Beyond Genealogy and Syncretism
Beyond Genealogy and Syncretism Re-examining the Nij ā nand (Pranami) Sampradaya through Mahamati Prannath's Thought: Philosophical, Sociological, Historical, and Political Perspectives Narendra Patel, MS, CSP (Retd.) Abstract The Nij ā nand (Pranami) Sampradaya, articulated most fully in the teachings of Mahamati Prannath, remains difficult to classify within conventional Hindu/Muslim binaries. Modern scholarship—especially Dominique-Sila Khan's Pranami Faith: Beyond Hindu and Islam (2002)—helpfully foregrounds marginal traditions and cross-religious vocabularies, yet also advances genealogical hypotheses linking Pranami origins to Ismaili (Khoja/Imamshahi) lineages. This paper argues that genealogical and "syncretic" frames become reductive when they privilege external classificatory models over the tradition's own emic sources—its doctrinal self-descriptions, narrative histories (B ī tak), and above all the Tartam Vani...