Sanjōgi

Select Language Afrikaans Albanian Arabic Armenian Azerbaijani Basque Belarusian Bulgarian Bengali Catalan Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Traditional) Croatian Czech Danish Dutch English Estonian Filipino Finnish French Galician Georgian German Greek Gujarati Haitian Creole Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Icelandic Indonesian Irish Italian Japanese Javanese Kannada Khmer Korean Latvian Lithuanian Macedonian Malay Maltese Marathi Nepali Norwegian Persian Polish Portuguese Punjabi Romanian Russian Serbian Slovak Slovenian Spanish Swahili Swedish Tamil Telugu Thai Turkish Ukrainian Urdu Vietnamese Welsh Yiddish

This article is an excerpt from Castes and Tribes of Southern India By Edgar Thurston, C.I.E., Superintendent, Madras Government Museum; Correspondant Étranger, Société d’Anthropologie de Paris; Socio Corrispondante, Societa,Romana di Anthropologia. Assisted by K. Rangachari, M.A., of the Madras Government Museum. Government Press, Madras 1909.

Sanjōgi

The Sanjōgis are an Oriya class of religious mendicants, who wear the sacred thread, and act as priests for Pānos and other lowly people. The name indicates connection, and that they are the connecting link between ordinary people and those who have given up earthly pleasures (Sanyāsis). The Sanjōgis follow the ordinary as well as the ascetic life. Mr. G. Ramamurti Pantulu informs me that they are believed to be the offspring of ascetics who have violated their vow of celibacy, and women with whom they have lived. They make and sell bead rosaries of the sacred tulsi or basil (Ocimum sanctum) which are worn by various Oriya castes. Some are cultivators, while others are beggars. A Sanjōgi beggar goes about with a bell on the thigh, and a coloured pot on the left shoulder. A few are employed at Oriya maths (religious institutions), where it is their duty to invite Bairāgis and ascetics to a dinner party, and afterwards to remove the leaf platters, and eat the food which is left.