Gosains

Gosains (गोसाईं), who are also known as Gossain, Gosine, Gusain, Gossai, Gosyne, Gosein, Gosavi, and as Goswamis, are Brahmins,[1][2][3][4][5][6] Hindu ascetics[7][8] and religious functionaries of India.

[9][10] The members of Dashnami Sect, believed to be the first brahmanical order of ascetics founded by Adi Shankaracharya,[11] use the surname Goswami, Gosain or Gosavi which means a man who has attained complete control over sense organs.

[17][18] In the Ekasarana Dharma, a sect propagated by Sankardev, the hereditary heads and religious functionaries of Satras of Assam use the surname and title of Gosain and Goswami.

[29] In nineteenth-century Hyderabad, the Goswami Rajas, as they were termed so due to their influential participation in Nizam's administration and lending loans, established themselves as wealthy banking houses.

[31][32] The Nawabs of Awadh, who ruled Oudh State in the 18th and 19th centuries and were Muslim successors to the Mughal empire, recruited from Gosain martial brotherhoods as a way to assimilate influential Hindu elements of society and buttress their own sources of power.

Mughal emperor Jahangir testing the strength of penance of Gosain Nirmalji and Bhagvanji, National Museum, New Delhi
Folio showing Emperor Jahangir conversing with Gosain Jadrup from a Jahangir-nama manuscript, c. 1620
Painting of a Vaishnava Gosain, Narottamdas. From Cleveland Museum of Art , c. 1720-30
Group of Gosains at Berar c.1862