Bharati Dashanami

One of the ten divisions of the
Dashanami Sanyasis, renunciant
ascetics who are devotees (bhakta) of
Shiva. The Dashanamis were supposedly
established by the ninth-century
philosopher Shankaracharya in an
effort to create a corps of learned men
who could help to revitalize Hindu life.
Each of the divisions is designated by a
different name—in this case, bharati
(“Indian”). Upon initiation, new members are given this name as a surname to
their new ascetic names, thus allowing
for immediate group identification.
Aside from their individual identity,
these ten divisions are divided into four
larger organizational groups. Each
group has its headquarters in one of the
four monastic centers (maths) supposedly established by Shankaracharya, as
well as other particular religious associations. The Bharati Dashanamis belong
to the Bhuriwara group, which is affiliated with the Shringeri Math in the
southern Indian town of Shringeri. The
Bharati division is elite because it is one
of the few that will initiate only brahmins. Other such divisions are the
Saraswati Dashanamis, Tirtha
Dashanamis, and Ashrama Dashanamis.
The Bharatis are unusual, however,
since only part of the division is
restricted to brahmins.