The third great order is that of the Madhavas, named after a saint
called Madhavacharya in southern India. He attempted to reconcile the
warring Sivites and Vishnuites by combining the worship of Krishna with
that of Siva and Parvati. The doctrine of the sect is that the human
soul is different from the divine soul, and its members are therefore
called dualists. They admit a distinction between the divine soul and
the universe, and between the human soul and the material world. They
deny also the possibility of Nirvana or the absorption and extinction
of the human soul in the divine essence. They destroy their thread
at initiation, and also wear red clothes like the Sivite devotees,
and like them also they carry a staff and water-pot. The _tilak_
of the Madhavacharyas is said to consist of two white lines down the
forehead and continued on to the nose where they meet, with a black
vertical line between them.