Gosain

Vernacular form of the Sanskrit word
goswami (“master of the senses”).
Although this epithet could be used to
refer to any ascetic, during British colonial rule in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries it was most commonly
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Gosain
used to denote certain subgroups
among the Sanyasis, the ascetic devotees (bhakta) of the god Shiva. The
name was particular to Sanyasis at the
low end of the ascetic status scale, such
as the Nathpanthis or the Naga (militant) Sanyasis, who were often recruited
from the lower classes of society.