Pran Nathis

Pran Nathis a sect among the Hindis which was originated by Pran Nath, who, being versed in Mohammedan as well as Hindu learning, endeavored to reconcile the two religions. With this view he composed a work called The Mahitariyal, in which texts from the Koran and the Vedas are brought together, and shown not to be essentially different from each other. Bulndelkund is the chief seat of the sect, and in Punna they have a building in one apartment of which, on a table covered with gold cloth, lies the volume of the founder. "As a test of the disciple's consent," says Prof. H. H. Wilson, "to the real identity of the essence of the Hindi and Mohammedan creeds, the ceremony of the initiation consists of eating in the society of members of both communions; with this exception, and the admission of the general principle, it does not appear that the two classes confound their civil or even religious distinctions; they continue to observe the practices and ritual of their forefathers, whether Mussulman or Hindu, and the union, beyond that of community or that of eating, is no more than any rational individual of either sect is fully prepared for, or the admission that the God of both and of all religions is one and the same."