Kundah-panthi
Kundah-panthi (कुंडाह-पंथी) is a sect, founded in about 1870 by Hakim Singh Jat of Rampur, in Patiala.
H.A. Rose[1] writes that Hakim Singh was described as an insignificant looking man, living in filth, and possessing a few tracts and a New Testament in Panjabi (which he had obtained from American Missionaries at Ludhiana), from which he used to read to his few followers; but they soon numbered about 3,000 souls, and included several well-to-do inhabitants of Rampur. His preaching too underwent change, and he taught that the British Government would shortly be replaced by his own. Giving himself up to religious meditation as a lad, Hakim Singh who was a Jat, wandered about for several years as a faqir visiting shrines in different parts of the country, in the belief that, by so doing, he would atone for his past sins and obtain merit in the eyes of God. Then he settled down at his native village and began to preach the worship of the Neh Kalank Avatar* or spotless incarnation of the Deity, He obtained some Christian books from the missionaries at Ludhiana and declared that Christ was the Neh Kalank, and that he was himself an incarnation of Christ; the Imam Mahdi expected by Muhammadans, and also the Raghnath believed in by Hindus. He taught his disciples to eat together and called his sect Kundah Panthi, kundah meaning an earthen vessel, and panth, a sect).† He enjoined strict morality, and declared that the Satyug, or era of truth, was about to commence. While acknowledging Christ was the true Guru, he maintained that he himself was an incarnation of Christ, and that it was for him to baptize.
Originally a disciple of one Thartpuri, a sadh of his own village, for 20 years Hakim Singh did not come out of his house. He had his head shaved and also those of several women. To avoid obeying the calls of nature, he used to put a stick down his throat after eating and so cause himself to vomit. This was called neuli karam. He was believed to possess the power (called joga bhias) of being able to hold his breath for a longtime without showing any sign of life. He was a great-opium eater and when visitors called on him the first thing he offered them was opium.
- * There is a prophecy- in the Hindu Shastars to the effect that " Neh Kalank Avatar " will be born in the house of a Khatri in village Sarabhal in the Moradabad district in Sambat 1940 A.D. 1883-84.
- † So called because they all eat in common.