Sewapanthi

The main focus of the sect is on the selfless service to others, hence their name.^[11] They believe that selfless service to others, based upon mutual respect and love, is a way of salvation and enlightenment by overcoming one's own inherent selfishness.^[2] Traditionally, Sewapanthis do not live the life of a grishti (householder), but remain celibate.^[12][1][11] They dedicate their whole lives for sewa, or selfless service for the panth.^[11] They typically do not engage in begging or relying on alms/offerings for their survival. Instead, they tend to construct good and sell them to support themselves, as taught by Aya Ram to his disciple Dharam Das.^[2]

The Sewa Panthis are pacifists.^[12] Though they do not say it is wrong for a person to defend themselves, Sewapanthis themselves desist from all forms of violence.^[12] They refuse to harm other forms of life in an aspiration to become the epitome of shaant ras, and to remain in sattva guna.^[12] Despite this, they do not entirely detach themselves from the martial spirit expounded upon by Guru Gobind Singh. They support, in principle, the necessary violent actions required of the Khalsa for the protection of Dharma. As such, many Sewapanthis foregoe the pahul, or initiation into the martial Khalsa order. Many Sewapanthis were Sahajdhari in their observance and therefore did not keep kesh (unshorn hair).^[13] This allowed them to escape a lot of the persecution that more identifiable Sikhs faced.^[13] Whilst Sewapanthi saints are said to have an aversion towards womankind, they are known to assist women in distress.^[11]

The Sewapanthi Sikhs usually wear pure white clothes, and keep kesh (unshorn hair), the Sewapanthi figures Sewa Ram and Addan Shah never cut their hair. They have often had their deras and dharamsalas located in places like Punjab, Pakistan, and other with Muslim majority populations.^[12][2] Many of the followers of the sect were ethnic Sindhi Sikhs.^[1]

This sect was responsible for preparing the ink used to write manuscripts of Sikh scriptures back in the time when such scriptures were written out by hand manually before the introduction of mass-printing. The ink prepared by the sect was known as "Roshanai" or "Addanshahi" ink.^[9]

Whilst mainstream Sikhs refer to their traditional stories as Sakhis, the Sewapanthis referred to their tradition of stories as Parchai, which are life stories related to the Sewapanthi mahatmas.^[13] According to Harbhajan Singh, the Sewapanthis were able to continue writing Sikh literature despite Mughal oppression of the Sikhs during the 18th century due to the fact they were sehajharis who did not have an external Khalsa Sikh appearance.^[13] Due to their Sindhi connection, engagements with Sufi texts and Islamic literature has been common among the Sewapanthis historically.^[12]

A Sewapanthi temple is known as a tikana (a term also used for Nanakpanthi temples).^[11][14] They are highly prevalent in Sindh,^[15] where religious syncretism between Hinduism and Sikhism can be observed and clear-cut religious boundaries become blurry and ill-defined.^[16][17] At a tikana is usually a copy of the primary Sikh scripture, Guru Granth Sahib, alongside images of Indic deities.^[17][18] When a new leader is appointed as head of a tikana (centres for the sect), they are bestowed a broom and bowl.^[11] The broom embodies cleanliness whilst the bowl epitomises serving others.^[11]

There are strong historical links between these two sampardas.^[12] Bhai Khanaiya was an Udasi. Bhai Addan Shah was initially an Udasi and a student of Baba Gurdas Dakhani. This close bond has remained to this day.

• Baba Sham Singh^[30][9]
• Sant Amir Singh^[30]
• Baba Jhanda Singh^[9]
• Baba Kharag Singh of Bir Sahib^[9]

• Sevā
• Nanua Bairagi