Nevertheless the wandering Gosains have done much to foster and
maintain the Hindu religion among the people. They are the gurus or
spiritual preceptors of the middle and lower castes, and though their
teaching may be of little advantage, it perhaps quickens and maintains
to some extent the religious feelings of their clients. In former times
the Gosains travelled over the wildest tracts of country, proselytising
the primitive non-Aryan tribes, for whose conversion to Hinduism they
are largely responsible. On such journeys they necessarily carried
their lives in their hands, and not infrequently lost them.