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Table of Contents

1. Account of the sect.

Nānakpanthi1 Sect, Nānakshahi, Udāsi, Suthra Shahi.—The Nānakpanthi sect was founded by the well-known Bāba Nānak, a Khatri of the Lahore District, who lived between 1469 and 1538–39. He is the real founder of Sikhism, but this development of his followers into a military and political organisation was the work of his successors, Har Govind and Govind Singh. Nānak himself was a religious reformer of the same type as Kabīr and others, who tried to abolish the worship of idols and all the body of Hindu superstition, and substitute a belief in a single unseen deity without form or special name. As with most of the other Vaishnava reformers, Nānak’s creed was largely an outcome of his observation of Islām. “There is nothing in his doctrine,” Sir E.D. Maclagan says, “to distinguish it in any marked way from that of the other saints who taught the higher forms of Hinduism in northern India. The unity of God, the absence of any real distinction between Hindus and Musalmans, the uselessness of ceremonial, the vanity of earthly wishes, even the equality of castes, are topics common to Nānak and the Bhagats; and the Adi-Granth or sacred book compiled by Nānak is full of quotations from elder or contemporary teachers, who taught essentially the same doctrine as Nānak himself.” It was partly, he explains, because Nānak was the first reformer in the Punjab, and thus had the field practically to himself, and partly in consequence of the subsequent development of Sikhism, that his movement has been so successful and his adherents now outnumber those of any other reformer of the same period. Nānak’s doctrines were also of a very liberal character. The burden of his teaching was that there is no Hindu and no Muhammadan. He believed in transmigration, but held that the successive stages were but purifications, and that at last the soul, cleansed from sin, went to dwell with its maker. He prescribed no caste rules or ceremonial observances, and indeed condemned them as unnecessary and even harmful; but he made no violent attack on them, he insisted on no alteration in existing civil and social institutions, and was content to leave the doctrine of the equality of all men in the sight of God to work in the minds of his followers. He respected the Hindu veneration of the cow and the Muhammadan abhorrence of the hog, but recommended as a higher rule than either total abstinence from flesh. Nothing could have been gentler or less aggressive than his doctrine, nothing more unlike the teaching of his great successor Govind.2 Two other causes contributed to swell the numbers of the Nānakpanthis. The first of these was that during the late Mughal Empire the Hindus of the frontier tracts of the Punjab were debarred by the fanaticism of their Muhammadan neighbours from the worship of idols; and they therefore found it convenient to profess the faith of Nānak which permitted them to declare themselves as worshippers of one God, while not forcing them definitely to break with caste and Hinduism. The second was that Guru Govind Singh required the absolute abandonment of caste as a condition of the initiation of a Sikh; and hence many who would not consent to this remained Nānakpanthis without adopting Sikhism. The Nānakpanthis of the present day are roughly classified as Sikhs who have not adopted the term Singh, which is attached to the names of all true Sikhs; they also do not forbid smoking or insist on the adoption of the five Kakkas or K’s which are in theory the distinguishing marks of the Sikh; the Kes or uncut hair and unshaven beard; the Kachh or short drawers ending above the knee; the Kara or iron bangle; the Khanda or steel knife; and the Kanga or comb. The Nānakpanthi retains the Hindu custom of shaving the whole head except the choti or scalp-lock, and hence is often known as a Munda or shaven Sikh.3 The sect do not prohibit the consumption of meat and liquor, but some of them eat only the flesh of animals killed by the Sikh method of Jatka, or cutting off the head by a blow on the back of the neck. Their only form of initiation is the ordinary Hindu practice of drinking the foot-nectar or sugar and water in which the toe of the guru has been dipped, and this is not very common. It is known as the Charan ka pāhul or foot-baptism, as opposed to the Khande ka pāhul or sword-baptism of the Govindi Sikhs.4 Bāba Nānak himself, Sir E. Maclagan states, is a very favourite object of veneration among Sikhs of all kinds, and the picture of the guru with his long white beard and benevolent countenance is constantly met with in the sacred places of the Punjab.

