it deist, may be illustrated most clearly by comparison
with Occidental religions. One may not acknowledge any personal god as
the absolute Supreme Power; again, one may say that this Supreme Power
is a
personal god, Jehovah; again, Jehovah may or may not be regarded as
one with Christ. The minuter ramifications of the Christian church
then correspond to the sub-sects of Krishnaism or Ramaism.[69]

The Occidental and Oriental conceptions of the trinity are, however,
not identical. For in India the trinity, from the Vishnuite point of
view, is an amalgamation of Civa and Brahm[=a] with Vishnu,
irrespective of the question whether Vishnu be manifest in Krishna or
not; while the Christian trinity amalgamates the form that corresponds
to Vishnu with the one that corresponds to Krishna.[70] To the
orthodox Brahman, on the other hand, as Williams has very well put it,
Krishna is an incarnation of Vishnu, who is himself only an
incarnation, that is, a form, of God.

Having now explained the two principal divisions of the modern sects,
we can lead the reader into the church of Vishnu. It is a church of
two great parties, each being variously subdivided. Of these two
parties the Krishnaites are intellectually the weaker, and hence
numerically the stronger. All Krishnaites, of course, identify the
man-god Krishna with Vishnu, and their sub-sects revert to various
teachers, of whom the larger number are of comparatively recent date,
although as a body the Krishnaites may claim an antiquity as great, if
not greater, than that of the Ramaites.

But the latter party, in their various sub-sects, all claim as
their founder either R[=a]m[=a]nuja himself or one of his followers;
and since, if the claim be granted, the R[=a]ma sects do but continue
his work, we shall begin by following out the result of his teaching
as it was interpreted by his disciples; especially since the
Krishnaites have left to the Ramaites most of the philosophizing of
the church, and devoted themselves more exclusively to the moralities
and immoralities of their more practical religion. As a matter of
fact, the Ramaites to-day are less religious than philosophical, while
in the case of the Krishnaites, with some reservations, the contrary
may be said to be the case.

THE RAMAITES.

Since the chief characteristic of growth among Hindu sectaries is a
sort of segmentation, like that which conditions the development of
amoebas and other lower organisms, it is