Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c48.s1.13.4

c48.s1.13.4

In former days, too, bodies of these devotees used to be formed into irregular forces, which exhibited in action the same fanatical ferocity as is now associated with the Muslim Ghāzi and in the middle of last century with the Sikh Akālī. A remnant of one of these bands still survives, it is said, in the Dādūpanthī Nāgā of the State of Jaipur in Rājputāna, a country associated to some extent with the expansion of the ascetic movement. It is not proposed to enter here into the doctrinal differences between the various fraternities further than to mention that there is the usual main division of the principal bodies into S'aiva and Vaiṣṇava, with many subdivisions, the latter school being the more modern. Nor, again, is it necessary to set forth in detail the sections of the orders, since being recruited from all classes of the population, regardless of caste or race, they are of no ethnographic importance, and under each head are included members of the Sikh, Jain and Muslim creeds along with those of orthodox Brāhmanism. It is impossible, indeed, to state accurately the numbers falling under each head, owing to the loose way in which the principal designations are applied. Under the title of Fakir, for instance, which is specially applicable to Muslim devotees, nearly 450,000 Brāhmanists and Sikhs are returned. The Atīt, again, a general title, are given as identical with Gosāvī or Sannyāsī as well as under their own heading.