There is no sin in a devout widow, whose object is eternal salvation, wearing her hair. If she should shave,she will assuredly go to hell. A Vaishnava widow should never shave her head. If she do so through ignorance, her face should not be looked at (Vridd'ha Manuh in Khagēsvara Samhitā)
If any one observe a Brahmachāri beggar with his kachchē (cloth passed between the legs, and tucked in behind), a householder without it, and a widow without hair on her head, he should at once plunge into water with his clothes (Ananta Samhitā).
It is considered highly meritorious for Vaishnava widows to wear their hair, as long as they remain in this world (Hayagrīva Samhitā)."
In a note on the two sects of the Vaishnavas in the Madras Presidency, the Rev. C. E. Kennet writes as follows *[1] : — " While both the sects acknowledge the Sanskrit books to be authoritative, the Vadagalai uses them to a greater extent than the Thengalai. The former also recognises and acknowledges the female energy as well as the male, though not in the gross and sensual form in which it is worshipped among the Saivas, but as being the feminine aspect of deity, and representing the grace and merciful care of Providence; while the Tenkalai excludes its agency in general, and, inconsistently enough, allows it co-operation in the final salvation of a human soul. But the most curious difference between the two schools is that relating to human salvation itself, and is a reproduction in Indian minds of the European controversy between Calvinists and Arminians. For the adherents of the Vadakalais strongly insist on the concomitancy of the human will
- ↑ * Ind. Ant. Ill, 1874.
