 years: the antiquity is probably exaggerated: the Nimávats are very numerous about Mathurá, and they are also
