Avadontas

Avadontas are a kind of anchorites among the Brahmins who practice great austerity, abandoning their wives and children and denying themselves all the comforts of life. They renounce all earthly possessions, and clothe themselves only with a piece of linen cloth. around the waist. They subsist on the charity of the; devout. Many of them are too indolent even to ask for food, but lay themselves down on the bank of some river, where the country people bring them milk and fruits in abundance.