Chapter JOGEE to JOMPON of J by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

JOGEE to JOMPON

JOGEE, s. Hind. jogi. A Hindu ascetic; and sometimes a ‘conjuror.’ From Skt. yogin, one who practises the yoga, a system of meditation combined with austerities, which is supposed to induce miraculous power over elementary matter. In fact the stuff which has of late been propagated in India by certain persons, under the names of theosophy and esoteric Buddhism, is essentially the doctrine of the Jogis.

1298.—“There is another class of people called Chughi who … form a religious order devoted to the Idols. They are extremely long-lived, every man of them living to 150 or 200 years … there are certain members of the Order who lead the most ascetic life in the world, going stark naked.”—Marco Polo, 2nd ed. ii. 351.

1343.—“We cast anchor by a little island near the main, Anchediva (q.v.), where there was a temple, a grove, and a tank of water. … We found a jogi leaning against the wall of a budkhana or temple of idols” (respecting whom he tells remarkable stories).—Ibn Batuta, iv. 62–63, and see p. 275.

c. 1442.—“The Infidels are divided into a great number of classes, such as the Bramins, the Joghis and others.”—Abdurrazzak, in India in the XVth Cent., 17.

1498.—“They went and put in at Angediva … there were good water-springs, and there was in the upper part of the island a tank built with stone, with very good water and much wood … there were no inhabitants, only a beggar-man whom they call joguedes.”—Correa, by Lord Stanley, 239. Compare Ibn Batuta above. After 150 years, tank, grove, and jogi just as they were!

1510.—“The King of the Ioghe is a man of great dignity, and has about 30,000 people, and he is a pagan, he and all his subjects; and by the pagan Kings he and his people are considered to be saints, on account of their lives, which you shall hear …”—Varthema, p. 111. Perhaps the chief of the Gorakhnatha Gosains, who were once very numerous on the West Coast, and have still a settlement at Kadri, near Mangalore. See P. della Valle’s notice below.

1516.—“And many of them noble and respectable people, not to be subject to the Moors, go out of the Kingdom, and take the habit of poverty, wandering the world … they carry very heavy chains round their necks and waists, and legs; and they smear all their bodies and faces with ashes. … These people are commonly called jogues, and in their own speech they are called Zoame (see SWAMY) which means Servant of God. … These jogues eat all meats, and do not observe any idolatry.”—Barbosa, 99–100.

1553.—“Much of the general fear that affected the inhabitants of that city (Goa before its capture) proceeded from a Gentoo, of Bengal by nation, who went about in the habit of a Jogue, which is the straitest sect of their Religion … saying that the City would speedily have a new Lord, and would be inhabited by a strange people, contrary to the will of the natives.”—De Barros, Dec. II. liv. v. cap. 3.

„ “For this reason the place (Adam’s Peak”) is so famous among all the Gentiledom of the East yonder, that they resort thither as pilgrims from more than 1000 leagues off, and chiefly those whom they call Jógues, who are as men who have abandoned the world and dedicated themselves to God, and make great pilgrimages to visit the Temples consecrated to him.”—Ibid. Dec. III. liv. ii. cap. 1.

1563.—“… to make them fight, like the cobras de capello which the jogues carry about asking alms of the people, and these jogues are certain heathen (Gentios) who go begging all about the country, powdered all over with ashes, and venerated by all the poor heathen, and by some of the Moors also. …”—Garcia, f. 156v, 157.

[1567.—“Jogues.” See under CASIS.

[c. 1610.—“The Gentiles have also their Abedalles (Abd-Allah), which are like to our hermits, and are called Joguies.”—Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. i. 343.]

1624.—“Finally I went to see the King of the Jogis (Gioghi) where he dwelt at that time, under the shade of a cottage, and I found him roughly occupied in his affairs as a man of the field and husbandman … they told me his name was Batinata, and that the hermitage and the place generally was called Cadira (Kadri).”—P. della Valle, ii. 724; [Hak. Soc. ii. 350, and see i. 37, 75].

[1667.—“I allude particularly to the people called Jauguis, a name which signifies ‘united to God.’ ”—Bernier, ed. Constable, 316.]

1673.—“Near the Gate in a Choultry sate more than Forty naked Jougies, or men united to God, covered with Ashes and pleited Turbats of their own Hair.”—Fryer, 160.

1727.—“There is another sort called Jougies, who … go naked except a bit of Cloth about their Loyns, and some deny themselves even that, delighting in Nastiness, and an holy Obscenity, with a great Show of Sanctity.”—A. Hamilton, i. 152; [ed. 1744, i. 153].

1809.—

“Fate work’d its own the while. A band
Of Yoguees, as they roamed the land
Seeking a spouse for Jaga- Naut their God,
Stray’d to this solitary glade.”