2. Nānakpanthis in the Central Provinces.

In 1901 about 13,000 persons returned themselves as Nānakpanthis in the Central Provinces, of whom 7000 were Banjāras and the remainder principally Kunbis, Ahīrs and Telis. The Banjāras generally revere Nānak, as shown in the article on that caste. A certain number of Mehtars or sweepers also profess the sect, being attached to it, as to the Sikh religion, by the abolition of caste restrictions and prejudices advocated by their founders; but this tolerance has not been perpetuated, and the unclean classes, such as the Mazbi or scavenger Sikhs, are as scrupulously avoided and kept at a distance by the Sikh as by the Hindu, and are even excluded from communion, and from the rites and holy places of their religion.5

3. Udasis.

The Udāsis are a class of ascetics of the Nānakpanthi or Sikh faith, whose order was founded by Sri Chand, the younger son of Nānak. They are recruited from all castes and will eat food from any Hindu. They are almost all celibates, and pay special reverence to the Adi-Granth of Nānak, but also respect the Granth of Govind Singh and attend the same shrines as the Sikhs generally. Their service consists of a ringing of bells and blare of instruments, and they chant hymns and wave lights before the Adi-Granth and the picture of Bāba Nānak. In the Central Provinces members of several orders which have branched off from the main Nānakpanthi community are known as Udāsi. Thus some of them say they do not go to any temples and worship Nirankal or the deity without shape or form, a name given to the supreme God by Nānak. In the Punjab the Nirankaris constitute a separate order from the Udāsis.6 These Udāsis wear a long rope of sheep’s wool round the neck and iron chains round the wrist and waist. They carry half a cocoanut shell as a begging-bowl and have the chameta or iron tongs, which can also be closed and used as a poker. Their form of salutation is ‘Matha Tek,’ or ‘I put my head at your feet.’ They never cut their hair and have a long string of wool attached to the choti or scalp-lock, which is coiled up under a little cap. They say that they worship Nirankal without going to temples, and when they sit down to pray they make a little fire and place ghī or sweetmeats upon it as an offering. When begging they say ‘Alakh,’ and they accept any kind of uncooked and cooked food from Brāhmans.

4. Suthra Shāhis.

Another mendicant Nānakpanthi order, whose members visit the Central Provinces, is that of the Suthra Shāhis. Here, however, they often drop the special name, and call themselves simply Nānakshahi. The origin of the order is uncertain, and Sir E. Maclagan gives various accounts. Here they say that their founder was a disciple of Nānak, who visited Mecca and brought back the Seli and Syahi which are their distinctive badges. The Seli is a rope of black wool which they tie round their heads like a turban, and Syāhi the ink with which they draw a black line on their foreheads, though this is in fact usually made with charcoal. They carry a wallet in which these articles are kept, and also the two small ebony sticks which they strike against each other as an accompaniment to their begging-songs. The larger stick is dedicated to Nānak and the smaller to the Goddess Kāli. They are most importunate beggars, and say that the privilege of levying a pice (farthing) was given to them by Aurāngzeb. They were accustomed in former times to burn their clothes and stand naked at the door of any person who refused to give them alms. They also have a bahi or account-book in which the gifts they receive, especially from Banias, are recorded. Mr. Crooke states that “They indulge freely in intoxicants and seldom cease from smoking. Their profligacy is notorious, and they are said to be composed mainly of spendthrifts who have lost their wealth in gambling. They are recruited from all castes and always add the title Shāh to their names. A proverb says in allusion to their rapacity:

Kehu mare, Kehu jīye,

Suthra gur batāsa piye;

or, ‘Others may live or die, but the Suthra Shāhi must have his drink of sugar and water.’7

1 This article is compiled from Sir Denzil Ibbetson’s Punjab Census Report of 1881, and Sir E.D. Maclagan’s Punjab Census Report of 1891.

2 Ibbetson, para. 260.

3 Maclagan, para. 88.

4 Maclagan, loc. cit.

5 Ibbetson, para. 265.

6 Maclagan, para. 95.

7 Tribes and Castes, article Suthra Shāhi.