Sketch of the Religious Sects of the Hindus c5.67

c5.67

The notice that occurs in the *Serva Dersana* of any of the sects which have yet been mentioned, has been already incidentally adverted to: this work is less of a popular form than the preceding, and controverts the speculative rather than the practical doctrines of other schools: besides the atheistical *Bauddha* and *Jaina* sects, the work is occupied chiefly with the refutation of the followers of *Jaimini*, *Gautama*, and *Patanjala*, and we have no classes of worshippers introduced but those of the *Vaishnavas* who follow RA'MA'NUJA, and *Madhwáchárya*, of the *Saivas*, the *Pásupatas*, the followers of ABHINAVA GUPTA, who taught the *Mantra* worship of *Siva*; and the alchemical school, or worshippers of SIVA'S type in quicksilver, and the *Rasendra Linga*: most of these seem to have sprung into being in the interval between the tenth and thirteenth centuries, and have now either disappeared, or are rapidly on the decline: those which actually exist, we shall recur to in the view we are now prepared to take of the actual condition of the Hindu faith.