DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.640#0339
222 THE HINDOO MYTH6LOGY.
pleasure of the parties, on receiving the same fees. When
a new disciple is initiated, a fee is also given; but the
Gosaees obtain the largest sums at the deaths of such of
their disciples as die intestate. At Calcutta, nearly all the
women of ill-fame profess the religion of Choitunyu before
their death, that they may be ent tied to some sort of
funeral rites: as almost all these persons die intestate, and
have no relations who will own them, the Gosaees obtain
their effects.
The anniversaries of the deaths of the original founders
of the sect are observed as festivals.
One fifth of the whole Hindoo population of Bengal
are supposed to be followers of Choitunyu, and of the
Gosaees, his successors.
Many of these persons despise the other sects of Hindoos,
and are great enemies of the bramhiins. They refuse to eat
without their necklace, as the bramhuns do without their
poita. Most of the mendicant followers of Vishnoo have
embraced the tenets of Choitunyu; but many of the disci-
ples of the latter live in a secular state, and some of them
are possessed of large property. Persons of this descrip-
tion frequently entertain a great number of voiragees at
their houses; when, as an act of great merit, they prostrate
themselves before these wanderers, wash, and lick the dust
of their feet, and devour their orts. They pay no attention
to the feasts and fasts of the Hindoo calendar, except those
in honour of Krishna.
The images most regarded among this sect are those of
Choitunyu and Nityanundii, set up at ftmbika, in the dis-
trict of Burdwan.
pleasure of the parties, on receiving the same fees. When
a new disciple is initiated, a fee is also given; but the
Gosaees obtain the largest sums at the deaths of such of
their disciples as die intestate. At Calcutta, nearly all the
women of ill-fame profess the religion of Choitunyu before
their death, that they may be ent tied to some sort of
funeral rites: as almost all these persons die intestate, and
have no relations who will own them, the Gosaees obtain
their effects.
The anniversaries of the deaths of the original founders
of the sect are observed as festivals.
One fifth of the whole Hindoo population of Bengal
are supposed to be followers of Choitunyu, and of the
Gosaees, his successors.
Many of these persons despise the other sects of Hindoos,
and are great enemies of the bramhiins. They refuse to eat
without their necklace, as the bramhuns do without their
poita. Most of the mendicant followers of Vishnoo have
embraced the tenets of Choitunyu; but many of the disci-
ples of the latter live in a secular state, and some of them
are possessed of large property. Persons of this descrip-
tion frequently entertain a great number of voiragees at
their houses; when, as an act of great merit, they prostrate
themselves before these wanderers, wash, and lick the dust
of their feet, and devour their orts. They pay no attention
to the feasts and fasts of the Hindoo calendar, except those
in honour of Krishna.
The images most regarded among this sect are those of
Choitunyu and Nityanundii, set up at ftmbika, in the dis-
trict of Burdwan.