a single day; and if the bamboo seeds he is amply provided
for. Nowadays Baiga cultivators may occasionally be met with who have
taken to regular cultivation and become quite prosperous, owning a
number of cattle.

10. Language.

As already stated, the Baigas have completely forgotten their own
language, and in the Satpura hills they speak a broken form of Hindi,
though they have a certain number of words and expressions peculiar
to the caste.

Bairagi

List of Paragraphs

1. _Definition of name and statistics._
2. _The four Sampradayas or main orders._
3. _The Ramanujis._
4. _The Ramanandis._
5. _The Nimanandis._
6. _The Madhavacharyas._
7. _The Vallabhacharyas._
8. _Minor sects._
9. _The seven Akharas._
10. _The Dwaras._
11. _Initiation, appearance and customs._
12. _Recruitment of the order and its character._
13. _Social position and customs._
14. _Bairagi monasteries._
15. _Married Bairagis._

1. Definition of name and statistics.

_Bairagi_, [98] _Sadhu_.--The general term for members of the Vishnuite
religious orders, who formerly as a rule lived by mendicancy. The
Bairagis have now, however, become a caste. In 1911 they numbered
38,000 persons in the Provinces, being distributed over all Districts
and States. The name Bairagi is supposed to come from the Sanskrit
Vairagya and to signify one who is free from human passions. Bairaga is
also the term for the crutched stick which such mendicants frequently
carry about with them and lean upon, either sitting or standing, and
which in case of need would serve them as a weapon. Platts considers
[99] that the name of the order comes from the Sanskrit abstract
term, and the crutch therefore apparently obtained its name from
being used by members of the order. Properly, a religious mendicant
of any Vishnuite sect should be called a Bairagi. But the term is not
generally applied to the more distinctive sects as the Kabirpanthi,
Swami-Narayan, Satnami and others, some of which are almost separated
from Hinduism, nor to the Sikh religious orders, nor the Chaitanya
sect of Bengal. A proper Bairagi is one whose principal deity is
either Vishnu or either of his great incarnations, Rama and Krishna.

2. The four Sampradayas or main orders.

It is generally held that there are four Sampradayas or main sects
of Bairagis. These are--

(_a_) The Ramanujis, the followers of the first prominent Vishnuite