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OF THE HINDUS.
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the community of belief and interest, and joint celebration of the praise of KRISHĽA and CHAITANYA, with song and dance: the women act as the spiritual instructors of the females of respectable families, to whom they have unrestricted access, and by whom they are visited in their own dwellings: the institution is so far political, and the consequence is said to be actually that to which it obviously tends, the growing diffusion of the doctrines of this sect in Calcutta, where it is especially established.
The Kartá Bhájas, or worshippers of the Creator, are a sect of very modern origin, having been founded no longer than thirty years ago by RÁMA SARAŃ Pála, a Gwúla, an inhabitant of Ghospara, a village near Sukh Sugar', in Bengal'. The chief peculiarity of this sect is the doctrine of the absolute divinity of the Guru, at least as being the present Krishna, or deity incarnate, and whom they therefore, relinquishing every other form of worship, venerate as their Ishta Devatá, or elected god: this exclusive veneration is,
"See Mr. Ward's account of this sect, Vol. 2, 175; in a note he has given a translation of the Mantra: “Oh! sinless Lord — Oh! great Lord, at thy pleasure I go and return, not a moment am I without thee, I am even with thee, save, Oh! great Lord:" the following is the original: ait 3 HETTY #TfA NTATT सुखे चलि फिरि तिलार्द्ध तोमा छाडा नहि आमि तोमार सङ्गे
fee TETT HETTY II This is called the Solah anu Mantra, the Neophyte paying that sum, or sixteen annas, for it: it is perhaps one singularity in the sect, that this Mantra is in Bengali, a common spoken language -- in all other cases it is couched in Sanskrit, the language of the gods,
