5. Nature of the sect.
The above interesting account of the Bishnois by Mr. Wilson shows that Jhāmbāji was a religious reformer, who attempted to break loose from the debased Hindu polytheism and arrogant supremacy of the Brāhmans by choosing one god, Vishnu, out of the Hindu pantheon and exalting him into the sole and supreme deity. In his method he thus differed from Kabīr and other reformers, who went outside Hinduism altogether, preaching a monotheistic faith with one unseen and nameless deity. The case of the Mānbhaos, whose unknown founder made Krishna the one god, discarding the Vedas and the rest of Hinduism, is analogous to Jhāmbāji’s movement. His creed much resembles that of the other Hindu reformers and founders of the Vaishnavite sects. The extreme tenderness for animal life is a characteristic of most of them, and would be fostered by the Hindu belief in the transmigration of souls. The prohibition of liquor is another common feature, to which Jhāmbāji added that of all kinds of drugs. His mind, like those of Kabīr and Nānak, was probably influenced by the spectacle of the comparatively liberal creed of Islām, which had now taken root in northern India. Mr. Crooke remarks that the Bishnois of Bijnor appear to differ from those of the Punjab in using the Muhammadan form of salutation, Salām alaikum, and the title of Shaikhji. They account for this by saying they murdered a Muhammadan Kāzi, who prevented them from burning a widow, and were glad to compound the offence by pretending to adopt Islām. But it seems possible that on their first rupture with Hinduism they were to some extent drawn towards the Muhammadans, and adopted practices of which, on tending again to conform to their old religion, they have subsequently become ashamed.