vine beings.

2. Tenets of the sect.

His creed prohibited the destruction of animal life; the use of animal
food and intoxicating liquors or drugs on any occasion; promiscuous
intercourse with the other sex; suicide, theft and robbery, and false
accusations. Much good was done, the Collector testified, by his
preaching among the wild Kolis of Gujarat; [398] his morality was said
to be far better than any which could be learned from the Shastras;
he condemned theft and bloodshed; and those villages and Districts
which had received him, from being among the worst, were now among
the best and most orderly in the Province of Bombay. His success
was great among the lower castes, as the Kolis, Bhils and Kathis. He
was regarded by his disciples as the surety of sinners, his position
in this respect resembling that of the Founder of Christianity. To
Bishop Heber he said that while he permitted members of different
castes to eat separately here below, in the future life there would
be no distinction of castes. [399] His rules for the conduct of the
sexes towards each other were especially severe. No Sadhu of the
Swami-Narayan sect might ever touch a woman, even the accidental
touching of any woman other than a mother having to be expiated by a
whole-day fast. Similarly, should a widow-disciple touch even a boy
who was not her son, she had to undergo the same penalty. There were
separate passages for women in their large temples, and separate
reading and preaching halls for women, attended by wives of the
Acharyas or heads of the sect. These could apparently be married,
but other members of the priestly order must remain single; while
the lay followers lived among their fellows, pursuing their ordinary
lives and avocations. The strictness of the Swami on sexual matters
was directed against the licentious practices of the Maharaj or
Vallabhacharya order. He boldly denounced the irregularities they
had introduced into their forms of worship, and exposed the vices
which characterised the lives of their clergy. This attitude, as
well as the prohibition of the worship of idols, earned for him the
hostility of the Peshwa and the Maratha Brahmans, and he was subjected
to a considerable degree of persecution; his followers were taught
the Christian doctrine of suffering injury without retaliation, and
the devotees of hostile sects took advantage of this to beat them
unmercifully, some being even put to death.

3. Meeting