a set of Indian philosophers, famous in antiquity; so denominated from their going barefoot. The word is formed of the Greek γυμνοσοφίας, q. d. a sophist or philosopher who goes naked.
This name was given to the Indian philosophers, whom the excessive heat of the country obliged to go naked; as that of Peripatetics was given to those who philosophized walking. The Gymnosophists, however, did not go absolutely naked; but only clothed them- Gymnosophists no farther than modestly required. There were some of these sages in Africa; but the most celebrated clan of them was in India. The African gymnosophists dwelt upon a mountain in Ethiopia, near the Nile, without the accommodation either of house or cell. They did not form themselves into societies like those of India; but each had his private recess, where he studied and performed his devotions by himself. If any person had killed another by chance, he applied to these sages for absolution, and submitted to whatever penances they enjoined. They observed an extraordinary frugality, and lived only upon the fruits of the earth. Lucan refers to these Gymnosophists several new discoveries in astronomy.
As to the Indian Gymnosophists, they dwelt in the woods, where they lived upon the wild products of the earth, and never drank wine nor married. Some of them practised physic, and travelled from one place to another; these were particularly famous for their remedies against barrenness. Some of them, likewise, pretended to practise magic, and to foretell future events.
In general, the Gymnosophists were wise and learned men: their maxims and discourses, recorded by historians, do not in the least favour a barbarous education; but are plainly the result of great sense and deep thought. They kept up the dignity of their character to so high a degree, that it was never their custom to wait upon any body, not even upon princes themselves. They believed the immortality and transmigration of the soul: they placed the chief happiness of man in a contempt of the goods of fortune and the pleasures of sense, and gloried in having given faithful and disinterested counsels to princes and magistrates. It is said, that when they became old and infirm, they threw themselves into a pile of burning wood, in order to prevent the miseries of an advanced age. One of them, named Calamus, thus burnt himself in the presence of Alexander the Great.
Apuleius describes the Gymnosophists thus: "They are all devoted to the study of wisdom, both the elder masters and the younger pupils; and what to me appears the most amiable thing in their character is, that they have an aversion to idleness and indolence: accordingly, as soon as the table is spread, before a bit of victuals be brought, the youths are all called together from their several places and offices, and the masters examine what good they have done since the sun-rise: here one relates something he has discovered by meditation; another has learned something by demonstration; and as for those who have nothing to allege why they should dine, they are turned out to work fasting."
The great leader of the Gymnosophists, according to Jerome, was one Buddas, called by Clemens Butta, who is ranked by Suidas among the Brahmans. That last author makes Buddas, the preceptor of Manes the Persian, the founder of the Gymnosophists.