Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v2.c28.s3.t1.39

v2.c28.s3.t1.39

end in furious combats. At the celebrated place of pilgrimage, Haridwar (Hardwar), on the Ganges, we are obliged to have soldiers to keep the peace, since a battle occurred, in which they fought almost to extirpation, about twenty years ago. They are the Templars of Rajasthan. [Gosāin, Skt. gosvāmin, ‘master of cows: one who is master of his organs of sense.’ The Bishan or Vishnuswāmis are a group of Bairāgi ascetics, who are said to have come to Mārwār about A.D. 1779, in the reign of Bijai Singh. Some of them are now employed as State sepoys (Census Report, Mārwār, 1891, ii. 86). In 1760 the rival mobs of Gosāins and Bairāgis fought a battle, in which 1800 are said to have perished (IGI, xiii. 53).]