Dandis
Dandis one of the Vaishnava (q.v.) sects among the Hiindus, and, a legitimate representative of the fourth Asrama or mendicant life, into which the Hindu is believed to enter after passing the previous stages of, student, househoulder, and hermit. A Brahmin, however, does not require to pass through the previous stages, but is allowed to enter at once into the, fourth: order. The Dandi is distinguished by carrying a, small dand or wand, with several projections from it, and a piece of cloth dyed with red ochre, in which: the Brahminical cord is supposed to be enshrined, I attached to it; he shaves his hair and beard, wears, only a loin-cloth, and subsists upon food obtained ready dressed from the houses of the Brahmins once a day only which he deposits in the small clay pot that he always carries with him. They are generally found in cities, collected, like other mendicants, in myths.
