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OF THE HINDUS.
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of kindred, or the cares of the world: the doctrine that introduced similar unsocial institutions into the Christian church, in the fourth century, being still most triumphantly prevalent in the east, the land of its nativity; the establishments of which we are treating, and the still existing practices of solitary mortification, originating in the "specious appearance and pompous sound of that maxim of the ancient philosophy, that in order to the attainment of true felicity and communion with God, it was necessary that the soul should be separated from the body even here below, and that the body was to be macerated and mortified for that purpose.” (Mosheim. i. 378.)
Of the cænobitic members of the different communities, most pursue an erratic and mendicant life: all of them, indeed, at some period have led such a life, and have travelled over various parts of India singly or in bodies, subsisting by alms, by merchandise, and sometimes, perhaps, by less unexceptionable means, like the Sarabaites of the east, or the mendicant friars of the Latin Church: they have, however, their fixed rallying points, and are sure of finding, in various parts of their progress, establishments of their own, or some friendly fraternity where they are for a reasonably moderate period lodged and fed. When old or infirm, they sit down in soine previously existing Math, or establish one of their own.
The Maths, Asthals, or Akhádús, the residences of the monastic communities of the Hindus, are scattered over the whole country: they vary in structure and
