my personal knowledge. At the time I wrote the article, I believed that the Mahárájás did defile their female devotees.

The

(Re-examined by Mr. Anstey). None of the sects does in itself represent the ancient Hindu religion. The adulteries of the Mahárájás are a matter of notoriety. Captain McMurdo has written on their adulteries and on the Ras Mandali, in the 2nd volume of the "Transactions of the Literary Society of Bombay," published in the year 1820. He says:"The Bháttiás are of Sindh origin. They are the most numerous and wealthy merchants in the country, and worship the Gosáiji Maháráj, of whom there are many. Maháráj is master of their property and disposes of it as he pleases; and such is the veneration in which he is held, that the most respectable families consider themselves honoured by his cohabiting with their wives or daughters. The principal Maháráj at present on this side of India is named Gopinathji, a man worn to a skeleton and shaking like a leaf from debauchery of every kind, excepting spirituous liquors. He is constantly in a state of intoxication from opium, and various other stimulants which the ingenuity of the sensual has discovered. He is originally a Bráhmin. well-known Ras Mandalis are very frequent among them (the Bháttiás) as among other followers of Vishnu. At these, persons of both sexes and all descriptions, high and low, meet together, and, under the name and sanction of religion, practise every kind of licentiousness." (Witness here defines the grammatical construction of the passage containing the libel,-' You Mahárájás!' etc.) I am sure that the songs I have printed give exactly the substance of what I have heard women sing. Mahárájás are sometimes called by the name of Purushottam, "God or most excellent Being," or Purna Purushottam, "Perfect God," or "Perfect excellent Being."

The

(Rev. John Wilson, D.D., examined February 8, 1862.) I was ordained to the office of the ministry by the Church of Scotland; and am a graduate of the University of Edinburgh. I came out to this country in the beginning of 1829. My professional duties as a missionary have led me to the study of some of the eastern and Indian languages. I have studied the Sanskrit, and with it the Zend, and to a certain extent the Pehliví. I am acquainted with some of the Prákrit (or provincial languages derived principally

from the Sanskrit), and with the Brij Bháshá in both its spoken and written forms. I have presided at the examinations in languages of gentlemen of both the Civil and Military Services of India. I was offered the office of Oriental Translator to Government, but I declined it. I am a member of several learned societies. I am a Fellow of the Royal Society; and a Member of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. I am a Member of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society; for seven years I was its President; and since 1842, I have been its Honorary President. I am a Corresponding Member of the Bengal Asiatic Society, and of the German Oriental Society. I am also an Honorary Member of one or two other foreign societies. I am the author of several works on the ancient Indian and Persian religious systems; and have long prosecuted the study of the literature of the East, which I commenced when a student at the University. I have heard most of the evidence in this case, up to yesterday, when I was absent from the Court. The Vishnu Purána is a sacred book of the Hindus: it is a philosophical and legendary book, bearing the name of one of their gods, to the exposition of their views of whom it is devoted. I have read the translation of it, sometimes comparing it with the original. The most ancient books of the Hindus are the Véds. They and the other works associated with them are classified together under the denomination of Shruti, or what was heard, from their authors reciting them according to what was alleged in their behalf, their own vision. They are believed to be works of divine revelation in the highest sense of the term. I have read much of the Véds in Sanskrit and in the translations which have been made of portions of them. The Institutes of Manu, forming a judicial Code, were, I believe, with others, collected about the second century before the Christian era. The Hymns of the Véds were composed about three thousand years before the present time. There is now a pretty general consensus among orientalists about these dates. The law-books, such as Manu, belong to what is denominated the Smriti, what is remembered, or gathered from tradition. The literature of the Hindus bears evidence to the occurrence of great changes of belief in referenee to their gods, and of moral and social practice in the Indian

community. It is a historical fact that the more modern religions of this country are less pure in their morality than those which prevailed in this land of old. Very great changes have occurred in India in the concept and treatment of the gods, and positively for the worse, as admitted by the Hindus themselves. I have heard of the founder of a Hindu sect, named Vallabháchárya. He flourished from the end of the fifteenth to the beginning of the sixteenth century of the Christian era. I have read in Hindu books of a visit made by him to Krishna Déva, king of Vijayanagar, when he is said to have received a large present of gold; and I find Krishna Déva mentioned in the chronological tables of his dynasty under 1524. I hold in my hand a Sanskrit Drama entitled Pákhanda Dharma Khanda, or the Smashing of Heretical Religion, bearing the date of Samvat 1695 (about A.D. 1639), and which has the appearance of having been produced about that time, in which I find distinct references to Vallabháchárya and his sect. (To Sir Matthew Sausse.) I have not found any reference to the drama in the books of authority in the sect. I don't know if it has ever been acted; but it is the custom of the Brahmins to compose dramas, and circulate them among their friends, as literary compositions, without reference to their use on the stage. (Witness continued.) I have seen notices of the Vallabhácháryan sect in the "Transactions of the Literary Society of Bombay" (now the B. B. R. A. S.), vol. ii., by Capt. McMurdo, Resident in Katch (given into Court by Karsandás Mulji); and in vol. xv. of the "Transactions of the Bengal Asiatic Society," by Horace Hayman Wilson, for some time the Secretary of that Society, and before his death Professor of Sanskrit in the University of Oxford. (To Sir M. Sausse.) From my personal study of the doctrines of the sect, I believe that they are of an impure character. I agree with the opinion expressed by Professor H. H. Wilson in the following passage: Amongst other articles of the new creed, Vallabha introduced one, which is rather singular for a Hindu religious innovator or reformer: he taught that privation formed no part of sanctity, and that it was the duty of the teachers and his disciples to worship their deity, not in nudity and hunger, but in costly apparel and choice food, not in solitude and mortification, but in the pleasures

