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OF THE HINDUS.
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are three, one at Nadiya dedicated to CHAITANYA, one at Ambiká to NITYÁNAND and the same, and one at Agradwipa dedicated to GoPiNÁTH: at the latter a celebrated Melá, or annual fair, is held in the month of March, at which from 50 to 100,000 persons are generally collected.
RÁDHÁ VALLABHÍS. Although the general worship of the female personifications of the Hindu deities forms a class by itself, yet when individualised as the associates of the divinities, whose energies they are, their adoration becomes so linked with that of the male power, that it is not easy, even to their votaries, to draw a precise line between them: they, in fact, form a part of the system, and Lakshmi and Sitá are the preferential objects of devotion to many of the followers of RÁMÁNUJA and RÁMÁNAND, without separating them from the communion of the sect.
In like manner Rádiá, the favourite mistress of KřishŃa, is the object of adoration to all the sects who worship that deity, and not unfrequently obtains a degree of preference that almost throws the character from whom she derives her importance into the shade: such seems to be the case with the sect now noticed, who worship KRISHŃa as Rádhá Vallabha, the lord or lover of Rádná.
The adoration of Rádhá is a most undoubted innovation in the Hindu creed, and one of very recent origin. The only Rádiá that is named in the Mahú