In
connection with this incident, the commissioner of Orissa called for reports
on the sect from Banki, Angul and Dhenkanal which furnish a good view
of the dissemination of the sect, already surprisingly large. The Manager
of the Dhenkanal state reported that he had accompanied Mahima Svami for
a few days in 1874 and he appeared to have been impressed by his personality.
Interesting is the report from Angul, too which days stress on a direct
effect of the social-ethical engagement of the sect, commending which
, it is mentioned that the Pan, a notorious caste of thieves, had given
up their hereditary profession under the influence of the new religion.16
A decisive milestone in the development of the sect was the year 1896,
one year after the death of Bhima Bhoi. Up to that time, according to
the order of Mahima Svami, no new Samnyasis were initiated and it was
feared that the order will become extinct. In this year, however, the
last Siddha Samnyasi initiated by Mahima Svami himself received a "Sunya
word" (sunya bani) to initiated the novices who in the mean time
had joined the order and in the next twenty years about two hundred Samnyasis
were initiated. With the clear perception of Sunya bani as the resumption
of revelation after the founder's death, further existence of the order
was ensured. Even today the sunya bani is considered as the highest instance,
yet its validly had to be restricted: only revelations to the Siddha or
Para Samnyasis are or can be binding on everyone all others apply to the
individual himself.
In the year 1912 the same Baba received the "order" to initiate
a few of the Kaupinadhari monks as Kumbhipatias. This resulted into a
final break between the Kumbhipatias and Kaupinadharis since Kripasindhu
Das, a wearer of Balkala himself did not accept this sunya bani and moved
out of the common our of the common Matha in Joranda with his followers.
Since this time the dispute between both the groups about the land "occupied"
by Kripasindhu, but the management of the temple estate etc. is continuing.
The dispute aggravated the more the two groups organised themselves and
is being pursued in the court for about thirty years. Since 1950, the
religious endowment commission has been trying repeatedly to set up on
the basis of parity, commissions constituted with different groups for
the management of the estate in Joranda. However the commission existed
always for a few days only.
16
Ibid., No. 40,p.1336 and No. 513, p.1330
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