[7] The Praṇāmī sampradaya emerged in the 17th century in Western India, based on the teachings of Bhakti saints, Devcandra Mehtā and his foremost disciple Mehrāj Ṭhākur aka Prāṇanāth.
Prāṇanāth worked as a government official in Saurashtra, and travelled through Arabia, Persia, and Iraq studying the Quʾrān, Bible, and other Islamic-Christian texts.
In the 1677 Kumbhamelā in Haridvār, he won a religious debate in which he defeated Vaiṣṇava and Śaiva followers, and was awarded the title of mahāmati.
[7] The traditions grew after Mughal Empire declined, in the wake of Aurangzeb's religious persecution of non-Muslims, when Hindu rebellion led to new kingdoms.
He would also explain the Pranami ideas by citing Hindu and Islamic texts to make his teachings connect with the background of the converts.
[7] The Praṇāmī corpus, like in other Bhakti movement saint traditions, an eclectic mix of vernacular languages found in central, west and north India: Hindi, Gujarati, and Sindhi.
It is regarded to contain the revelation of the Vedic scriptures, as well as the description of the supreme abode of Krishna, called paraṃadhāma or Goloka Vrindavan.
[9][8] There are an estimated 5-10 million Pranamis found primarily throughout North India, particularly the states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal (Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Sikkim), and Assam, as well as the eastern half of Nepal.