The Sikh Rehat Maryada.
The code the Panth spent fourteen years drafting and approved in 1945 — the nearest thing Sikhs have to a constitution. It defines a Sikh, lists the Nitnem banis, sets out marriage and funeral rites, forbids idols, caste, veils and superstition, and names the four breaches that void the amrit vow.
The Rehat Maryada is the closest thing Sikhs have to a constitution and it was assembled by committee, which shows. A sub-committee of the SGPC began work in 1931, drafts circulated for over a decade among scholars and sects, and the Akal Takht approved the final text in 1945. It defines a Sikh as one who believes in one God, the ten Gurus, the Guru Granth Sahib and the amrit of the tenth Guru, and owes allegiance to no other religion. It sets the Nitnem banis, gurdwara conduct, the naming, marriage and funeral rites, the amrit ceremony, and the four bajjar kurahits. It also forbids a great deal by name: idols, caste distinction, fasting for merit, astrology, the veil, dowry, female infanticide, tobacco and intoxicants. Every mainstream gurdwara claims to follow it; Nihang orders, Namdharis, Nirankaris, the Akhand Kirtani Jatha and Damdami Taksal each maintain their own rehat where it differs, and none of them regards that as dissent.
The same ground, other faiths
claims that share this one's ideasSign in to open the first thread. Everything here is attributed.