Gosains

Gosains (गोसाईं), who are also known as Gossain, Gosine, Gossai, Gosyne, Gosein, Gosavi, and as Goswamis, are Brahmins, Hindu ascetics 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'.

The members of Dashnami Sect, believed to be the first brahmanical order of ascetics founded by Adi Shankaracharya, 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. 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. They are sometimes referred to more generally as Sannyasis.

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.

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.

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.

The Vaishnav Brahmins of region from UP to Bengal associated with Ramanandi sect started using the title 'Gosain-ji', which gradually replaced the term 'Guru' (teacher) as an honorific, and the same became a surname of Bairagi caste as well. The instance is reported by Buchanan in his memoirs while travelling in district of modern day Bihar. By 1910, the term was fully accepted as a credible title for both Shaivas and Vaishnavas as is reported in village-to-village surveys where Vaishnav temples are described as been erected or inhabited by Gosains.

Gosains were also Shaivite priests in most of the areas where their population was significant. They were often associated with Thakurbari in Eastern India and Mutts and Temples in regions like Braj where they possessed strong religious connotation.

The ascetic Gosains were powerful nomadic and mercenary trading groups who undertook pilgrimages across significant areas of land and they were important to urban economies and the development of wider trade networks. 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 in the late 1700s. 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. One out of at least three separate events that are grouped as Sanyasi Rebellion involved Gosains along with other instances of their frequent clashes with Company's army in northern frontiers of Bengal. 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 Goswamis (as in North) of the South were priests and religious teachers. Historically in 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.

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. 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.

The Nawabs of Awadh, who ruled Oudh State in the 18th and 19th centuries and were Muslim successors to 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.

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*{{cite journal , first=David N. , last=Lorenzen , authorlink=David Lorenzen , year=1978 , jstor=600151 , title=Warrior Ascetics in Indian History , journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society , volume=98 , issue=1 , pages=61–75 , doi=10.2307/600151

Nomadic groups in Eurasia
Merchant castes
Mercenaries in India
Mercenary units and formations of the Middle Ages