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'''Gosains''', (गोसाईं) who are also known as '''Gossains''' and as '''Goswami''', are [[Hinduism|Hindu]] [[ascetic]]s of India. The term can be translated as ''master of passion''.{{sfnp|Bayly|1988|p=477|ps=}} They are sometimes referred to more generally as [[Sannyasa|Sannyasis]].{{sfnp|Bayly|1988|p=142|ps=}}<br />
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[[File:Portret van drie onbekende Gosains uit Berar Goisais. Hindoo devotees. Berar (titel op object), RP-F-2001-7-1122G-57.jpg|thumb|Group of Gosains at [[Vidarbha|Berar]] c.1862]]<br />
The Gosains were powerful nomadic and mercenary trading groups who undertook pilgrimages across significant areas of land. While early British colonists in [[Bengal Presidency]] considered them to be marauding robbers, similar to the [[Banjara]]s, they were also important to urban economies and the development of wider trade networks.{{sfnp|Bayly|1988|p=29|ps=}} These itinerant religious mendicant 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''' in the late 1700s.{{sfnp|Bayly|1988|p=126|ps=}} 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.{{sfnp|Bayly|1988|p=142|ps=}} 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.{{sfnp|Bayly|1988|p=128|ps=}}<br />
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The [[Nawab of Awadh|Nawabs of Awadh]], who ruled [[Oudh State]] in the 18th and 19th centuries and were [[Islam|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.{{sfnp|Bayly|1988|pp=26, 142|ps=}}<br />
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== References ==<br />
'''Citations'''<br />
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}<br />
'''Bibliography'''<br />
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*{{citation |title=Rulers, Townsmen and Bazaars: North Indian Society in the Age of British Expansion, 1770-1870 |first=C. A. |last=Bayly |authorlink=Christopher Alan Bayly |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1988 |isbn=978-0-52131-054-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xfo3AAAAIAAJ}}<br />
{{refend}}<br />
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== Further reading ==<br />
*{{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}}<br />
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[[Category:Nomadic groups in Eurasia]]<br />
[[Category:Merchant castes]]<br />
[[Category:Mercenaries in India]]<br />
[[Category:Mercenary units and formations of the Middle Ages]]</div>Bot