Punjabi Hindus are ethnic Punjabis who adhere to Hinduism. Punjabi Hindus mostly inhabit the Indian state of Punjab, as well as Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, and Chandigarh.
Punjabi Hindus are of a diverse range of castes, with the urban castes, particularly Khatris and Aroras, having historically played a dominant role in the region's trade, commerce, and industry. According to available demographic data, out of the Punjab state's total Hindu population of 38.5% (2011 census), Scheduled Castes constitute approximately 11%, while Other Backward Classes account for around 8.3%.
History Ancient period Hinduism is the oldest recorded religion practiced by the Punjabi people. The historical Vedic religion of the Vedic period (1500–500 BCE) constituted the religious ideas and practices in Punjab, and centred primarily in the worship of Indra, the Hindu god of heaven and lightning. The Vedic tribes moved further eastwards and towards the Ganges-Yamuna doab during the late Vedic period, and Brahminism developed out of the Vedic origins in the Kurukshetra area. The Rigveda and other Vedas were composed during this period. The religion of the Vedic period is one of the precursors of Hinduism, and the Vedic period ended when the Hindu synthesis developed out of the interaction between Brahminism, Sramanism, and local religions.name="Vedic religion">
An ancient Indian law book called the Manusmriti, developed by Brahmin Hindu priests, shaped Punjabi religious life from 200 BCE onward.
Medieval period Punjabi Hinduism in the mediaeval period was characterized by Shaivism, Vaishnavism, and Shaktism. Temples for each tradition had their own sub-set of Brahmins dedicated to them.
At Shaivist temples, the Agamas and Puranas were held in esteem. Shaivist ascetics were known as sanyasis or dasnamis, who traditionally had ten internal orders. Wandering Shaivist ascetics founded centres which were known as maths.
Vaishnavists, usually found in urban mercantile communities, held the Bhagavad Gita, Bhagavata Purana, and Vishnu Purana in high-regard. Vaishnavist ascetics were known as bairagis. The Vaishnavists were vegetarians and teetotlers. After the Ghaznavid conquest, Gorakhnath founded a new tradition of Vaishnavism where hathyoga was theologically altered with Shiva as the supreme deity, with followers of this tradition becoming known as jogis or naths. The jogis/naths became very popular in the Punjab, headquartered at the Tilla of Gorakhnath, Tilla Jogian, in the Sindh Sagar Doab. By the early 16th century, the Nath tradition consisted of twelve divisions, known as bhekh-bara. Advanced jogis were known as kanpatas, distinguished by the mudra earrings they wore. The jogis believed they could achieve spiritual liberation while being alive (known as jiwan-mukti) and permanent bliss (sahaj), which could transform them into powerful siddhas. They rejected ritualism and metaphysics. They believed they could extend their life through meditative and breathing practices, and engaged in alchemy and herbal medicine. At their spiritual centres (maths), they maintained a permanent-fire known as a dhuni and a kitchen (bhandar). The jogis were accepting of all castes but shunned women.
Also among the Vaishnavists arose the Bhakti movement (originating from Ramanuja in southern India), which held that devotion (bhakti) was just as valid as a path to spiritual liberation or enlightenment, just as knowledge (gian or jnana) and rituals (karma) were held as. By the 13th and 14th centuries, the Bhaktists advocated for Vishnu's incarnations Rama and Krishna (and their consorts) as the supreme-deities to focus on and began promoting bhakti as the only path to spiritual salvation. The cult of Ram was developed further by the Ramanandis in the 14th and 15th centuries, with pathshalas and gaushalas being attached to their spiritual centres. The cult of Krishna followed in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, with its kirtan performances, developed by the followers of Chaitanya and Vallabha.
There was also the sant tradition, associated with the sants, which rejected idolatry and incarnation. Although not directly venerating Vishnu, was heavily influenced by Vaishnavism. The sants came from various backgrounds, such as jogis and Sufis. Two popular sants were Kabir and Ravidas, whom both rejected the prevailing socio-religious norms and customs of their eras. It focused on an immanent and transcendent divinity that could be reached internally in a state of union (sahaja-samadhi) to achieve live-liberation (jiwan-mukti). God was taken as the spiritual teacher, known as satguru and the divine word, shabad.
Shaktists venerated the goddeses and a cosmic force known as shakti and performed animal sacrifice. The Shaktists could be divided into two groups: the cultus of the right-hand and the cultus of the left-hand. Right-handers were similar to Shaivists whilst left-handers (known as vamacharis) were engaged in esoteric, black-rite practices that were supposed to be performed only by the advanced members. These esoteric practices were to achieve unity between Shakti and Shiva and involved alcohol (madya), fish (matsya), flesh (mansa), parched grain (mudra), and intercourse (maithuna).
