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CHATURBHUJI TILAK Chaturbhuji or four-armed is one of the many sects of Vaishnavism. Chaturbhuji is an epithet of Vishnu. The founder of this sect was taking part in a feast when his loin cloth came undone behind and the others said to him that as this had happened, he had become impure at the feast. He replied, "Let him to whom the ‘dhoti’ belongs tie it up" and immediately four arms sprang from his body, while two continued to take food, the other two tied up his loin cloth behind. Thus, it was recognised that the Chaturbhuji Vishnu had appeared in him and he was venerated. Chaturbhujis wear an all-white tilak in the form of fork with the bottom of the fork is extended to the bottom of the forehead.

  BENDIWALE TILAK Vaishnavism consists of many minor sects, consisting of followers of saints and mendicants. One of them is ‘Bendiwale’ or those who wear a dot. Their founder began putting a red dot on his forehead between the two white lines in place of the long red line of the Ramanandis. His associates asked him why he had dared to alter his tilak or sect mark. He said that the goddess Janki had given him the dot and as a test he went and bathed in the river Sarju and rubbed his forehead with water and all the sect marks were rubbed out except the dot. His followers recognised the special intervention of the goddess and he founded the sect Bendiwale.