Note 63 — Chapter VI

These philosophers are called properly Joqui; from Joga, community; under which name is understood people who have every thing in common. In the Samscred they are named Gòsuàmi, from Go a cow, and Suami a lord; consequently lords of the cow: for they are accustomed to besprinkle and paint their bodies with dried cow’s dung. They are known also by a more ancient Samscred name, viz. Samanà or Shamanà, that is, the Mild; for they kill no animal, cut no plants, and never eat fish, but feed merely on rice, wild herbs, roots and fruit. They live together in company, under a common chief or teacher, who in the Samscred is called Guru. As true gymnosophists, they go quite naked, and sleep on the ground, having nothing under them but mats made of palm leaves interwoven with each other. They avoid all intercourse with the world; study philosophy, theogony, botany and astronomy, and have written a great many treatises on these sciences in the Indian languages. They are real stoics, and often impose upon themselves the severest penances. They are mentioned by Cicero, Plutarch, Clemens of Alexandria, and Arrian. The last author says, besides other things respecting them, that they were accustomed to walk down into the sea at Cape Comari, in order to purify themselves;—a custom which they have retained to this day. A.——These Dschoqui or Jogui are therefore the followers of the old Indian philosophers called Samanæi. Because they went naked, they were called by the Greeks gymnosophists, that is, naked philosophers. F.