Paper short abstract:

Indian ascetics are very similar in appearance and practice, despite a variety of sectarian and doctrinal affiliations. This paper explains the origins of their shared features and of their differentiation into different sects in the late medieval period.

Paper long abstract:

The members of the main ascetic orders in India today lead very similar lives despite the orders having very different doctrinal principles. Thus the advaitavedantin Dasnāmī Saṃnyāsīs, the viśiṣṭādvaitin Rāmānandī Tyāgīs, the tantric Nāths and the Sikh-affiliated Udāsins are in practice very hard to tell apart. They are itinerant, wandering from festival to monastery to hermitage. They live around smouldering dhūni fires, engage in a variety of ascetic practices, and spend a lot of time smoking cannabis. They wear their hair in jaṭā, long and matted, and smear their bodies in ashes. They sing the praises of the "name" and espouse devotion to a god without attributes. A small number among them practise yoga.

Many of these ascetic attributes are ancient. They came together in the early medieval period, when tantric and more orthodox ascetic orders adopted each others' practices in a mutually beneficial synthesis, and in an atmosphere where sectarian affiliation was of little importance. Some features of Islamic ascetic practice were also thrown into the mix. From the 16th century onwards sectarian affiliation became much more important and within this relatively amorphous group of ascetics various orders coalesced, adopting organisational structures, and philosophical and doctrinal principles.

In this paper, I shall examine this process and advance hypotheses for why it happened and what it can tell us about the development of a pan-Indian Hinduism. My sources will be ethnographic, textual and visual (i.e. medieval miniatures).