Gosains

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For other uses, see Gosain, Gossain, and Goswami.

Gosains (गोसाईं), who are also known as Gossain, Gosine, Gossai, Gosyne, Gosein, Gosavi, and as

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 members of

brahmanical order of ascetics founded by Adi Shankaracharya,[11] 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.[12] 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.[13][14] 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
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.[15][16]

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.[17][18]

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.[19]

Gosains were also Shaivite priests in most of the areas where their population was significant.[20][21]

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. While early British colonists in Bengal Presidency considered them to be marauding robbers, however they were important to urban economies and the development of wider trade networks.[22] 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[23] in the late 1700s.[24] 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.[25] One out of at least three separate events that are grouped as Sanyasi Rebellion involved Gosains[26] along with other instances of their frequent clashes with Company's army in northern frontiers of Bengal.[27] 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

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.[29]

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.[30] 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.[31][32]

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.[33]

References

Citations

  1. 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. S2CID 2632653
    .
  6. ISSN 2054-9326
    .
  7. ISSN 2542-2596
    .
  8. ^ Bayly 1988, p. 52.
  9. ISSN 0069-9667
    .
  10. ^ Bayly 1988, p. 477.
  11. ISSN 2542-2596
    .
  12. ISBN 978-94-024-1036-5
    , retrieved 2024-09-27
  13. ISSN 2542-2596
    .
  14. JSTOR 26491237
    .
  15. ^ Pushtimarg. Pushtimarg. pp. v.
  16. ^ 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.
  17. ^ Massey, Paridhi David. "Vrindavan: A Land of Living History". Indian Trust for Rural Heritage and Development (ITRHD): 48–54.
  18. ISBN 978-0-9619763-2-3
    .
  19. ISSN 2619-7219
    .
  20. ISSN 0069-9667
    .
  21. ISSN 0069-9659
    .
  22. ^ Bayly (1988), p. 29
  23. ISSN 0019-4646
    .
  24. ^ Bayly (1988), p. 126
  25. ^ Bayly (1988), p. 142
  26. JSTOR 600151
    .
  27. ISBN 978-1-107-06547-5
    .
  28. ^ Sarkar, Jadunath. A History Of Dasnami Naga Sanyasis. p. 109.
  29. ^ Sarkar, Jadunath. A History Of Dasnami Naga Sanyasis. p. 114.
  30. ISSN 0069-9667
    .
  31. ^ Leonard, Karen. "Banking Firms in Nineteenth-Century Hyderabad Politics (1981)". Modern Asian Studies.
  32. ISSN 0069-9667
    .
  33. ^ Bayly (1988), pp. 26, 142

Bibliography

Further reading
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