Gosains

Hindu ascetics of India

For other uses, see Gosain, Gossain, and Goswami.

Gosains (गोसाईं), who are also known as Gossain, Gosine, Gossai, Gosyne, Gosein, Gosavi, and as Goswamis, are Brahmins,[1][2][3][4][5][6] Hindu ascetics[7][8] and religious functionaries of India. Found chiefly in northern, central and western India, they have different histories by place and time. Even the name Goswami has been variously interpreted as 'master of cows', 'master of mind or intellect', 'master of senses or emotions' and 'master of passion'.[9][10] The Goswamis have strong historical ties with the Rajputs (Kshatriyas) as they were highly respected and given high positions by the Rajput Kings. The Goswamis were also Gurus (teachers) and royal advisors of the Rajputs.[11]

The members of Dashnami Sect, believed to be the first brahmanical order of ascetics founded by Adi Shankaracharya,[12] use the surname Goswami, Gosain or Gosavi which means a man who has attained complete control over sense organs. Many of the married Gosains officiate as priests and religious teachers.[13] By the end of eighteenth century, the Gosains of this particular sect became a politically powerful group in northern India and also held and enjoyed Jagirs, pensions and titles.[14][15] They are sometimes referred to more generally as Sannyasis.

Mughal emperor Jahangir testing the strength of penance of Gosain Nirmalji and Bhagvanji, National Museum, New Delhi Folio showing Emperor Jahangir conversing with Gosain Jadrup from a Jahangir-nama manuscript, c. 1620

In the sect of Vallabhacharya, the Pushtimarg, Brahmin religious leaders and spiritual heads of the tradition use Goswami and sometimes Gosain as surname and are addressed with the same as an honorific.[16][17]

The chief disciples of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the founder of Gaudiya sect, namely the Six Goswamis, along with other followers and their lineages use Goswami as title and surname.[18][19]

Painting of a Vaishnava Gosain, Narottamdas. From Cleveland Museum of Art, c. 1720-30

In the Ekasarana Dharma, a sect propagated by Sankardev, the hereditary heads and religious functionaries of Satras of Assam use the surname and title of Gosain and Goswami.[20]

The Vaishnav Brahmins of region from UP to Bengal associated with Ramanandi sect started using the title 'Gosain-ji', which gradually replaced the term 'Guru' (teacher) as an honorific, and the same became a surname of Bairagi caste as well. The instance is reported by Buchanan in his memoirs while travelling in district of modern day Bihar. By 1910, the term was fully accepted as a credible title for both Shaivas and Vaishnavas as is reported in village-to-village surveys where Vaishnav temples are described as been erected or inhabited by Gosains.[21]

Gosains were also Shaivite priests in most of the areas where their population was significant.[22][23] They were often associated with Thakurbari in Eastern India and Mutts and Temples in regions like Braj where they possessed strong religious connotation.[24][25]

Group of Gosains at Berar c.1862

The ascetic Gosains were powerful nomadic and mercenary trading groups who undertook pilgrimages across significant areas of land and they were important to urban economies and the development of wider trade networks.[26] These itinerant religious groups could be very large in number, with figures in excess of 50,000 being probable for those headed by figures such as Umrao Giri and Himmat Bahadur Anup Giri Gosain[27] in the late 1700s.[28] Their numerical strength enabled them to be self-protecting and also to protect the trade routes that they used, regardless of who might have titular power in any given place.[29] One out of at least three separate events that are grouped as Sanyasi Rebellion involved Gosains[30] along with other instances of their frequent clashes with Company's army in northern frontiers of Bengal.[31] Their movements were often dictated by religious festivals, both of a localised village nature and of a more widely celebrated type, such as Holi. As these festivals were also occasions for seasonal markets, so the Gosains were able to move and trade goods between areas.

