Dashanami Sampradaya

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Dashanami Sampradaya (IAST Daśanāmi Saṃpradâya), literally Tradition of Ten Names, is a Hindu monastic tradition established by Adi Shankara in the 8th century CE in India. One of the major achievements of Acharya Shankaracharya was to organize the Hindu monasticism. He divided the Hindu monks into ten sects called "Dasnami" and organized them under four heads with the Headquarters at Dwaraka in the West, Jagannatha Puri in the East, Sringeri in the South and Badrikashrama in the North. These became the four sacred "Dhams", "Holy Places" of the Hindus. He also enumerated other details of the order of Hindu monks grouped under these heads for their identity. Although there are today a number of Hindu monastic sects, the most authentic are the ten established by Acharya Shankara.

Those Hindus who take up sanyasa in the Advaita Vedanta or Smarta tradition take up one of the ten names associated with this sampradaya. In North India, these monks are organised into Akhāḍas. In the 16th century CE, Madhusudana Saraswati organised the Naga tradition of armed sanyasis in order to protect Hindus from the tyranny of the Mughal rulers. These are also called Gosavi,Gosain,Gusain,Gussain, Sanyasi, Dasnami or Goswami in popular parlance. There are ten names Dasnam in this sect or sampradaaya.

[edit] Ten Dasnam

Saraswati
Tirtha
Aranya
Bharati
Ashrama
Giri
Parvata
Sagara
Vana
Puri

Saraswati, Puri and Bharati are associated with the Sringeri Sharada Peetham. Tirtha and Ashrama are associated with the Dwaraka Pitha. Giri, Parvata and Sagara are associated with Jyotirmath. Vana and Aranya are associated with the Govardhana matha at Puri.

However, it is to be noted the association with the above mathas is only a nominal one.