d of Vishnu. At Pandharpur pilgrims visit first a temple of
Siva 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 Vihara, 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-gita, but at Kamalabari I made careful
enquiries and was assured it was the Namghosha.]

[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 Dhamis in the Panna
state of Bundelkhand, founded by one Prannath 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

The Kartabhajas mentioned at the end of the last chapter show a
mixture of Hinduism and Mohammedanism, and the mixture[651] is found
in other sects some of which are of considerable importance. A group
of these sects, including the Sikhs and followers of Kabir, arose in
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Their origin can be traced to
Ramanand but they cannot be called Vaishnavas and they are clearly
distinguished from all the religious bodies that we have hitherto
passed in review. The tone of their writings is more restrained and
severe: the worshipper approaches the deity as a servant rather than a
lover: caste is rejected as useless: Hindu mythology is eschewed or
used sparingly. Yet in spite of these differences the essential
doctrines of Tulsi Das, Kabir and Nanak show a great resemblance. They
all believe in one dei