Wiktionary
n. (plural of gymnosophist English)
Wikipedia
Gymnosophists ( Greek , gymnosophistai, i.e. "naked philosophers" or "naked wise men") is the name given by the Greeks to certain ancient Indian philosophers who pursued asceticism to the point of regarding food and clothing as detrimental to purity of thought and also to naked priests from Ethiopia.
Usage examples of "gymnosophists".
But the gymnosophists are cited at the time of Alexander as an ancient sect already divided into Brachmans and Samaneans.
In the dark solitudes of India also, though some philosophers go naked, and are therefore called gymnosophists, yet they make an exception in the case of these members and cover them.
And the Indian gymnosophists, who are said to philosophize in the solitudes of India in a state of nudity, are its citizens.
I am a knight-errant, and not one of those whose names Fame has never thought of immortalising in her record, but of those who, in defiance and in spite of envy itself, and all the magicians that Persia, or Brahmans that India, or Gymnosophists that Ethiopia ever produced, will place their names in the temple of immortality, to serve as examples and patterns for ages to come, whereby knights-errant may see the footsteps in which they must tread if they would attain the summit and crowning point of honour in arms.