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doing an injustice to the mendicant orders of any seet, to suppose that they are universally or even generally implicated in these atrocious affrays.
RELIGIOUS SECTS
SAIVAS.
The worship of SIVA in the districts along the Ganges presents itself under a very different aspect from that of VISHNU, and with some singular anomalies. It appears to be the most prevalent and popular of all the modes of adoration, to judge by the number of shrines dedicated to the only form under which SIVA is reverenced, that of the Linga; yet it will be generally observed, that these temples are scarcely ever the resort of numerous votaries, and that they are regarded with comparatively little veneration by the Hindus. Benares, indeed, furnishes exceptions, and the temple of Visvesvara' is thronged
nature is recorded by the author of the Dabistán, who mentions, that in 1050 of the Hijra a severe conflict took place at Dwaraká between a set of Vaishnava ascetics termed Mundis, from shaving their heads, and the Sannyasis, in which a great number of the former were slain [Dabist. II, 197].
"The Lord of all, an epithet of SIVA, represented as usual by a Linga. It is one of the twelve principal emblems of this description. and has been, for many centuries, the chief object of veneration at Kási or Benares. The old temple was partially destroyed by the Mohammedans in the reign of AURENGZEB: the present was built by AnALYA BAI, the Mahratta Princess, and, although small and without pretension to magnificence, is remarkable for the minute beauty of its architectural embellishments.
