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BAIRAGEES.
(203)

In a former number, 144, Vol. III., a representation of a Bairagee was given, who was a lay member of the order, or who had ceased, perhaps, to practise austerities of a severe nature. In the present instances, however, two members of the order are given in the guise in which they usually appear, either when migratory as performing pilgrimages, or engaged in local practices of penance. These are men who have for the present, at least, renounced the world, and who perform the habitual penances described in the article No. 144. The central figure may have been a Brahmin or Rajpoot, as he still retains the junwa, or sacred thread of the "twice born," which hangs over his left shoulder. The standing figure has no such thread, and may have belonged to any lower Hindoo caste; and the sitting figure on the right hand may be a visitor, or possibly professing to become a Bairagee. In the two Bairagees there is little of costume to describe. Their matted hair is wound round their heads instead of turbans; their foreheads are marked with the broad trident of Vishnu, red in the centre and white on each side. The sitting figure has covered himself with wood ashes only; the old man standing has marked himself with his usual caste marks about the body, and wears a coarse black blanket thrown over his left shoulder. 

These men are fair specimens of the generality of Bairagees, but there are others whose limbs have stiffened into various positions under penances, and who have become inexpressibly frightful and hideous in appearance. These classes were described, as they are at present, in the Greek accounts of India. When Alexander sent for a number of them to speak with, and they refused to come, Onesicritus, as related to Strabo, quoted by Elphinstone, went to converse with them. He found fifteen persons about two miles from the city, naked and exposed to a burning sun, some sitting, some standing, and some lying; but all immovable from morning till evening in the attitudes they had adopted. One of these ascetics, Calanus, became attached to Alexander, and accompanied him toward Greece, but falling sick in Persia, determined to burn himself, and resisted all persuasion to