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OF THE HINDUS.
239
BAHÁdur was a pupil of one of their Mahants, RáJENDRA Gir, one of the lapsed Daśnámí ascetics. These Nágas are the particular opponents of the Vairugi Nagas, and were, no doubt, the leading actor's in the bloody fray at Haridwar!, which had excluded the Vaishnavas from the great fair there, from 1760, till the British acquired the country. The leader of the Saiva party was called DHOKAL Gír, and lie, as well as the spiritual guide of HIMMET BAHÁDUR, was consequently of the Daśnámi order, which would thus seem to be addicted to violent and war-like habits. With respect to the sanguinary affray at Haridwar, in which we are told eighteen thousand Vairágís were left dead on the field, there is a different legend current of the origin of the conflict from that given in the Researches, but neither of them is satisfactory, nor indeed is any particular cause necessary, as the opposite objects of worship, and the pride of
them, observes, that they often engage in the rival contests of the Indian Chiefs, and, on a critical occasion some years ago, six thousand of them joined the forces of the Mahratta Chief SINDIA, and enabled him, with an equal number of his own troops, to discomfit an army of thirty thousand men, headed by one of liis rebellious subjects.
? As. Res. II, 455. It may be observed, that a very accurate account is given in the same place of the general appearance and habits of the Saira Sannyásis and Jogis, the Vaishnara l'airágis, anil Udásis of Nánaksheh. The term Gosáin, as correlative to Sannyasi, is agreeable to common usage, but, as has been elsewhere observed, is more strictly applicable to very different characters.
