Page:The English Works of Raja Rammohun Roy Vol 2.djvu/226

214 habits, and forms of dress and of worship, is by no means less striking than that of their respective languages, as must be sufficiently apparent in ordinary intercourse with these people.

3. As to the rules of civil law, similar differences have always existed. The Dayubhagu, a work by, treating of inheritance, has been regarded by the natives of Bengal as of authority paramount to the rest of the digests of the sacred authorities : while the Mitakshura, by , is upheld, in like manner, throughout the upper provinces, and a great part of the Dukhun. The natives of Bengal and those of the upper provinces believe alike in the sacred and authoritative character of the writings of, and of the other legislating saints : but the former receive those precepts according to the interpretation given them by Jeemootvahun, while the latter rely on the explanation of them by Vignaneshwur. The more modern author, Jeemootvahun, has often found occasion to differ from the other in interpreting sacred passages according to his own views, most frequently supported by sound reasoning; and there have been thus created everlasting dissensions among their respective adherents, particularly with regard to the law of inheritance.

4. An European reader will not be surprised at the differences I allude to, when he observes the discrepancies existing between the Greek, Armenian, Catholic, Protestant, and Baptist churches, who, though they all appeal to the same authority, materially differ from each other in many practical points, owing to the different