Sketch of the Religious Sects of the Hindus c5.62

c5.62

We have thus completed the enumeration of the sects as described by the author of the *Sankara Vijaya*, and have had an opportunity of observing, that, although the outlines of the system remain the same, the details have undergone very important alterations, since the time at which this work was composed : the rise of most of the existing modifications, we can trace satisfactorily enough, as will hereafter appear, and it is not improbable, that the disappearance of many of those, which no longer take a part in the idolatry of the Hindus, may be attributed to the exertions of SANKARA and his disciples : his object, as appears from the work we have hitherto followed, was by no means the suppression of acts of outward devotion, nor of the preferential worship of any acknowledged and pre-eminent deity : his leading tenet is the recognition of *Brahme Para Brahme*,* as the sole cause and supreme ruler of the universe, and as distinct from SIVA, VISHNU, BRAHMA', or any individual member of the pantheon : with this admission, and in regard to the weakness of those human faculties, which cannot elevate themselves to the conception of the inscrutable first cause, the observance of such rites, and the worship of such deities, as are either prescribed by the *Védas*, or the works not incompatible with their authority, were left undisturbed by this teacher ;† they even received, to a certain extent, his particular sanction, and the following divisions of the Hindu faith were, by his express permission, taught by some of his disciples, and are, consequently, regarded by the learned Brahmans in general, as the only orthodox and allowable forms in the present day.‡ The Saiva faith was instituted by PARAMATA