________________
OF THE HINDUS.
169
The Vaishnavas of this sect are distinguished by two white perpendicular streaks of sandal, or Gopichandanu, down the forehead, uniting at the root of the nose, and continuing to near the tip; by the name of Rádhá Krishna stamped on the temples, breast and arms; a close necklace of Tulasi stalk of three strings, and a rosary of one hundred and eight or sometimes even of a thousand beads made of the stem of the Tulasi; the necklace is sometimes made of very minute beads, and this, in upper India, is regarded as the characteristic of the Chaitanya sect, but in Bengal it is only worn by persons of the lowest class. The Chaitanya sectaries consist of every tribe and order, and are governed by the descendants of their Gosáins. They include soine Udáśínas, or Vairágís, men who retire from the world, and live unconnected with society in a state of celibacy and mendicancy: the religious teachers are, however, married men, and their dwellings, with a temple attached, are tenanted by their family and dependents. Such coenobitical establishments as are common amongst the Rámánandis and other ascetics are not known to the great body of the Chaitanya Vaishnavas.
Besides the divisions of this sect arising from the various forms under which the tutelary deity is worshipped, and thence denominated Rádháramanís, Rádhipális, Viháriji and Govindji, and Yugala Bhaktas, and which distinctions are little more than nominal, whilst also they are almost restricted to the Bengal Vaishnavas about Mathurá and Brindávan, there are
