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.