Sketch of the Religious Sects of the Hindus c6.3

c6.3

The worshippers of VISHNU, SIVA, and SAKTI, who are the objects of the following description, are not to be confounded with the orthodox adorers of those divinities : few Brahmans of learning, if they have any religion at all, will acknowledge themselves to belong to any of the popular divisions of the Hindu faith, although, as a matter of simple preference, they more especially worship some individual deity, as their chosen, or *Ishta Devata* : they refer also to the *Védas*, the books of law, the Puránas, and Tantras, as the only ritual they recognise, and regard all practices not derived from those sources as irregular and profane : on the other hand, many of the sects seem to have originated, in a great measure, out of opposition to the Brahmanical order : teachers and disciples are chosen from any class, and the distinction of castes is, in a great measure, sunk in the new one, of similarity of schism : the ascetics and mendicants, also, in many instances, affect to treat the Brahmans with particular contempt, and this is generally repaid with interest by the Brahmans. A portion, though not a large one, of the populace is still attached to the *Smárta* Brahmans, as their spiritual guides, and are so far distinct from any of the sects we shall have to specify, whilst most of the followers, even of the sects, pay the ordinary deference to the Brahminical order, and especially evince towards the Brahmans of their own fellowship, of whom there is generally abundance, the devotedness and submission which the original Hindu Code so perpetually inculcates.