The Satnamis. 179

A. D. 1600. They are really Vaishnava Theists like the Sikhs;
that is, worshippers of the one God under some of the names
of Vishnu, according to the doctrine of Kablr, on whose
precepts the religious works of the sect are all founded.

In the same way the Satnamis are only Vaishnava Theists,
who call the one God by a peculiar name of their own
(Satnam), and base their doctrines like the Sikhs on Kablr's
school of theology.

According to Professor H. H. Wilson, the founder of the
Satnamis was Jag-jivan-das, a native of Oudh, whose samadh
or tomb is shown at Katwa, a place between Lucknow and
Ajudhya. He is said to have nourished about the year 1750,
and to have written certain tracts in Hindi, called Jnana-
prakasa, Maha-pralaya, and Prathama-grantha. When I was
last in India I heard of a branch of the Satnamis at Chatisgarh,
in the Central Provinces. They are the followers of a low-
caste Chamar named Ghasi-das and his son Balak-das, who
flourished about the beginning of this century. I was able
to obtain some account of their tenets and practices from the
missionaries of the Church Missionary Society at Madras.
They are also described in one or two numbers of the Madras
Missionary Record for 187a.

Like other varieties of Hindu Unitarians, all of whom mix
up pantheistic ideas with monotheistic doctrines, they submit
implicitly to their Gurus, regarding them as vicegerents of
God upon earth, and occasionally as actual incarnations of
the Deity.

The following are a few of their precepts and rules :—

God pervades the universe. He is present in every single thing. The
title Lord (Sahib) should be added to every object in which God is
present. God is the spring and source of everything good and evil.
Idols must not be worshipped. The ordained religious teacher (Guru)
is holy. Even the water in which his feet are washed is holy, and
should be drunk by his disciples. Distinctions of caste are not to be
observed. Fasts need not be kept. Feed the poor. Wound no one's
feelings. When the dead are burned let no one cry or weep ; let them
only exclaim, ' The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away !'

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