[304] Rámánanda, the founder of this sect, lived about the end of the 13th century, according to some accounts; Professor Wilson is disposed to place him not farther back than the end of the 14th, or beginning of the 15th century. His residence was at Benares, in a _math_, or “monastery.” The especial object of the worship of the Rámánandis is Vichnu, in his incarnation of _Rámachandra_, on which account they are called _Rámawats_. The mendicant members of this sect, numerous even in our days, are usually known as Váîragis or Viraktas, and consider all form of adoration superfluous beyond the incessant invocation of Krichna and Rama. The school of Rámánand admits disciples of every caste; it abrogates, in fact, the distinction of caste amongst the religious orders: this seems the proper import of the term _Avad’huta_, which Rámánanda affixed to his followers. It does not appear that any work exists attributed to Rámánand himself; those of his followers are written in the provincial dialects. The ascetic and mendicant followers of Ramánand are by far the most numerous class of sectaries in Gangetic India; some of them acquired a great celebrity; among these are reckoned _Kabir_, of whom hereafter, and _Jayadiva_, the author of the beautiful poem _Gîta govinda_, well known by the translations made of it into English, by Sir W. Jones; into Latin, by Professor Lassen (who places however Jayadéva in the year 1150); and into German, in the metre of the original, by Mr. Ruckert.――(See, on the Rámánandis, the work quoted, pp. 36-52). [305] According to Professor Wilson (work quoted, pp. 32 and 43), the marks of the Rámánandis are two perpendicular white lines, drawn from the root of the hair to the commencement of each eyebrow, and a transverse streak connecting them across the root of the nose; in the centre is a perpendicular streak of varied colours, besides other marks on the breast and each upper arm. [306] The marks of the Madhwácharis, according to the same authority (p. 103), are the impress of the symbols of Vichnu upon their shoulders and breasts, stamped with a hot iron, and the frontal mark, which consists of two perpendicular lines, made with _Gopi chandana_, or the sacred clay from Dwaraka, the city of Krichna, and joined at the root of the nose; a straight black line is drawn down the centre with the charcoal from the incense offered to Náráyana, terminating in a round mark with turmeric. [307] This name, perhaps very corrupted, is not to be found among those enumerated in Professor Wilson’s Treatise on the Religious Sects of the Hindus.