1809.—"This sunnud is the foundation of all the rights and privileges annexed to a Jageer ([Jagheer])."—Harrington's Analysis, ii. 410.
SUNYÁSEE, s. Skt. sannyāsī, lit. 'one who resigns, or abandons,' scil. 'wordly affairs'; a Hindu religious mendicant. The name of Sunnyásee was applied familiarly in Bengal, c. 1760-75, to a body of banditti claiming to belong to a religious fraternity, who, in the interval between the decay of the imperial authority and the regular establishment of our own, had their head-quarters in the forest-tracts at the foot of the Himālaya. From these they used to issue periodically in large bodies, plundering and levying exactions far and wide, and returning to their asylum in the jungle when threatened with pursuit. In the days of Nawāb Mīr Kāsim 'Ali (1760-64) they were bold enough to plunder the city of Dacca; and in 1766 the great geographer James Rennell, in an encounter with a large body of them in the territory of Koch (see [COOCH]) Bihār, was nearly cut to pieces. Rennell himself, five years later, was employed to carry out a project which he had formed for the suppression of these bands, and did so apparently with what was considered at the time to be success, though we find the depredators still spoken of by W. Hastings as active, two or three years later.
[c. 200 A.D.—"Having thus performed religious acts in a forest during the third portion of his life, let him become a Sannyasi for the fourth portion of it, abandoning all sensual affection."—Manu, vi. 33.
[c. 1590.—"The fourth period is Sannyása, which is an extraordinary state of austerity that nothing can surpass.... Such a person His Majesty calls Sannyásí."—Āīn, ed. Jarrett, iii. 278.]
1616.—"Sunt autem Sanasses apud illos Brachmanes quidam, sanctimoniae opinione habentes, ab hominum scilicet consortio semoti in solitudine degentes et nonnunquã totũ nudi corpus in publicũ prodeuntes."—Jarric, Thes. i. 663.
1626.—"Some (an vnlearned kind) are called Sannases."—Purchas, Pilgrimage, 549.
1651.—"The Sanyasys are people who set the world and worldly joys, as they say, on one side. These are indeed more precise and strict in their lives than the foregoing."—Rogerius, 21.
1674.—"Saniade, or Saniasi, is a dignity greater than that of Kings."—Faria y Sousa, Asia Port. ii. 711.
1726.—"The San-yasés are men who, forsaking the world and all its fruits, betake themselves to a very strict and retired manner of life."—Valentijn, Choro. 75.
1766.—"The Sanashy Faquirs (part of the same Tribe which plundered Dacca in Cossim Ally's Time[[256]]) were in arms to the number of 7 or 800 at the Time I was surveying Báár (a small Province near Boutan), and had taken and plundered the Capital of that name within a few Coss of my route.... I came up with Morrison immediately after he had defeated the Sanashys in a pitched Battle.... Our Escorte, which were a few Horse, rode off, and the Enemy with drawn Sabres immediately surrounded us. Morrison escaped unhurt, Richards, my Brother officer, received only a slight Wound, and fought his Way off; my Armenian Assistant was killed, and the Sepoy Adjutant much wounded.... I was put in a Palankeen, and Morrison made an attack on the Enemy and cut most of them to Pieces. I was now in a most shocking Condition indeed, being deprived of the Use of both my Arms, ... a cut of a Sable (sic) had cut through my right Shoulder Bone, and laid me open for nearly a Foot down the Back, cutting thro' and wounding some of my Ribs. I had besides a Cut on the left Elbow whch took off the Muscular part of the breadth of a Hand, a Stab in the Arm, and a large Cut on the head...."—MS. Letter from James Rennell, dd. August 30, in possession of his grandson Major Rodd.