Abstract
THE IMAGE OF THE ascetic, or sadhu, in India is most commonly a male one. From texts of the past, folk stories, and reminders from grandmothers to children to beware the wandering monk, the trope of the renouncer rests on an image of a male, who in service of his quest for knowing the divine, abandons worldly ties and lives outside the rules of society. This potentially threatening yet possibly enlightened male is noticeably disconnected from family and community, and lives outside normative expectations for behaviour.