DADU

town, Sindh province, southern Pakistan. The town lies just west of the Indus River. A distribution centre, it is connected by road and rail with Hyderabad (100 miles south-southeast), Karachi, and Quetta. Dadu has men's and women's government colleges that are affiliated with the University of Sindh. The area in which Dadu is situated is a fertile, alluvial tract irrigated by the Dadu Canal system, which is supplied via the Sukkur Barrage on the Indus River. Wheat, gram (chick-pea), rice, and sorghum are the chief crops. Pop. (1981) town, 39,298. born 1544, Ahmadabad, India died c. 1603, , Naraina, India Hindu saint who founded the Dadupanthi sect. A cotton carder by profession, Dadu became a religious wanderer and finally settled at Naraina, near Jaipur (Rajasthan state), which remains the centre of his following. Dadu rejected the authority of the Vedas (earliest Hindu scriptures), caste distinctions, and all divisive, external forms of worship, such as visits to temples and pilgrimages. Instead he concentrated on japa (repetition of the name of God). Dadu also insisted on vegetarianism and abstention from alcohol. Both Hindus and Muslims were admitted as his disciples. Dadu's teachings and devotional hymns were collected in a 5,000-verse anthology, Bani (Poetic Utterances), which is held in high reverence by the Dadupanthi sect.