Sanyasi

(“renunciant”) According to the dharma
literature, the last of the idealized
stages of life (ashrama) for a twice-born
man, that is a man born into the brahmin, kshatriya, or vaishya communities. Boys born into these communities
are eligible for the adolescent religious
initiation known as the “second birth.”
After engaging in religious learning as a
celibate student (brahmacharin), marrying and raising a family as a householder (grhastha), and gradually detaching himself from the world as a forestdwelling recluse (vanaprastha), a twiceborn man should finally renounce all
possessions and all attachments to
devote himself exclusively to the search
for ultimate truth. Although in a general
sense the word Sanyasi can (and sometimes does) refer to any such renunciant, it is most used as the name of a
particular ascetic community, the
Dashanami Sanyasis, who are believed
to have been founded by the great
philosopher Shankaracharya, and who
are devotees (bhakta) of the god Shiva.