The Army of Hindustan

[OB]

Thanks for the link to the article sukhe_bator.  I can see I'm going to have to up the melee capabilities of my Sadhus.

[sukhe_bator]

I can see I'm going to have to up the melee capabilities of my Sadhus.

. Yes, they are not quite the push over you might think. Definitely a case of keeping them at arms length - perhaps on a par with Ancient Celts

[sukhe_bator]

In the course of my reading the sadhus are cropping up everywhere. The Jaipur army under Pratap Singh and his commander Roraji employed them to take down George Thomas. They had a band of approximately 300 'Ghoseinis' or 'Goshais' aka Gossains. These were Nagas and Sanyasis mercenary companies. They were used in the attempt to storm the walls of Fatehpur along with several thousand Rohillas. This interesting article reveals how organised and highly regarded these units became in the late C18. A body of 5-6,000 attacked the British right wing at Buxar in 1764 with swords and arrows.
Kazmi, S. (2011). FROM RELIGIOUS 'RADICALISM' TO ARMY BATTALIONS: THE "NAGAS" AND THE "GOSSAINS" IN THE ARMY OF THE NAWAB-WAZIRS OF AWADH TILL THE 1770'S. Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, 72, 509-520. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/44146745
"Their ascetic and martial tradition helped them in becoming one of the most well regarded army battalions in the eyes of the Nawabs of Avadh, Afghans, Jats, Marathas and British"
I shall look forward to modelling a corps of these extraordinary warriors.

[OB]

Fascinating stuff.  I look forward to seeing what your models.

[juergen c. olk]

Beautiful work...

[sukhe_bator]

Seems there were two factions regularly recruited - not averse to sectarian outbursts over doctrinal matters, apparently. The term 'Goshais' appears to have referred to those who followed Shiva, while 'Bairagis' were followers of Vishnu. The forehead marks or 'pundra' were different. The 'Goshais' had the tripundra - 3 horizontal white lines with a central red vertical line or dot. They also had a tradition of using a trident, but this became largely symbolic. The 'Bairagis' had a forehead mark with a white U with a vertical red line in the centre. Otherwise outwardly there was not much to differentiate them to Western observers, since both wore necklaces of beads, and both were apparently ash smeared. The Nagas went naked, while some sported a loincloth. The prospect of going into battle 'au naturel' with edged weapons, let alone using matchlocks with smouldering matchcords would fill all but the fainthearted with apprehension. These were scary people...