Story Tellers Saints and Scoundrels

The stories reproduced here reveal the varied faces of the ascetic in the Hindu imagination : potentially a wise saint, he may well be a scoundrel intent on duping disciples. In contextualizing the tales and their teller – a self-professed agrambagram sadhu – narayan explores the Indian ascetic tradition that connects forest-dwelling sages of antiquity with cosmopolitan Gurus surrounded by foreign disciples. The meticulous review of interdisciplinary scholarship on asceticism makes this book invaluable for anyone interested in Sadhus, Sannyasis, and Gurus.