Many of the married Goswamis (as in North) of the South were priests and religious teachers.[32] Historically in Poona in 1800s, they were traders and bankers and held most of riches of the city in their hands. Peshwa Baji Rao I had built the Vajreshwari Temple in Vadavali village whose hereditary priestly rights along with other 5 villages were donated to householder Goswamis.[33]

In nineteenth-century Hyderabad, the Goswami Rajas, as they were termed so due to their influential participation in Nizam's administration and lending loans, established themselves as wealthy banking houses.[34] An 1845 map, which names the city's most influential localities, mention 'Gosai Mhall' or the palace of Gosains in Begum Bazar with their locality resembling those of wealthy men and being termed as 'most opulent' in the city.[35][36]

The Nawabs of Awadh, who ruled Oudh State in the 18th and 19th centuries and were Muslim successors to the Mughal empire, recruited from Gosain martial brotherhoods as a way to assimilate influential Hindu elements of society and buttress their own sources of power. This attempt at creating a plural society was in sharp contrast to the zealotry that had characterised their predecessors.[37]

## References

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Citations

1. ^ Bond, N. (2015), Raj, R.; Griffin, K. (eds.), "Exploring pilgrimage and religious heritage tourism experiences.", Religious tourism and pilgrimage management: an international perspective (2 ed.), UK: CABI, pp. 118–129, doi:10.1079/9781780645230.0118, ISBN 978-1-78064-523-0, retrieved 2024-10-04
2. ^ Pushtimarg. Pushtimarg. pp. v.
3. ^ Saha, Shandip (2004-01-01). "Creating a Community of Grace: A History of the Pusti Marga in Northern and Western India (1493-1905)". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies.
4. ^ Sarkar, Jadunath. A History Of Dasnami Naga Sanyasis. p. 110.
5. ^ Clark, G. (2012). "Caste versus Class : Social Mobility in India , 1860-2012". University of California: 9. S2CID 2632653.
6. ^ Farquhar, J. N. (1925). "The fighting ascetics of India". Bulletin of the John Rylands Library. 9 (2): 431–452\. doi:10.7227/bjrl.9.2.5. ISSN 2054-9326.
7. ^ Giri, Madhu (2019-12-22). "Cultural Crisis of Caste Renouncer: A Study of Dasnami Sanyasi Identity in Nepal". Molung Educational Frontier. 9: 91–108\. doi:10.3126/mef.v9i0.33588. ISSN 2542-2596.
8. ^ Bayly 1988, p. 52.
9. ^ Leonard, Karen (2013-02-01). "From Goswami rajas to Goswami caste in Hyderabad". Contributions to Indian Sociology. 47 (1): 1–32\. doi:10.1177/006996671204700101. ISSN 0069-9667.
10. ^ Bayly 1988, p. 477.
11. ^ DeNapoli, Antoinette E. (2014). Real Sadhus Sing to God: Gender, Asceticism, and Vernacular Religion in Rajasthan. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-994003-5.
12. ^ Giri, Madhu (2019-12-22). "Cultural Crisis of Caste Renouncer: A Study of Dasnami Sanyasi Identity in Nepal". Molung Educational Frontier. 9: 94–95\. doi:10.3126/mef.v9i0.33588. ISSN 2542-2596.
13. ^ Gawde, Shakuntala (2020), "Daśanāmī Order", Encyclopedia of Indian Religions, Encyclopedia of Indian Religions, Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, pp. 1–5, doi:10.1007/978-94-024-1036-5_65-1, ISBN 978-94-024-1036-5, retrieved 2024-09-27
14. ^ Giri, Madhu (2019-12-22). "Cultural Crisis of Caste Renouncer: A Study of Dasnami Sanyasi Identity in Nepal". Molung Educational Frontier. 9: 97. doi:10.3126/mef.v9i0.33588. ISSN 2542-2596.
