Note 6 — CHAPTER 14

They follow the doctrines of Vishnu (Bishan). They ate termed Gosains, as well as the more numerous class of church militants, devoted to Siva. Both are célibataires, as Gosain imports, from mastery (sain) over the sense (go). They occasionally come in contact, when their sectarian principles end in furious combats. At the celebrated place of pilgrimage, Haridwar (Hardwar), on the Ganges, we are obliged to have soldiers to keep the peace, since a battle occurred, in which they fought almost to extirpation, about twenty years ago. They are the Templars of Rajasthan. [Gosāīn, Skt. gosvāmin, ‘master of cows: one who is master of his organs of sense.’ The Bishan or Vishnuswāmis are a group of Bairāgi ascetics, who are said to have come to Mārwār about A.D. 1779, in the reign of Bijai Singh. Some of them are now employed as State sepoys (Census Report, Mārwār, 1891, ii. 86). In 1760 the rival mobs of Gosāīns and Bairāgis fought a battle, in which 1800 are said to have perished (IGI, xiii. 53).]