Gosain, Gusain, Sanniasi, Dasnami. [102]--A name for the orders of
religious mendicants of the Sivite sect, from which a caste has
now developed. In 1911 the Gosains numbered a little over 40,000
persons in the Central Provinces and Berar, being distributed over
all Districts. The name Gosain signifies either gao-swami, master of
cows, or go-swami, master of the senses. Its significance sometimes
varies. Thus in Bengal the heads of Bairagi or Vaishnava monasteries
are called Gosain, and the priests of the Vishnuite Vallabhacharya
sect are known as Gokulastha Gosain. But over most of India, as in the
Central Provinces, Gosain appears to be a name applied to members of
the Sivite orders. Sanniasi means one who abandons the desires of the
world and the body. Properly every Brahman should become a Sanniasi
in the fourth stage or ashram of his life, when after marrying and
begetting a son to celebrate his funeral rites in the second stage,
he should retire to the forest, become a hermit and conquer all the
appetites and passions of the body in the third stage. Thereafter,
when the process of mortification is complete he should beg his bread
as a Sanniasi. But only those who enter the religious orders now become
Sanniasis, and the name is therefore confined to them. Dasnami means
the ten names, and refers to the ten orders in which the Gosains or
Sivite anchorites are commonly classified. Sadhu is a generic term for
a religious mendicant. The name Gosain is now more commonly applied
to the married members of the caste, who pursue ordinary avocations,
while the mendicants are known as Sadhu or Sanniasi.