The forest ascetics were credited with prophetic powers, and were
resorted to by Hindu princes to obtain omens and oracles on the brink
of any important undertaking. This custom is noticed by Colonel Tod
in the following passage describing the foundation of Jodhpur: [202]
"Like the Druids of the cells, the vana-perist Jogis, from the glades
of the forest (vana) or recess in the rocks (gopha), issue their
oracles to those whom chance or design may conduct to their solitary
dwellings. It is not surprising that the mandates of such beings prove
compulsory on the superstitious Rajput; we do not mean those squalid
ascetics who wander about India and are objects disgusting to the eye,
but the genuine Jogi, he who, as the term imports, mortifies the flesh,
till the wants of humanity are restricted merely to what suffices
to unite matter with spirit, who had studied and comprehended the
mystic works and pored over the systems of philosophy, until the full
influence of Maia (illusion) has perhaps unsettled his understanding;
or whom the rules of his sect have condemned to penance and solitude;
a penance so severe that we remain astonished at the perversity of
reason which can submit to it. We have seen one of these objects,
self-condemned never to lie down during forty years, and there remained
but three to complete the term. He had travelled much, was intelligent
and learned, but, far from having contracted the moroseness of the
recluse, there was a benignity of mien and a suavity and simplicity
of manner in him quite enchanting. He talked of his penance with
no vainglory and of its approaching term without any sensation. The
resting position of this Druid (vana-perist) was by means of a rope
suspended from the bough of a tree in the manner of a swing, having
a cross-bar, on which he reclined. The first years of this penance,
he says, were dreadfully painful; swollen limbs affected him to that
degree that he expected death, but this impression had long since
worn off. To these, the Druids of India, the prince and the chieftain
would resort for instruction. Such was the ascetic who recommended
Joda to erect his castle of Jodhpur on the 'Hill of Strife' (Jodagir),
a projecting elevation of the same range on which Mundore was placed,
and about four miles south of it."