'the Eternal Dharma') which refers to the idea that its origins lie beyond human history, as revealed in the Hindu texts.
General duties include virtues such as honesty, refraining from injuring living beings, purity, charity, goodwill, mercy, patience, forbearance, self-restraint, generosity, and asceticism.
[6] In other words, any follower of Sanātana Dharma (Hinduism) irrespective of their social status, Hindu denominations or choice of deity can be considered a Sanātanī.
[7][8] Unlike South India, where religious traditions such as Shaivism, Shaktism and Vaishnavism form the principal Hindu denominations, "they were effectively subsumed under the Sanatani identity" in many regions of North India, and the Samajs and Santpanths became the other distinct Hindu denominations.
[12] Sanatanis and reformists (such as the Arya Samaj, the Radha Soamis and the Ramakrishna Mission) have competed for adherents for more than a century, sometimes creating deep schisms in Hindu society, as in the case of South African Hindus who were split between the Arya Samaj and Sanatanis.