Note 105 — B (continued 4)

In a note on the two sects of the Vaishnavas in the Madras Presidency, the Rev. C. E. Kennet writes as follows105:—“While both the sects acknowledge the Sanskrit books to be authoritative, the Vadagalai uses them to a greater extent than the Thengalai. The former also recognises and acknowledges the female energy as well as the male, though not in the gross and sensual form in which it is worshipped among the Saivas, but as being the feminine aspect of deity, and representing the grace and merciful care of Providence; while the Tenkalai excludes its agency in general, and, inconsistently enough, allows it co-operation in the final salvation of a human soul. But the most curious difference between the two schools is that relating to human salvation itself, and is a reproduction in Indian minds of the European controversy between Calvinists and Arminians. For the adherents of the Vadakalais strongly insist on the concomitancy of the human will for securing salvation, whereas those of the Tenkalai maintain the irresistability of divine grace in human salvation. The arguments from analogy used by the two parties respectively are, however, peculiarly Indian in character. The former adopt what is called the monkey argument, the Markata Nyāya, for the young monkey holds on to or grasps its mother to be conveyed to safety, and represents the hold of the soul on God. The latter use the cat argument, the Mārjāla Nyāya, which is expressive of the hold of God on the soul; for the kitten is helpless until the mother-cat seizes it nolens volens, and secures it from danger. The late Major M. W. Carr inserts in his large collection of Telugu and Sanskrit proverbs the following:—