a set of Indian philosophers, famous in antiquity. The word is formed from the Greek, γυμνοσοφιστης, a sophist or philosopher who goes naked.
This name was applied to the Indian philosophers, whom the excessive heat of the country obliged to go naked; as that of Peripatetics was given to those who philosophised walking. The Gymnosophists, however, did not go absolutely naked, but only clothed themselves no further than modesty required. There were some of these sages in Africa; but the most celebrated were those of India. The African Gymnosophists dwelt upon a mountain in Ethiopia, near the Nile, and 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 by chance killed another, 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 ascribes 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 either drank wine or married. Some of them practised GYP
GYPSYUM PHYSIC, travelled from one place to another, and were particularly famous for their remedies against barrenness. Others pretended to practise magic, and to foretell future events.
In general, however, the Gymnosophists were wise and learned men; for their maxims and discourses, recorded by historians, do not in the least savour of a barbarous education, but are plainly the result of great sense and deep thought. They kept up the dignity of their character to such a degree, that they never waited upon any one, not even upon princes. 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 of the pleasures of sense; and they 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 advanced age. One of them, named Calanus, burned himself in the presence of Alexander the Great.
Apuleius thus describes the Gymnosophists: "They are all devoted to the study of wisdom, both the older 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 called together from their several places and offices, and the masters examine them what good they have done since the sunrise. 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."