Manjis

The origins of this sect goes back to the time of the third Guru, Guru Amar Das (1552-1574) who was annointed as Guru at the age of seventy-three. The Sikh community had, by this time, become spreadout all over India. The previous Gurus, being much youngert had traveled widely, freely preaching and increasing their disciples over a large part of northern India, but because of his age, Guru Amar Das, though he wished to visit with all the Sikhs, could not visit the far flung villages with Sikh Sangats.

So it was that Guru Amar Das divided the many locations where his sikhs lived into different geographic areas calledl Manjis (Dioceses) – each was to be headed by noble and devoted men and women who Guru Amar Das picked to spread Guru Nanak’s message and provide spiritual guidance to the Sikhs in each area. Whatever offerings the Sikhs made were to be used for langar, (the community kitchen) and after meeting the expenses of the local chapters, the surplus was to be passed on to the Guru’s golak (the community chest) at Goindwal.

His headquarters at Goindwal was also becoming a very busy place, with ever increasing numbers of Sikhs coming to have his darshan, therefore his presence had become necessary. Guru ji wanted to allow his disciples to be able to keep their normal routine life , but by doing this he hoped that they could all be taught equally in the disipline od Sikhi. The manjis were named after the cot on which each teacher would sit and sing Shabads (hymns), followed in chorus by the congregation. The congregation was called the sangat and the leader of the manji was called the sangatia or masand. The Guru divided the whole area inhabited by the Sikhs into twenty-two manjis or districts.

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• Masand

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