294 P. N. Bose — Chhatttsgar : notes on its tribes, sects and castes. [No. 3, 
a lai’ge following. The name of the pi-esent gnru is Agar Das. The 
Satniimis prostrate themselves before him and give him presents accord- 
ing to their means. He has his deputies called Bhandaris scattered all 
over the country, who collect his dues ; sometimes, villages are farmed 
out to them at fixed amounts. The Bhandaris represent the guru in 
all social ceremonies. It is said that the bride associates with the 
guru or his representative before entering her husband’s home. But 
the chdmiirs stoutly deny this, and assert it to be a calumny invented by 
their Hindu enemies. It is difficult to get at the truth in this matter : 
the bride appears to be presented before the guru or his deputy, and 
she has to make a present to this functionary. 
The Hindus assert that the Satnamis do not act up to their doc- 
trines. There are, of course orthodox and heterodox people amongst 
all castes, and some Satnamis certainly do not abstain from meat. 
The Satnamis salute by bowing low, lifting up their left leg, and 
exclaiming ‘ Sat Nam, Sat Nam ! Their worship consists in exclaim- 
ing these sacred words at sunrise and sunset. [ “ Sat Ndm ” means 
‘ the right or true name,’ i. e., the true god.] 
The dead are buried. Relations are fed on the third, fifth, tenth 
or fifteenth day. 
The Satnamis do not observe any class distinctions amongst them- 
selves and are a very compact body. 
Gots : Kusaria, Bhatbahari, Banjara, Jarkaria, Aril, &c. 
Ohdmdr (Muchi.) 
The Satnami chamars have no intercourse with those who prepare 
hides or work in leather. As in other parts, carcasses of animals con- 
tribute to the food of the Muchis. 
Worship Dulha Deo once in two or three years with offerings of 
rice, (fco. 
Kabirjianthis. 
These are followers of Kabir, a disciple of the reformer Ramanand, 
who preached in Northern India in the fifteenth century. The doctrines 
of the Kabirpanthis are similar to those of the Satn&mis : like the latter 
they are enjoined to abstain from flesh food and spirituous drink, to 
observe no caste distinctions and not to worship idols. Both forms of 
faith are protests against the idolatry and caste-system of the Hindus 
on the one hand, and the vicious habits of the aborigines on the other. 
There is,_however, one point of essential difference. Satnamism forci- 
bly enjoins belief in one God, whereas Kabirpanthism does not do so. 
Indeed, beyond the guru, and the ordinary village deities like Thakur 
Deo, and the goddess of small-pox, I am not aware if the Kabirpanthis 
