[2][3] Prithi Chand would vigorously contest this,[3] attracting a portion of Sikhs to his side who followers of Guru Arjan referred to as ਮੀਣੇ mīṇe, meaning "charlatans,"[4] "dissemblers,"[5] or "scoundrels.

[3] They are occasionally referred to in the more neutral terms Sikhān dā chhotā mel ("those who remained with the true Guru lineage for a short time") or as the Miharvān sampraday (Gurmukhi: ਮਿਹਰਵਾਨ ਸੰਪਰਦਾ; miharavāna saparadā; meaning "the order of Miharvan") in scholarship.

[5][8][12] The birth of the child seemed to dampen his spirits, and as his enmity with his brother grew, Prithi Chand would leave Amritsar the following year, first for Hehar village near Lahore, then to Kotha Guru village near Bathinda in the Malwa region of Punjab, where in the latter half of his life,[8] where he would begin to compile a granth, or volume of poetry, of his own to compete with Guru Arjan's.

[11] He had witnessed the formation of Sikh scripture before Guru Arjan's compilation of the Adi Granth in 1604, and it has been argued that Guru Arjan's compilation was partially in response to Prithi Chand's ambitions,[8] as incidents with Prithi Chand would impress the need to complete the manuscript as soon as possible so that the Sikhs would be able to distinguish the true verses of the Gurus from imitators.

Due to their central location in the Punjab heartland, the ranks of Sikhs would swell, especially among the Jatt peasantry, and create a level of prosperity for them; Guru Arjan would serve not only as a spiritual mentor but as a sovereign leader (sacha padshah) for his followers in his own right.

While being attached to Guru Arjan, he would follow his father in 1596, and receive an education in various languages and music, establishing himself as a more accomplished philosopher, writer on diverse topics, and kirtan performer compared to Prithi Chand, and more focused on expanding his community and challenging the authority of Guru Hargobind, traveling across Punjab and Kangra to do so, eventually settling near Lahore.

With the Golden temple left without an appointed custodian, Hariji used his lineage as Guru Ram Das' great-grandson to assert a proprietary claim to it.

[7][23] After this, the Minas left Amritsar for the Malwa region of Punjab, where they slowly faded as an independence group and were absorbed into the mainstream Sikh fold.

According to Bhatt vahis, Guru Tegh Bahadur sat at the current premise of Gurdwara Thara Sahib close to the Akal Takht so he could greet Hariji and Kavalnain before he entered the shrine of the Golden Temple.

This is in contrast with the mainstream Sikh narrative of the ninth guru being barred from entering the premises of the Golden Temple and being forced to sit at the spot which Gurdwara Thara Sahib now stands today.

It also stated that Kavalnain's grandson, Abhai Ram, requested to accompany the Sikh guru to the Deccan region until he was persuaded not to go by ascetics of the Divana subsect.

The Sodhis of the Pothi-Mala in Guru Har Sahai located in the Firozpur district of the Malwa region, who are the descendants of Prithi Chand and the Miharvan sect, come from the lineage of Hargopal.

[31] They descend from Jiwan Mal Sodhi, who was driven away from his holdings at Muhammadipur in the second part of the 18th century and subsequently resettled in the Malwa region under the patronage of the Mughal authorities to calm tensions with the Brar tribe of the area.

[33] During the reign of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the Sodhis of Guru Harsahai obtained positions of power in the Lahore Darbar of the Sikh Empire.

According to Hardip Syan and Pritam Singh, Miharvans emphasized more of the non-militant approach of Guru Nanak and earlier Gurus in theological pursuits, while the Guru Hargobind followers pursued the miri piri approach, or the fusion of temporal and spiritual power by which he could form an autonomous community,[13] and began militarizing the Sikh tradition to resist the Mughal persecution.

[37][38] Bhai Gurdās would describe this schism in the Sikhs, in which some would question Guru Hargobind roaming itinerantly as opposed to being based in one dharamsala or spiritual center, being arrested by the Mughal emperor of his time instead of being approached by them, being a hunter, and not contributing writings, finding these reforms to be a break with the mechanisms of sevā (service) and prasād (grace).

[13] Bhai Gurdās would emphasize the centrality of devotional service to the Guru,[13] while sectarian literature would be concerned with defining themselves as maintainers of the precept of interiorization.

[39] Bhai Gurdās would hold that Guru Hargobind "bore an intolerable burden and did not assert himself," justifying the new character of the court with the argument that to grow safely, an orchard needed the protective hedges of the thorny kikar trees.

[7] Further descendants after Hariji, beginning with his great-grandson onwards, would form smaller groups like the divanas, or ecstatics, which would be patronized by the Patiala court, like Darbari Das, who would continue to propagate the Mina lineage but fail to get widespread support, as the tradition faded.