The Multifarious Faces of Sikhism
throughout Sikh History
Page 3 of 4
Sanatan
Singh Sabhias cont'd
Sikhs initiated into the Khalsa could still
have ‘Dehdhari Gurus’
(living teachers/guides). Communities of ‘Nanak
Panthis’ (Sikh Hindus) and ‘Nanak
Shahis’ (Sikh Muslims) existed
and practiced their strange mixture of religion.
Nanak Shahi
A 'Naga Nanak Shahi', circa 1820
A British text, based on the census report
for the Punjab 1883, by Denzil Ibbetson, and
the census report for the Punjab, 1882 by E.
D. Maclagan, speaks of the ‘Nanak
Panthi’ Sanatan Sikh communities
thus:
‘The ‘Nanak-panthis’
of today are known roughly as Sikhs who
are not Singhs, followers of the earlier,
gurus, who do not think it necessary to
follow the ceremonial and social observations
inculcated by Guru Gobind Singh.
Their characteristics are, therefore, mainly
negative: they do not forbid smoking: they
do not insist on long hair, on the other
four kakkas: they are not baptized with
the pahul: they do not look upon the Brahmin
as a superfluity, and so forth. The chief
external difference between the Nanak-panthi
Sikhs and the followers of Guru Gobind Singh
is the disposal of the hair: the former,
like the Hindus, shave all but the scalp-lock
(bodi or choti), and hence is often known
as a Muna (shaven) or Bodiwala Sikh, while
the Sikh proper wears long hair. They
are also known as Sahjdhari. The
only form of baptism known among the Nanak-panthis
is the ordinary Hindu practice of drinking
the foot-nectar of the Guru, and even this
is not very common. It will thus
be seen that from one point of view there
is very little difference between a Nanak-panthi
and an ordinary lax Hindu.’ ‘A Glossary of the
Tribes And Castes of the Punjab and North-West
Frontier Province, in Three Volumes’,
by H. A. Rose, 1914, Pa. 153
Nanak Panthi
A Nanak Panthi, possibly a Sutra Shahi, circa
1810
The above text also documents the ‘Nanak
Panthi’ Sikhs, who adopted certain
Muslim practices, such as eating Halal meat
(forbidden to Khalsa Sikhs):
‘These Nanak-panthi
Aroras keep their hair uncut, and though
they touch and sell tobacco, will not smoke
it. They do not, however, as a
rule, take the pahul or observe the four
remaining kakkas of Gobind Singh’s
ordinances. They eat the meat of
animals whose throats have been cut after
the Mohammedan fashion (kutha) and not that
of animals whose necks have been cut by
the Sikh
method of jhatka. Except they will
go every morning to the dharmsala, or Sikh
place of worship, to listen to recitations
from the Adi-Granth, and that they use the
Sikh forms of morning and evening prayers
(Japji and Rehras), they are in all other
respects as other Hindus are on the frontier.’
‘A Glossary of the Tribes And Castes
of the Punjab and North-West Frontier Province,
in Three Volumes’, by H. A. Rose,
1914, Pa. 155
Akali Guru Nanak Dev Ji
Fresco from the walls of Baba Atal Gurdwara,
Amritsar depicting
a scene from the travels of the first Sikh Guru
in Kashmir accompanied by Bhai Mardana