of society and the enjoyment of the world. The Gosáis or teachers are almost always family men, as was the founder Vallabha, for, after he had taken off the restrictions of the monastic order to which he originally belonged, he married, by the particular order, it is said, of his new god. The Gosáis are always clothed with the best raiment, and fed with the daintiest viands by their followers, over whom they have unlimited influence: part of the connection between the guru and teacher, being the three-fold Samarpan or consignment of tan, man, and dhan (body, mind, and wealth), to the spiritual guide." I agree also with what Professor W. says of the eight daily times of worship of the sect; and of the veneration paid to its superintendents, the Gosáis, the descendants of Vallabha. "It is," he says, "not an uncurious feature in the notions of this sect, that the veneration paid to their Gosáis is paid solely to their descent, and unconnected with any idea of their sanctity or learning; they are not unfrequently destitute of all pretensions to individual respectability, but they not the less enjoy the homage of their followers." (To Mr. Anstey.) The drama to which I have referred is, making certain allowances for scenic figures of speech, a faithful and vivid mirror of the doctrines and practices of the sect, as they prevail at the present day. I could not give a more faithful picture of these doctrines and practices of the sect than by reading some of the passages which I have extracted from the drama and translated into English. They are as follows:

The Sútradhára (says to the Nati):-O dear, the Véds have fled somewhere ; no one knows the story of their flight (i.e. whither they have gone). The collection of the Sankhya, Yoga, and the Puránas has sunk into the bowels of the earth. Now, young damsels, look to the self-dedication. preached by Shrimat Vallabha Vithaléshvara, who has conspired to falsify the meaning of the Véds.

"Enters a Vaishnava, having on his neck, ear, hand, head, and around his loins, a wreath made of the vrinda (Ocymum Sanctum or Tulasí), having on his forehead Gopichandana (a substitute for Sandalwood). He is one who repeats Rádhá!. Krishna! Being opposed to the Shruti, he is the reproacher of those who adhere to the Véds. He finds at every step, crowds of females filled by Káma (lust or cupid). He is the kisser of female Vaishnavas! Ye Vaishnavas, ye Vaishnavas, hear the excellent and blessed Vaishnava doctrine—the embracing and clasping with the arms the large-eyed damsels, good drinking and eating, making no distinction between your own and another's, offering one's self and life to gurus, is in the world the cause of salvation." Mutual dining, carnal intercourse with females, night and day, drinking, forming endless alliances, are the surpassing, beautiful customs of the persons who have consecrated their souls to Shri Gokulésha. Charity,

devotion, meditation, abstraction, the Véds, and a crore of sacrifices, are nothing; the nectarine pleasure of the worshippers of the páduká (wooden slipper) in Shrí Gokula is better than a thousand other expedients. Our own body is the source of enjoyment, the object of worship reckoned by all men fit to be served. If sexual intercourse does not take place with the Gokulesha, the paramour of men is useless, like a worm or ashes. The chief religion of the worshipper of the páduká is the consecration of a daughter, a son's wife, and a wife, and not the worship of Brahmins learned in the Véds, hospitality, the Shraddha (funeral ceremonies) vows, and fastings. Translated (from the Pákhanda Dharma Khandana of Dámodarsvámi) by John Wilson, D.D.

(Witness continued.) The sect of Vallabháchárya is a new sect, inasmuch as it has selected the god Krishna in one of his aspects— that of his adolescence, and raised him to supremacy in that aspect. It is a new sect, in as far as it has established the Pushti-márga, or way of enjoyment, in a natural and carnal sense. The sect is new in its objects, and new in its methods. The god Krishna is worshipped by its members in the form of images, and in the form of the persons of their gurus, the so-called Mahárájás. The Maháráj is considered by a great many of his followers as an Incarnation of God, as God incarnate according to Hindu notions, which are peculiar on that subject. The Vallabhácháryans hold that Vallabháchárya and his official descendants are incarnations of the god Krishna, without holding that there is a complete embodiment of him in any one of them. According to Hindu notions, there have occurred nine incarnations of Vishnu, the last of them being that of Buddha. The orthodox Hindus do not believe in any incarnations which are said to have taken place between the time of Buddha and the present day. The Vallabhácháryans, on the contrary, hold that Vallabháchárya and his descendants are incarnations of Krishna. They view the Maháráj as intermediate between themselves and the god Krishna, in the sense of his being entitled to have his dicta received as equal to those of Krishna himself. I have looked to the following passages in works in the Brij Bháshá, recognized by the Vallabhácháryans, and given into the court, and have found them correctly rendered :-"We should regard our guru as God. For if God get angry, the Guru Déva is able to save from the effects of God's anger, whereas if the guru is displeased, nobody is able to save from the effects of the guru's displeasure." (Chaturshloki Bhagavata.) "When Hari (God) is displeased, the guru