15. ^ Bhattacharya, Ananda (2012). "Dasanami Sannyasis as Ascetics, Baniyas and Soldiers". Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute. 93: 231–260\. ISSN 0378-1143. JSTOR 26491237.
16. ^ Pushtimarg. Pushtimarg. pp. v.
17. ^ Saha, Shandip (2004-01-01). "Creating a Community of Grace: A History of the Pusti Marga in Northern and Western India (1493-1905)". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies: 328.
18. ^ Massey, Paridhi David. "Vrindavan: A Land of Living History". Indian Trust for Rural Heritage and Development: 48–54.
19. ^ Rosen, Steven (1991). The Six Goswamis of Vrindavan. Folk Books. ISBN 978-0-9619763-2-3.
20. ^ Borlongan, Ariane; Gonzales, Wilkinson Daniel (2017-12-31). "Openings of telephone conversations in Philippine English". Asian Journal of English Language Studies. 5: 1–14\. doi:10.59960/5.a1. ISSN 2619-7219.
21. ^ Pinch, William (1996). "Peasants and Monks in British India. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996. xii, 242 pp". The Journal of Asian Studies. 56 (3): 835–836\. doi:10.2307/2659664. ISSN 0021-9118. JSTOR 2659664.
22. ^ Leonard, Karen (2013-02-01). "From Goswami rajas to Goswami caste in Hyderabad". Contributions to Indian Sociology. 47 (1): 1–32\. doi:10.1177/006996671204700101. ISSN 0069-9667.
23. ^ Shah, A.M. (2006). "Sects and Hindu social structure". Contributions to Indian Sociology. 40 (2): 209–248\. doi:10.1177/006996670604000203. ISSN 0069-9659.
24. ^ Hagen, James R.; Yang, Anand A. (1976). "Local Sources for the Study of Rural India: The 'Village Notes' of Bihar". The Indian Economic & Social History Review. 13 (1): 75–84\. doi:10.1177/001946467601300105. ISSN 0019-4646.
25. ^ Dimock, Edward C.; De, Sushil Kumar (1965). "The Early History of the Vaiṣṇava Faith and Movement in Bengal". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 85 (2): 264. doi:10.2307/598027. ISSN 0003-0279. JSTOR 598027.
26. ^ Bayly (1988), p. 29
27. ^ Pinch, William R. (September 1998). "Who was Himmat Bahadur? Gosains, Rajputs and the British in Bundelkhand, ca. 1800". The Indian Economic & Social History Review. 35 (3): 293–335\. doi:10.1177/001946469803500304. ISSN 0019-4646.
28. ^ Bayly (1988), p. 126
29. ^ Bayly (1988), p. 142
30. ^ Lorenzen, David N. (January 1978). "Warrior Ascetics in Indian History". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 98 (1): 61–75\. doi:10.2307/600151. JSTOR 600151.
31. ^ Banerjee-Dube, Ishita (2014-10-27). A History of Modern India. Cambridge University Press. p. 52\. doi:10.1017/cbo9781107588387. ISBN 978-1-107-06547-5.
32. ^ Sarkar, Jadunath. A History Of Dasnami Naga Sanyasis. p. 109.
33. ^ Sarkar, Jadunath. A History Of Dasnami Naga Sanyasis. p. 114.
34. ^ Leonard, Karen (2013-02-01). "From Goswami rajas to Goswami caste in Hyderabad". Contributions to Indian Sociology. 47 (1): 1–32\. doi:10.1177/006996671204700101. ISSN 0069-9667.
35. ^ Leonard, Karen (4 August 2016). "Banking Firms in Nineteenth-Century Hyderabad Politics (1981)". Modern Asian Studies.
36. ^ Leonard, Karen (2013-02-01). "From Goswami rajas to Goswami caste in Hyderabad". Contributions to Indian Sociology. 47 (1): 1–32\. doi:10.1177/006996671204700101. ISSN 0069-9667.
37. ^ Bayly (1988), pp. 26, 142

Bibliography

* Bayly, C. A. (1988), Rulers, Townsmen and Bazaars: North Indian Society in the Age of British Expansion, 1770-1870, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-52131-054-3

## Further reading

[edit]

* Lorenzen, David N. (1978). "Warrior Ascetics in Indian History". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 98 (1): 61–75\. doi:10.2307/600151. JSTOR 600151.