Bairagi, Vishnu

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This article is an extract from

THE TRIBES and CASTES of BENGAL. By H.H. RISLEY, INDIAN CIVIL SERVICE, OFFICIER D'ACADÉMIE FRANÇAISE. Ethnographic Glossary. CALCUTTA: Printed at the Bengal Secretariat Press. 1891. .

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Bairagi, Vishnu

One who is free from all worldly desires, one devoid of passion:' a class of Hindu religious mendicants who worship Vishnu, to bc distinguished from the sannyasi, who are usually Saivites; but the term is indiscriminately applied to different classes of vagrants professing a religious life. In Chota Nagpur there exists a group bearing the name Bairagi, which appears closely to resemble a true caste. The exogamous sections of this group are shown in appendix I. Some of them are totemistic and some have reference to divisions of the Bairagi sect based upon differences of ascetic practice.