Note 16 — C

20. The Grantha or Scriptures of the sect are believed to have existed for eleven hundred and forty-five years, but to have been unintelligible until Sîtala, an inspired Sannyâsi, translated them. The present recension is the work of the Râjput Sivanârâyana, of Ghâzipur, who wrote it about 1735 A.D. The most important of these works are the Gurunyâsa and the Santa Virasa. The former is compiled from the Purânas, and gives an account of the ten Avatâras of Vishnu or Nârâyana in fourteen chapters, of which the first six treat of the author, of faith, of the punishment of sinners, of virtue, of a future state and of discipline. The latter is a treatise on moral sentiments. The opening lines are,—“The love of God and his knowledge are the only true understanding.”16