The Rāmānanda Sampradāy is the largest contemporary order of sādhus, or Hindu renunciants, in India. Because of the prevalence of the order’s members in the northern and central portions of the country, most depictions of sādhus found in books, journals, and articles today are of vairāgīs, the general term of self-identity used by them. Rāmānandī vairāgīs regularly wander throughout villages, forests, and jungles in the…