Page:A Comprehensive History of India Vol 2.djvu/111

75 Chap. II.] HINDOO SECTS. 75

coffins, and burying them or committing them to some sacred stream. The ad. —

Dasnami Dandis, regarded as descendants of the original fraternity, derive their origin from the celebrated teacher Sankara Acharya, who figm-es much in the The Dandis. religious history of Hindoostan, though his influence lias been overrated. The period when he flourished cannot be fixed with certainty, but seems to have been about the eighth or ninth century. From him ten classes of mendicants have descended. Three of these and part of a fourth, regarded as the only genuine Sankara Dandis, are numerous at Benares and in its vicinity, and besides distinguishing themselves as able expounders of the Vedanta, have rendered important service to different branches of Sanscrit literature. Others of them are notorious as sturdy beggars, and claiming a close connection with the Brahmins, never fail, when a feast is given to them, to appear, and insist on a share of the good things which have been provided.

The Yogis are so called from the Yoga or Patanjala school of philosophy, The Yogis. which maintains the practicability of acquiring, even in this life, entire com- mand over elementary matter. The modes of accomplishing this are very varioas, consisting chiefly "of long - continued suppressions of respiration; of inhaling and exhaling the breath in a particular manner ; of sitting in eighty- four different attitudes ; of fixing the eyes on the top of the nose, and endeavour- ing by the force of mental abstraction to effect a union between the portion of the vital spirit residing in the body and that which pervades all nature." On effecting this union, the Yogi, though in a human body, is liberated "from the clog of material incumbrance." He can make himself light or heavy, vast or minute, as he pleases ; traverse all space, animate a dead body, render himself invisible, become equally acquainted with present, past, and future, and by final union with Siva exempt himself from all future transmigration. Few Yogis lay claim at present to this perfection, and therefore, as a substitute, most of them content themselves with mummeries and juggling tricks which cheat the vulgar into a belief of their powers. One of these tricks, of which the explanation has not been discovered, is sitting in the air and remaining for a considerable 'period under neater. One individual has made extraordinary displays of this kind, but the secret has not been communicated to his feUow-devotees. As a popular sect the Yogis acknowledge Gorakhnath as their founder. He pro- bably flourished in the beginning of the fifteenth century. They are usuallv called Kanphatas, from having their ears bored and rings inserted in them at the time of their initiation.

The next important sect of Saivas is that of the Lingayets or Jangamas, TheLinga- whose essential characteristic is the wearing a representation of the Linga on some part of their dress or person. They are very numerous in the Deccan, but are rarely met with in Upper India except as mendicants, " leading about a bull, the living type of Nandi, the bull of Siva, decorated with housings of various colom-s, and strings of cowrie shells." Accompanying a conductor, who carries a