[Footnote 638: No less than 159 padakartâs or religious poets are enumerated by Dinesh Chandra Sen. Several collections of these poems have been published of which the principal is called Padakalpataru.] [Footnote 639: See Bhandarkar, _Vaishṇ. and Śaivism_, pp. 87-90, and Nicol, _Psalms of Maratha Saints_ which gives a bibliography. For Nâmdev see also Macauliffe, _The Sikh Religion_, vol. VI. pp. 17-76. For Ramdas see Rawlinson, _Sivaji the Maratha_, pp. 116 ff.] [Footnote 640: Bhandarkar, _l.c._ p. 92. An earlier poet of this country was Jñâneśvara who wrote a paraphrase of the Bhagavad-gîtâ in 1290. His writings are said to be the first great landmark in Marathi literature.] [Footnote 641: There is no necessary hostility between the worship of Śiva and of Vishṇu. At Pandharpur pilgrims visit first a temple of Śiva and then the principal shrine. This latter, like the temple of Jagannath at Puri, is suspected of having been a Buddhist shrine. It is called Vihâra, the principal festival is in the Buddhist Lent and caste is not observed within its precincts.] [Footnote 642: Quoted by Bhandarkar, p. 90. The subsequent quotations are from the same source but I have sometimes slightly modified them and compared them with the original, though I have no pretension to be a Marathi scholar.] [Footnote 643: Called Abhangs.] [Footnote 644: See Eliot, Hinduism in Assam, _J.R.A.S._ 1910, pp. 1168-1186.] [Footnote 645: _Census of India_, 1911, Assam, p. 41.] [Footnote 646: Some authorities state that the sacred book thus venerated is the Bhagavad-gîtâ, but at Kamalabari I made careful enquiries and was assured it was the Nâmghosha.] [Footnote 647: Especially Gadadhar Singh, 1681-96.] [Footnote 648: See _Census of India_, 1901, Bengal, pp. 183-4 and Bhattacharya, _Hindu Castes and Sects_, pp. 485-488.] [Footnote 649: Karta, literally doer, is the name given to the executive head of a joint family in Bengal. The sect prefer to call themselves Bhabajanas or Bhagawanis.] [Footnote 650: Another mixed sect is that of the Dhâmis in the Panna state of Bundelkhand, founded by one Prannâth in the reign of Aurungzeb. Their doctrine is a combination of Hinduism and Islam, tending towards Krishnaism. See Russell, _Tribes and Castes of Central Provinces_, p. 217.] CHAPTER XXXI AMALGAMATION OF HINDUISM AND ISLAM. KABIR AND THE SIKHS 1