Note 303 — Chapter II · (continued 3)

They are also called Brahma Sampradáyis. The founder of this sect was Madhwácharya, a Brahman, born in the Saka-year 1121 (A. D. 1199), in Tuluva, on the western coast of the Indian peninsula; he died in his seventy-ninth year. He was early initiated into the order of Anchorets, and devoted to Vichnu; he composed thirty-seven works, built eight temples, and founded as many maths, or “monasteries” of his particular sect, which is one of the four great sects. The superiors, or “Gurus” of it are Brahmans and Sanyásis; their lay-votaries are members of every class of society except the lowest; they profess perpetual celibacy. These sectaries reside now chiefly in the peninsula, and are altogether unknown in Gangetic Hindostan. To what is above said of their doctrine, I shall add, that they distinguish the principle of life from the supreme Being, or they deny the absolute unity of the Deity, and the possibility of absorption into the universal spirit, and the loss of independent existence after death.—(See an explicit account of this sect, by Professor Wilson, As. Res., vol. XVI. p. 100-108.)