sadhun.

1845 Encycl. Metrop. XXI. 672/2 When their [sc. spiritual guides'] sanctity is such, that they are believed to have the power of securing or withholding divine blessings, they are styled Sád'hú (saint).

1891 R. Kipling Life's Handicap Pref. p. xiii They trooped up, faquirs, sadhus, sunnyasis, byragis, nihangs, and mullahs, priests of all faiths and every degree of raggedness.

1901 R. Kipling Kim xi. 291 He switched out his..turban-cloth and..rolled it over and under about his loins into the intricate devices of a Saddhu's cincture.

1958 L. Durrell Balthazar x. 208 The old man was a judge in India... He dresses like a saddhu... You English are eccentrics.

1978 Times Lit. Suppl. 3 Feb. 145/2 The Hindu Sadhus were pythons of the psychic world, whose slumbrous coils contained, and at the same time hid, the force of a battering ram.

2004 T. Khair Bus Stopped 74 A passenger, an old sadhu, withered and appropriately white-bearded,..had told him the story.

1903 J. C. Oman Mystics, Ascetics & Saints of India xii. 278 (heading) The future of Sadhuism.

1979 F. Olbrich Sweet & Deadly vii. 74 Holiness is a game to them [sc. hippies], a cheap thrill—instant Sadhuism.

1997 K. P. Ewing Arguing Sainthood 61 By no means enamoured of Indian sadhuism, I feel at the same time no particular admiration for the industrialism of Europe and America.