about 1750 by Jagjīvan Dās, who lived at Kotwa, between Lucknow and Ayodhyā. As the name of the sect implies, they adore the True Name alone, the one God, who is without attributes, but the Hindu pantheon is recognised and the Hindu incarnations regarded as the manifestations of God. Jagjīvan Dās is said to have been a Kshatriya by caste, but the sect has spread mostly amongst the outcastes. The Hindī verses of Jagjīvan Dās are in several works, which include the Pratham Granth, the Mahāpralay, and the Gyān Prakāś. A disciple of Jagjīvan named Dulan Dās, who lived in the district of Rai Bareilly, was also a Hindī poet. Other successors of Jagjīvan who wrote Hindī verse were Jalālī Dās and Devī Dās. A development of the Satnāmī sect occurred in Chhattīsgarh, in the Central Provinces, under a certain Ghāzi Dās, between 1820 and 1830. He introduced the ideas of the sect amongst the chamārs of that district though he did not acknowledge his indebtedness to Jagjīvan.
The Pran Nathis.—Prāṇ Nāth lived at Pannā in Bundelkhaṇḍ at the beginning of the eighteenth century, under the patronage of Rājā Chhatrasāl. He was the founder of a small sect in which not only Hindu and Muhammadan but also Christian influences were at work. By caste Prāṇ Nāth was a Kshatriya, but he was versed in Muhammadan as well as in Hindu learning, and he endeavoured to reconcile the two religions. The members of his sect are sometimes called Dhāmīs, from Dhām, a name they give to the Supreme spirit. They eat in common, but continue to observe the Hindu or Muhammadan practices of their own families. The works of Prāṇ Nāth are fourteen in number, all in verse, but none of them of very great length. Though the grammatical structure is purely Hindī, the vocabulary is very largely Arabic or Persian, and the language is very uncouth.
General Characteristics.—All the writers who are mentioned in this chapter wrote in that poetic style which is classified by Indian authorities as quietistic
