Word: sadhus
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Best House. "In our country," runs the preamble to an Indian parliamentary bill which now seeks to put the sadhus under some form of government supervision and control, "the number of holy men is increasing day by day. Most of them indulge in vices, which, if not checked, will help crime to increase unabated." But to millions of superstitious Hindus, the sadhus, good and bad, are potent miracle workers who transcend the laws of men. Three months ago, when the beardless holy man who called himself Baba Raghubaranand arrived in Mokhim-pur, established himself without a by-your-leave...
India's eight million sadhus are mostly a wild and wacky bunch of fanatics who go about naked, claim divine powers, and live on alms. "Many of them simply exploit you and extort money from you," Prime Minister Nehru recently warned his people. "I want you not to have faith in such sadhus...
...been talk of strange goings-on at the Kaliaboda math near by. A math is a holy place, but the one at Kaliaboda looked more Uke a fortress. Its walls were guarded by archers, and out of its portals from time to time issued a number of besotted sadhus who beat up the local inhabitants. When women began disappearing, people of the surrounding villages demanded that the police look into the Kaliaboda math...
...main gate, and from the walls archers and men with slingshots attacked them with arrows and stones. Bursting into the courtyard of the math, they found Pagala Baba, dressed in animal skins, sitting on a lotus-shaped throne, waving a piece of red cloth and shouting, "Let blood flow!" Sadhus armed with spears, tridents and heavy two-handed swords forced the police back, leaving one cop and two sadhns dead...
...Last Stand. When military police reached the scene, many of the sadhus had fled, but a sturdy minority, including Pagala Baba, had retired to a maze of underground cells within the tunnel-honeycombed fortress, and had to be flushed out one by one with tear gas. In the courtyard the police found a huge chariot in which the mad monk's disciples were wont to haul him about. Statues of Pagala Baba were displayed in the gardens and orchards of the math. His bedroom was adorned with tiger skins and statuettes of nude women. Underground, behind steel doors...