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genii, spirits, ghosts, the Manes, the heavenly bodies, stars, etc., all these were revered, though of less importance than the gods of Vishnuite and Çivaite sects. Among these latter the Çivaite sects are decidedly of less interest than the corresponding Vishnuite heresies, while the votaries of Brahms=a] (exclusively) are indeed mentioned, but they cannot be compared with those of the other two great gods.[36] To-day there is scarcely any homage paid to Brahm[=a), and it is not probable that there ever was the same devotion or like popularity in his case as in the case of his rivals. Other interesting sects of this period are the Sun-worshippers, who still exist but in no such numbers as when (=A]nand[ra] Giri counted six formal divisions of them. The votaries of these subsects worshipped some, the rising sun, some, the setting sun, while some again worshipped the noonday sun, and others, all three as a tri-m[=u]rti. Another division worshipped the sun in anthropomorphic shape, while the last awakens the wrath of the orthodox narrator by branding themselves with hot irons.[37]
Ganeça, [38] the lord of Çiva's hosts, had also six classes of worshippers; but he has not now as he then had a special and peculiar cult, though he has many temples in Benares and elsewhere. Of the declared Çivaite sects of that day, six are mentioned, but of these only one survives, the 'wandering' Jangamas of South India, the Çivaite R[=a]udras, Ugras, Bh[=a]ktas, and P[ra]cupatis having yielded to more modern sectaries.
Some at least among the six sects of the Vishnuite sects, which are described by the old writers, appear to have been more ancient. Here too one finds Bh[=a]ktas, and with them the Bh[=a]gavatas, the old P[=a)ñcar[=a]tras, the 'hermit V[=aJikh[=a]nasas, and Karmah[=i]nas, the latter "having no rites." Concerning these sects one gets scanty but direct information. They all worshipped Vishnu under one form or another, the Bh[=a]ktas as V[=a]sudeva, the Bh[=a]gavatas[39] as Bhagavat. The latter resembled the modern disciples of R[=a]m[=a]nuja and revered the holy-stone, appealing for authority to the Upanishads and to the Bhagavad Git[=a], the Divine Song. Some too worshipped Vishnu exclusively as N[=a]r[ra]yana, and believed in a heaven of sensual delights. The other sects, now extinct, offer no special forms of worship. What is
