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Ascetics are Hardwar’s final group of religious contractors. The chapter first examines their general characteristics as renunciants living an alternate lifestyle—whether as independents or as members of particular ascetic orders (sanyasis, bairagis, or Udasis)—as well as how these characteristics simultaneously reflect and shape Hardwar’s religious environment. The chapter later examines different economic strategies and means of livelihood. Most ascetics are individually poor, but the groups called akharas control enormous wealth, and their leaders (mahants) are powerful and politically influential. For ascetics outside the akharas, the most prestigious livelihood is to be a guru (religious preceptor) supported by one’s disciples. Gurus guide their householder disciples not only on religious matters but also on a host of worldly troubles—from business, legal, and medical matters to personal and family problems. As such, they are still intimately connected with a life they have outwardly renounced.

This chapter presents an analysis of the Dharmaranya Purana. The analysis selects certain myths that are connected to the meaning of the sanyasi, Brahman, and king categories. It demonstrates that Hinduism's conceptual order is featured in these myths through a categorical partition of the three categories. It first discusses and analyses the myths of the creation of Dharmaranya, the creation of the Vanikas, the austerities of Dharmaraja, the story of the Jayadeva, the sorrows of Shrimata, and the story of King Aama. It then tries to show that when the myths are combined, they would help define a complete universe of discourse, based on the connections between the categories that represent the social and asocial. The chapter also studies the meaning of the Vanika/Shudra, Brahman, king, and sanyasi categories.

This chapter discusses the ancestry of Jamnalal Bajaj. It first describes Wardha, in central Maharashtra, where the Marwaris migrated from their native Rajasthan, and where Mahatma Gandhi decided to settle in the 1930s. The Marwaris were known for their successes in commerce, and one of these migrant Marwari merchants was Bachhraj, a successful moneylender and owner of a cotton bale business. The discussion takes a look at Bachhraj’s family before introducing Jamnalal Bajaj, his adopted grandson. It also examines Jamnalal’s brief education and subsequent marriage to the nine-year-old daughter of Seth Girdharilal Jajodia. Finally, the chapter reveals that Seth Bachhraj was prone to outbursts of temper, and that one such bout of Bachhraj’s temper led Jamnalal to depart for Hardwar and Rishikesh in order to become a sanyasi.