SATNAMI SECT

any of several groups in India that have adopted a combination of Hindu and Muslim practices. The earliest group was founded by Birbhan in the 16th century, during a period of general syncretic activity that attempted to bring together the faiths of Islam and Hinduism. The Satnamis worshiped the supreme God as satnam (from Sanskrit satyanaman, he whose name is truth), a parallel to the use in Islam of al-haqq (Arabic: truth) as another name of Allah. They did not worship images, rejected all class and caste distinctions, and denied any difference between Allah and the supreme God of Hinduism. They were characteristically Hindu, insofar as they accepted the theses of orthodox Vedanta philosophy and worshiped Rama and Krishna, the incarnations of Lord Vishnu. Another sect of the same name was organized by the Rajput religious leader Jagjivan Das at the end of the 17th century. The modern Satnami sect, which may represent a revival of the earlier movements, was founded by Rai Das (early 19th century), a saint of the Camar caste, and is almost exclusively a Camar religious movement. Among the Camar caste (originally tanners by profession and therefore considered highly polluted), the sect is closely associated with the saint Siva Narayana. It has been suggested that the popularity of the Satnami sect among the Camars may be a result of their desire to create an identity as a sectarian group and thus raise the prestige of their caste.