Gosains, (गोसाईं) who are also known as Gossains and as Goswami, are Hindu ascetics of India. The term can be translated as master of passion. They are sometimes referred to more generally as Sannyasis. The Nawabs of Awadh, who ruled Oudh State in the 18th and 19th centuries and were Muslim successors to the Mughal empire, recruited from Gosain martial brotherhoods as a way to assimilate influential Hindu elements of society and buttress their own sources of power. This attempt at creating a plural society was in sharp contrast to the zealotry that had characterised their predecessors.