_Bairagi_, [98] _Sadhu_.--The general term for members of the Vishnuite
religious orders, who formerly as a rule lived by mendicancy. The
Bairagis have now, however, become a caste. In 1911 they numbered
38,000 persons in the Provinces, being distributed over all Districts
and States. The name Bairagi is supposed to come from the Sanskrit
Vairagya and to signify one who is free from human passions. Bairaga is
also the term for the crutched stick which such mendicants frequently
carry about with them and lean upon, either sitting or standing, and
which in case of need would serve them as a weapon. Platts considers
[99] that the name of the order comes from the Sanskrit abstract
term, and the crutch therefore apparently obtained its name from
being used by members of the order. Properly, a religious mendicant
of any Vishnuite sect should be called a Bairagi. But the term is not
generally applied to the more distinctive sects as the Kabirpanthi,
Swami-Narayan, Satnami and others, some of which are almost separated
from Hinduism, nor to the Sikh religious orders, nor the Chaitanya
sect of Bengal. A proper Bairagi is one whose principal deity is
either Vishnu or either of his great incarnations, Rama and Krishna.