Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 4.djvu/313

Rh at all of which places the mutts still exist. The heads of these mutts have geographically divided the Lingāyats into five great divisions, and each head exercises spiritual control within his own legitimate sphere, though all of them have a general jurisdiction over all the Lingāyats generally. Each of these mutts, called simhasanas (thrones), has sub-mutts in important popular centres under the management of Pattadaswāmis. Each submutt has a number of branch mutts, called Gurusthala mutts, under it, and these latter are established wherever a community of Lingāyats exists. The rights and duties of the Swamis of these mutts are to preside on all ceremonial occasions, to receive their dues, to impart religious instructions, to settle religious disputes, and to exercise a general control over all matters affecting the interests of the community at large. But one particular feature of this sect is the existence of another order of priests, called Viraktas, also known as Nirabharis or Jangamas, who hold the highest position in the ecclesiastical order, and therefore command the highest respect from laymen as well as from the above mentioned clergy. Each Virakta mutt is directly subject to the Murgi mutt at Chitaldrug, which has absolute jurisdiction over all the Viraktas. Most Lingāyat towns have a Virakta mutt built outside the town, where the Swāmi or the Jangama leads a solitary, simple and spiritual life. Unlike the other priests, the Virakta is prohibited from presiding on ceremonial occasions, and from receiving unnecessary alms unless for the purpose of immediately distributing the same to others. He should devote his whole life partly to spiritual meditation, and partly to the spreading of spiritual knowledge among his disciples, so that he would be the fountain head, to whom all laymen and all clergy must turn for spiritual wisdom. His position,