Sketch of the Religious Sects of the Hindus c4.40

c4.40

cations, and obvious additions from a later teacher, NA'RA'YAN DA'S, whose share in the composition is, no doubt, considerable, but cannot be discriminated from NA'BHA'JI's own, beyond the evidence furnished by the specification of persons unquestionably subsequent to his time.—NA'-RA'YAN DA'S probably wrote in the reign of SHA'H JEHA'N. The brevity and obscurity of the original work pervade the additional matter, and to remedy these defects, the original text, or Múla, has been taken as a guide for an amplified notice of its subjects, or the Tíká of KRISHNA DA'S; and the work, as usually met with, always consists of these two divisions. The Tíká is dated Samvat, 1769 or A. D. 1713. Besides these, a translation of the Tíká, or a version of it in the more ordinary dialect of Hindustan, has been made by an anonymous author, and a copy of this work, as well as of the original, has furnished me with materials for the following account. The character of the Bhakta Málá, will best appear from the extracts of translations from it to be hereafter introduced: it may be sufficient here to observe, that it is much less of a historical than legendary description, and that the legends are generally insipid and extravagant: such as it is, however, it exercises a powerful influence in Upper India, on popular belief, and holds a similar place in the superstitions of this country, as that which was occupied in the darkest ages of the Roman Catholic faith, by the Golden Legend and Acts of the Saints.*