Naga sadhus (naga sannyasis)

Who the nagas are

According to Britannica, Dashanami sannyasis, who belong to one of the ten orders (Giri, Puri, Bharati and the rest) established by Shankara, usually wear ochre robes, mark the forehead with three horizontal lines of ash and wear a rosary of 108 rudraksha seeds. Some of them go without clothing; they are called naga (naked) sannyasis. According to Sarkar (1959) the nagas and ascetics smear the whole body with ash, while other sannyasis mark the tripundra only on the forehead and a few places on the body.

According to the Kumbh Mela website every naga belongs to one akhara or another, and naga sadhus know the scriptures on the one hand and are skilled in the arts of combat on the other. In his foreword to Sarkar’s book K. M. Munshi writes that the Dashanamis are divided into two sections, the shastradharis, who study and teach the scriptures, and the astradharis, who bear arms; the armed section is organised into akharas. According to AP (2025) the nagas still carry swords, lances and other weapons, but now as symbols.

Which akharas have nagas

According to PIB (2025) the Shaiva akharas are led by naga sannyasis, worshippers of Shiva who walk in the Kumbh processions carrying spears and swords; the Juna Akhara has the largest number of initiated naga sannyasis. According to UPSTDC, the customs of the Agni Akhara differ from those of the naga sannyasis.

There are nagas in the Vaishnava tradition too. According to Britannica most vairagins, when not wandering or on pilgrimage, live in monastic communities called “sthanas”, but the naga vairagins, the militants among the Vaishnava ascetics, form their own akharas. Today these are the three Vaishnava ani akharas: Nirmohi, Digambar and Nirvani.

Initiation: what the sources describe

Sarkar (1959), following two printed manuals, Paramahansa Gopalananda’s “Sannyasa-grahana Paddhati” and Vishveshvara Sarasvati’s “Yatidharma Sangraha”, gives the order of the Dashanami sannyas initiation: four purifying penances and a resolve; then the shraddha of all the ancestors over seven or eight days; shaving of the head, beard and moustache, leaving the shikha; giving away everything except a loincloth, a staff and a water-pot; the viraja homa with the verses of the Purusha Sukta (Rigveda 10.90); standing in water and declaring three times “I have become a sannyasi”, with the vow that no creature need fear him; then giving up the sacred thread and the shikha; and at the end the acharya gives the disciple the loincloth, staff and water-pot. This is the general rite of sannyas; Sarkar does not give a separate rite for the nagas.

AP (February 2025) described the naga initiation at the Prayagraj Maha Kumbh like this: the head priest initiates them in the akhara camps; the initiates make offerings for their dead ancestors and count themselves among the dead, signifying that their bonds with worldly life are cut; they are shaved and given new names; they bathe at the Sangam and vow to give up worldly pleasures; they receive a sacred thread of three strands, worn over the left shoulder; and at the end the guru whispers a secret teaching into their ear.

On women, PIB (22 January 2025) writes that the Juna Akhara has initiated over 200 women into sannyas and has named its organisation of women renunciants “Sannyasini Shri Panchadashnam Juna Akhara”. PIB calls this sannyas initiation; it does not say separately how many were naga initiations.

History

Tradition traces the akharas back to Adi Shankaracharya. The historian Jadunath Sarkar (1959), whose book was published by the Mahanirvani Akhara, writes that there is no contemporary record of the origin and history of the akharas before the time of Gosain Rajendra Giri, about 1750; from then on there are detailed accounts of the fighting naga monks. According to Britannica the naga sannyasis at times fought Islamic militants and the naked ascetics of other sects, and members of the naga orders formerly made their living as mercenary soldiers and traders.

According to Sarkar, in 1751, when the Bangash Afghans were besieging the fort of Allahabad, naga sannyasis led by Rajendra Giri stood with the garrison from February to April; afterwards Rajendra Giri and his followers joined the army of the Nawab Wazir of Awadh, and in Sarkar’s words the naga monks emerged as a factor in North Indian politics. The second volume of Sarkar’s book describes the service of his disciple Anupgiri (Himmat Bahadur) with the Jats, in Bundelkhand and Awadh, and under the Mughal emperor.

Precedence in bathing at the Kumbh once led to bloody fights. Sarkar quotes the British officer Captain Hardwicke on the Haridwar Kumbh of 1796: the Gosains were first in numbers and power at the fair and its policing was in the hands of their mahants; in a clash with mounted Sikh bands on 10 April 1796 about 5,000 ascetics were killed, according to Hardwicke. According to Sarkar the British administration later fixed the order of bathing, and according to Britannica the government enforces such an order today.

Where naga sadhus live

According to the Kumbh Mela website every naga belongs to an akhara, and the akharas have their main seats at Varanasi, Prayagraj, Haridwar, Trimbakeshwar and elsewhere (see the list of 13 akharas). Sarkar quotes an account of 1840 according to which the nagas of the Nirvani and Niranjani akharas completed, every six years, a circuit of pilgrimage to Allahabad, Gaya, Jagannath Puri, the Godavari, Ganga Sagar, Haridwar and other tirthas. According to AP (2025), at the Kumbh they live austerely in the akhara camps under the supervision of their gurus.

Where the sources differ

• The order of initiation: Sarkar (1959) gives the general Dashanami sannyas rite from two printed manuals, and AP (2025) describes the naga initiation at the Kumbh; both include shraddha or offerings for the dead, shaving, a bath and a vow, but the order and details differ, and the akharas’ own customs may differ too.
• Beginnings: the Kumbh Mela website, PIB and UPSTDC date the akharas to the time of Adi Shankaracharya; according to Sarkar (1959) there is no contemporary record before about 1750; and according to DD News (2024) a spokesman of the Juna Akhara said the naga akharas grew up gradually between the reigns of Akbar and Aurangzeb.
• Worship: PIB (2025) calls the naga sannyasis worshippers of Shiva; according to Sarkar (1959) the sannyasis worship Shiva in the ordinary way and Shakti with a special secret rite.

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