19. Râêdâs was summoned before the Râja and ordered to exhibit his miraculous powers. He replied that he could do only one miracle—that the Sâlagrâma or ammonite representing Vishnu would at his word leave its place and come down on the palm of his hand. The Râja ordered the Brâhmans to perform a similar miracle. They failed and Râêdâs succeeded. This miracle so affected the Râni Jhâli, whom one version of the legend makes out to have been a Princess of Chithor, that she became initiated. On this the Brâhmans refused to eat in the palace, on the ground that it had been defiled, and some raw grain was given them which they began to cook in the garden. But as they were eating they suddenly saw Râêdâs sitting and eating between two Brâhmans. So they fell at his feet, and then he cut his skin and showed them under it his Brâhmanical cord; so he was proved to have been a Brâhman in his former life. 20. The Grantha or Scriptures of the sect are believed to have existed for eleven hundred and forty-five years, but to have been unintelligible until Sîtala, an inspired Sannyâsi, translated them. The present recension is the work of the Râjput Sivanârâyana, of Ghâzipur, who wrote it about 1735 A.D. The most important of these works are the Gurunyâsa and the Santa Virasa. The former is compiled from the Purânas, and gives an account of the ten Avatâras of Vishnu or Nârâyana in fourteen chapters, of which the first six treat of the author, of faith, of the punishment of sinners, of virtue, of a future state and of discipline. The latter is a treatise on moral sentiments. The opening lines are,—“The love of God and his knowledge are the only true understanding.” [197]