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191
OF THE HINDUS.
The worship of SIVA continues, in fact, to be what it appears to have been from a remote period, the religion of the Brahmanas'. SAMBHU is declared by MANU to be the presiding deity of the Brahmanical order, and the greater number of them, particularly those who practice the rites of the Vedas, or who profess the study of the Sástras, receive SIVA as their tutelary deity, wear his insignia, and worship the Linga, either in temples, in their houses, or on the side of a sacred stream, providing, in the latter case, extempore emblems kneaded out of the mud or clay of the river's bed. The example of the Brahmans and the practice of ages maintain the veneration universally offered to the type of SIVA; but it is not the prevailing, nor the popular condition of the Hindu faith, along the banks of the Ganges. We shall now proceed to specify the different classes into which the worshippers of SIVA, as distinct from the mass of Brahmans, may be distinguished.
DANDÍS and DASNÁMÍS.
It is customary to consider these two orders as forming but one division. The classification is not, in every instance, correct, but the practices of the two are, in many instances, blended, and both denominations are accurately applicable to the same individual. It will not be necessary, therefore, to deviate from the ordinary enumeration.
See a preceding Note page 2. [The received text of Manu does not contain the Sloka there quoted.]
