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OF THE HINDU S.
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members: there are also five or six similar Maths at Dehli, and others in the upper part of the Doab, and their numbers are said to be rapidly increasing.
HARISCHANDIS, SADHNÁ PANTHİS and MADHAVIS.
These sects may be regarded as little more than nominal. The two first have originated, apparently, in the determination of some of the classes considered as outcaste, to adopt new religious as well as civil distinctions for themselves, as they were excluded from every one actually existing. The Harischandis are Doms, or sweepers, in the western provinces: their name bears an allusion to the Pauránik prince Harischandra', who, becoming the purchased slave of a man of this impure order, instructed his master, it is said, in the tenets of the sect. What they were, however, is not known, and it may be doubted whether any exist.
Sadaná, again, was a butcher, but it is related of bim, that he only sold, never slaughtered meat, but purchased it ready slain. An ascetic rewarded his humanity with the present of a stone, a Sálagrám which he devoutly worshipped, and, in consequence, VISHNU was highly pleased with him, and conferred upon him all his desires. Whilst on a pilgrimage, the wife of a Brahman fell in love with him, but be replied to her advances, by stating, that a throat must be cut before he would comply, which she misinter
See the Story of Harischandra in Ward, Vol. I, p. 16. Note,
