Essays Lectures on Religion of Hindu Vol 01

Author(s): H H Wilson
Publisher: Trubner and Company London

Page 55

OF THE HINDUS.
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world: the teachers are usually of the Brahmanical order, but the disciples may be of any caste'.
Besides the temples appropriated to VISHŃU and his consort, and their several forms, including those of KRISIŃA and RÁMA, and those which are celebrated as objects of pilgrimage, as Lakshmi-Balaji, Rámnáth, and Ranganáth, in the south; Badarináth, in the Ilimálaya , Jagannath, in Orissa, and Dwáraká, on the Malabar Coast, images of metal or stone are usually set up in the houses of the private members of this sect, which are daily worshipped, and the temples and dwellings are all decorated with the Sálagrám stone and Tulasi plant.
The most striking peculiarities in the practices of this sect, are the individual preparation, and scrupulous privacy of their meals: they must not eat in cotton garments, but having bathed, must put on woollen or silk: the teachers allow their select pupils to assist them, but, in general, all the Rámánujas cook for themselves, and should the meal during this process, or whilst they are eating, attract even the looks of a stranger, the operation is instantly stopped, and the viands buried in the ground: a similar delicacy, in this respect, prevails amongst some other classes of Hindus, especially of the Rájaput families, but it is not carried to so preposterous an extenta.
1 The Mantra, and mark, are never bestowed on any person of impure birth. – Buchan. Mysore 1, 146.
? It is said, however, that there are two divisions of the sect,