The ‘monkey’ Ramaites are a sect of the North (vada), and hence are called Vada-galais;[73] the ‘cat’ or Calvinistic Ramaites of the South (ten), are called Ten-galais.  Outwardly these sects differ in having diverse mantras, greetings, dress, and especially in the forehead-signs, which show whether the ‘mark of Vishnu’ shall represent (Vadagal belief) one or (Tengal) two feet of the god (expressed by vertical lines[74] painted fresh daily on the forehead).  The Ten-galais, according to a recent account, are the more numerous and the more materialistic.[75]

All the Ramaites, on the other hand, hold that (1) the deity is not devoid of qualities; (2) Vishnu is the deity and should be worshipped with Lakshm[=i], his wife; (3) R[=a]ma is the human avatar of Vishnu; (4) R[=a]m[=a]nuja and all the great teachers since his day are also avatars of Vishnu.

In upper India, about the Ganges, R[=a]m[=a]nuja’s disciple, R[=a]m[=a]nand (fifth in descent), who lived in the fourteenth century, has more followers than has the founder.  His disciples worship the divine ape, Hanuman[76] (conspicuous in both epics), as well as R[=a]ma.  They are called ‘the liberated,’ Avadh[=u]tas, but whether because they are freed from caste-restrictions,[77] or from the strict rules of eating enjoined by R[=a]m[=a]nuja, is doubtful.  R[=a]m[=a]nand himself had in turn twelve disciples.  Of these the most famaous is Kab[=i]r, whose followers, the Kab[=i]r Panth[=i]s (sect), are widely spread, and of whom no less a person than N[=a]nak, the Sikh, claimed to be a successor.  But it will be more convenient to describe the Sikhs hereafter.  Of R[=a]m[=a]nand’s other disciples that founded sects may be mentioned Kil, whose sectaries, the Kh[=a]kis, of Oude, unite successfully R[=a]ma-worship, Hanuman-worship, and Civaite fashions (thus presenting a mixture like that of the southern M[=a]dhvas, who unite the images of Civa and Vishnu).  The R[=a]s D[=a]sa sect, again, owes to its founder the black C[=a]lagr[=a]ma pebble, an object of reverent awe, which gives rise to a sort of sub-cult subsequently imitated by others.[78] Another widely-spread sect which claim R[=a]m[=a]nand as their founder’s teacher is that of the D[=a]d[=u] Panth[=i]s.  This branch also of the Ramaites we shall more appropriately discuss under the head of deism (below).  Finally, we have to mention, as an outcome of the R[=a]m[=a]nand faith, the modern R[=a]m[=a]yana, Ramcaritmanas, the new bible of the sect, composed in the sixteenth century by Tulas[=i]d[=a]sa (’slave of Vishnu’),the greatest of modern Hindu poets.  What the Divine Song and the Bh[=a]gavata Pur[=a]na are to the Krishnaite, the older (epic) R[=a]m[=a]yana of V[=a]lm[=i]ki and Tulas[=i]d[=a]sa’s new poem (of the same name) are to the Ramaite.[79]

THE KRISHNAITES.