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Hinduism - Who Is Madhusudana Saraswati?

 

(16th century) A well-known member of the Sanyasi society, which consisted of renunciant ascetics who were Shiva worshipers (bhakta).

His surname indicates that he belonged to the Saraswati sect, one of the most renowned of the ten Dashanami divisions; he is supposed to have spent the most of his life at Benares, the world's biggest religious center at the time.

According to ascetic tradition, Madhusudana was the founder of the Naga Sanyasis, a class of battling ascetics.

Madhusudana, according to legend, developed these fighters in response to the depredations the Sanyasis had undergone at the hands of hostile Muslim faqirs.

Madhusudana wanted to start a military ascetic order committed to safeguarding fellow ascetics after conferring with Birbal, the Moghul emperor Akbar's counsellor.

Recruits came from the shudras' ranks.


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