For being allowed to sit with him on the same couch Rs. 60.
For the privilege of dancing with him Rs. 100
to 200.
For drinking the water in which he has bathed Rs. 17.
For being closeted with him in the same room Rs. 50 to 500.
The public disapprobation caused by these practices and their bad
effect on the morality of women culminated in the great Maharaj libel
suit in the Bombay High Court in 1862. Since then the objectionable
features of the cult have to a large extent disappeared, while it has
produced some priests of exceptional liberality and enlightenment. The
_tilak_ of the Vallabhacharyas is said to consist of two white lines
down the forehead, forming a half-circle at its base and a white dot
between them. They will not admit the lower castes into the order,
but only those from whom a Brahman can take water.
8. Minor sects.
Besides the main sects as described above, Vaishnavism has produced
many minor sects, consisting of the followers of some saint of special
fame, and mendicants belonging to these are included in the body of
Bairagis. One or two legends concerning such saints may be given. A
common order is that of the Bendiwale, or those who wear a dot. Their
founder began putting a red dot on his forehead between the two white
lines in place of the long red line of the Ramanandis. His associates
asked him why he had dared to alter his _tilak_ or sect-mark. He said
that the goddess Janki had given him the dot, and as a test he went
and bathed in the Sarju river, and rubbed his forehead with water,
and all the sect-mark was rubbed out except the dot. So the others
recognised the special intervention of the goddess, and he founded a
sect. Another sect is called the Chaturbhuji or four-armed, Chaturbhuj
being an epithet of Vishnu. He was taking part in a feast when his
loin-cloth came undone behind, and the others said to him that as
this had happened, he had become impure at the feast. He replied,
'Let him to whom the _dhoti_ belongs tie it up,' and immediately
four arms sprang from his body, and while two continued to take food,
the other two tied up his loin-cloth behind. Thus it was recognised
that the Chaturbhuji Vishnu had appeared in him, and he was venerated.
9. The seven Akharas.
Among the Bairagis, besides the four Sampradayas or main orders,
there are seven Akharas. These are military divisions or schools for
training,
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