DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.640#0064
ON THE HINDOO RELIGION. li
ranus, that it seems unnecessary to drag more of them to light.
The thing to be deplored is, that the Hindoo objects of worship
were themselves monsters of vice.
Painful as this is, it is not all: there is a numerous and grow-
ing sect among th? Hindoos in Bengal, and perhaps in other
provinces, who, in conformity with the rules prescribed in the
works called Tuntrii, practise the most abominable rites. The
proselytes to this sect are chiefly bramhuns, and are called vama-
charees. I have given some account of them in vol. i. p. 247. and
vol. ii. p. 92. and should have declined blotting these pages with
any further allusion to these unutterable abominations, had I not
omitted in those accounts an article which I had prepared, and
which throws much additional light on the practices of a sect so
singularly corrupt.
The rules of this sect are to be found more or less in most of
the Tftntms; but particularly in the Neelii, Roodrii-yamulu,
Yonee, and Unnuda-kiilpu. In these works the writers have
arranged a number of Hindoo sects as follows:—Vedacharees,
Voishnuvacharees, Shoivacharees, Diikshinacharees, Vamacha-
rees, Siddhantaeharees, and Koulacharees; each rising in succes-
sion, till the most perfect sect is the Koulaeharu. When a
Hindoo wishes to enter into this sect, he sends for a person who
has been already initiated, and who is well acquainted with the
forms of initiation; and presenting to him garments, ornaments,
&c. begs him to become his religious guide. The teacher then
places this disciple near him for three days, and instructs him in
the ceremonies of the sect: at the close of which period, the
disciple spreads some loose soil on the floor of the house in
which the ceremonies of initiation are to be performed; and
sows a small quantity of barley, and two kinds of pease, in this
soil, sprinkling water upon it. He next proceeds to perform
some parts of the ten ceremonies practised by the regular Hin-
doos from the time of birth to that of marriage: after which he
makes a declaration, that he has from that period renounced all
the ceremonies of the old religion, and is delivered from their
g 2
ranus, that it seems unnecessary to drag more of them to light.
The thing to be deplored is, that the Hindoo objects of worship
were themselves monsters of vice.
Painful as this is, it is not all: there is a numerous and grow-
ing sect among th? Hindoos in Bengal, and perhaps in other
provinces, who, in conformity with the rules prescribed in the
works called Tuntrii, practise the most abominable rites. The
proselytes to this sect are chiefly bramhuns, and are called vama-
charees. I have given some account of them in vol. i. p. 247. and
vol. ii. p. 92. and should have declined blotting these pages with
any further allusion to these unutterable abominations, had I not
omitted in those accounts an article which I had prepared, and
which throws much additional light on the practices of a sect so
singularly corrupt.
The rules of this sect are to be found more or less in most of
the Tftntms; but particularly in the Neelii, Roodrii-yamulu,
Yonee, and Unnuda-kiilpu. In these works the writers have
arranged a number of Hindoo sects as follows:—Vedacharees,
Voishnuvacharees, Shoivacharees, Diikshinacharees, Vamacha-
rees, Siddhantaeharees, and Koulacharees; each rising in succes-
sion, till the most perfect sect is the Koulaeharu. When a
Hindoo wishes to enter into this sect, he sends for a person who
has been already initiated, and who is well acquainted with the
forms of initiation; and presenting to him garments, ornaments,
&c. begs him to become his religious guide. The teacher then
places this disciple near him for three days, and instructs him in
the ceremonies of the sect: at the close of which period, the
disciple spreads some loose soil on the floor of the house in
which the ceremonies of initiation are to be performed; and
sows a small quantity of barley, and two kinds of pease, in this
soil, sprinkling water upon it. He next proceeds to perform
some parts of the ten ceremonies practised by the regular Hin-
doos from the time of birth to that of marriage: after which he
makes a declaration, that he has from that period renounced all
the ceremonies of the old religion, and is delivered from their
g 2