States People Centers Other Satpanth is a Sanskrit term, given to a diverse group of individuals who follow Pir Sadardin.
Pir Sadardin is credited with the conversion of the Khojas from the Hindu caste of the Lohanas located in Punjab, Rajasthan, and Gujarat in to the Satpanth Tariqa.
The leadership of the Satpanth remained in the hands of the direct descendants of Shahji Miran Shah until Baqir Ali who died around 1835 and was the last Pir of the Aththiya.
Satpanth leaders were given an audience (Deedar) with the Ismaili Imam Sir Sultan Muhammad Shah Aga Khan III in 1939.
Weighing up the extant evidence, it appears that he remained ingrained in Ismailism and demonstrated a high degree of loyalty to the Ismaili Imams, till his death, and never took any other route in his ambition.
He remains famous and revered by his followers for encouraging the preservation of Hindu and other indigenous cultures and customs, in stark contrast to other Islamic and Christian missionaries.
Others are from Rajput, merchant, and farming castes including those that claim to be from Patidar and Patel communities belonging to Western and Northwestern India.
Some are migrants from neighbouring Indian states—including Madhya Pradesh, the Punjab and Rajasthan—who now reside in Gujarat (mainly the Kutch and commercial areas) and Mumbai.
Satpanth is used as a means of self-identification for millions of resident and non-resident Indians, and due to the varying degrees of its syncretic structure, there are various sects who reject a singular leadership and elect local committees.
It is customary in each and every Jama'at Khana that a row of community leaders and title holders (male and female) should sit facing the rest of the congregation.
The Ismaili texts explain that before the formation of the misty stars which make up the galaxies, there was the frightful darkness of pre-eternity (Dhandhukār), when the Incomprehensible One (God) was engrossed in contemplation.
This is when the True Guide became the conductor of a Symphony of Gnosis and began his assembly to the Path of Truth (Satpanth), by summoning all souls to salvation through Ginān.