Keywords
Militancy
Banaras
Gosains
Revenue
Pilgrimage
Akharas
How to Cite
Abstract
This research article explores the intertwined roles of militarisation, ascetic identity, and economic agency among the Dasanami Naga ascetics in eighteenth century India. Rather than viewing them solely through the lens of religious renunciation or violent sectarianism, the study investigates how these ascetics functioned as mobile military labour, mercantile actors, and political intermediaries during a period of regional fragmentation and decline of the mighty Mughal Empire. This study employs a layered archival method, pairing primary documents with critical reading of regional narratives to examine the political and economic roles of Naga ascetics in eighteenth-century Upper India. Sources include Persian administrative works and farmāns, Maratha correspondence, travellers’ accounts, and Bengali literature. Research was conducted at the British Library (India Office Records), the National Archives of India, the Uttar Pradesh Regional Archives, and the Central Record Office, Allahabad. To track economic interventions and political bargaining, this article review Fort William Board of Revenue Proceedings and British Residents’ correspondence at Banaras, which reveal official attempts to describe and regulate Naga military-fiscal networks. This research article reconstructs the networks and movements of Dasanami Naga orders across key locations such as Bengal, Banaras, Mirzapur, Allahabad, Haridwar, Bundelkhand and the Doab region. It traces how the Dasanami Nagas engaged in armed conflict, controlled trade routes, and acted as revenue collectors and estate managers under various local powers. The article argues that their actions were neither random nor purely sectarian, but embedded in wider political economies and negotiated sovereignties. Further, this research article highlights how the figure of the armed ascetic was central to the shaping of early modern state-society relations, offering a sharper view on the intersections between religion, economy, and political power in the later phase of Mughal India.
References
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