Furthermore, popular religion as (distinguished from organized and formal religion) amongst the masses consisted of animism and fetishism, with the veneration and acceptance of folk-deities linked to nature and disease, malevolent-spirits, totems, and animal-worship. Cults formed around heroic figures and ancestors became venerated.
Medieval Punjabi Hindu society Punjab was a Hindu-Buddhist society when Islam arrived in the region. The rise of Muslim-rule led to the disempowerment of Brahmins and Rajputs from their traditional leading roles within the society. Muslim rulers rarely gave patronage to Hindu institutions in Punjab. Brahmins became tied to the jajmani system and Hindu Rajputs were excluded from rule. Due to the lack of a strong Brahminical and kshatriya class amongst the Hindus, the Hindu Vaishya became very influential within the community.
With the oncoming of Islam in the region and local conversion to it, the usage of the term Hindu changed from its original, secular usage to describe an inhabitant of the Indian subcontinent to the new religious meaning of describing an inhabitant of the subcontinent that followed its indigenous religious traditions, to differentiate local Muslims from locals following native beliefs and practices. Punjab was conquered by the Muslim rulers and its native Rajput polities disintegrated, with some Rajputs converting to Islam while others moved to the desert or hill regions. Under the Lodhi Sultanate, Hindus remained the most popular religious community despite conversions, outnumbering Muslims, especially in the rural areas. However, the proportion of the Hindu population compared to the Muslim population was lower (especially in southwestern Punjab) when compared to other areas of the Indian subcontinent at the time. Some tribes wholly converted to Islam in the Sindh Sagar Doab and the southern portions of the Chaj, Rechna, and Bari doabs. Hindus were still found amongst the ruling administration, especially in the intermediate and lower rungs of power, such as the Rai zamindars whom acted as chaudaries and muqaddams, especially in the parganahs that adjoined the Shivalik Hills area. Conversion to Islam by Punjabi Hindus accelerated during the late 15th and early 16th century. In Punjab, conversion to Islam by locals was most prevalent in the western areas closer to Afghanistan and the Iranian plateau, characterised by mountain-passes, foothills, and plains, while the areas in the east of Punjab, such as the Himalayan foothills and highground, and the eastern and southeastern plains, remained predominantly Hindu (in the areas situated near Himachal Pradesh and Haryana), especially east of the Ravi River.
In the 11th century, Al-Biruni made observations about the varna and the castes associated with each in the region. By the late 15th century, the varna system was no longer functioning as it did in the rest of India, with the role of each caste in Punjab becoming ambiguous. The differentiation between the kshatriyas and the Vaishyas became difficult to decipher in Punjab's chatur-varna system. Jatis became more important than varnas.Arya, Rina. “Inter-Generational Perspectives on Caste: A Hindu Punjabi Study.” Contemporary South Asia, vol. 25, no. 3, Sept. 2017, pp. 285–300. Retrieved on 27 April 2026. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1080/09584935.2017.1315364. The role that Brahmins played in society diminished. Brahmins mostly lost their ruling patronage (as the Muslim rulers patronized the ulama instead) as Hindu political sovereignty collapsed. Instead, the Brahmins began serving as family priests, became temple caretakers, and began teaching at pathshalas. Other Brahmins abandoned their traditional roles and became engaged in agriculture, money-lending, or the trades and other services. The kshatriyas no longer properly existed as a varna by the 15th century (with an exception being found in the hilly region), with their duties now being done by the new rulers. Khatris, traditionally regarded as kshatriyas, became engaged in banking and money-lending, acting as sahukars, especially in urban areas, benefiting from the development of the local economy in the 14th and 15th centuries. Other mercantile castes included the Aroras in the western doabs and the Banias in the cis-Sutlej region. Jats were dominant in the rural areas, especially the upper Bari and Rechna doabs, and in the Bist Doab and cis-Sulej area, most Jats were no longer pastoralists and became cultivators but some became chaudaries and muqaddams alongside the Rajputs. The Gujjars, originally pastoralists, became cultivators and in the 15th century were still adhering to non-Islamic beliefs and practices. In-addition to land-cultivation, education, and administration, there were castes based in the services, artistry, and craftspeople, such as carpenters, leather-workers, potters, barbers (Nais), water-warriers (Jhivar), weavers, oil-pressers, gold-smiths, shoe-makers, brewers, bards (Bhats), singers, dyers, tailors, boaters, fishers, hunters, washers, basket-makers, and labourers/menials. Untouchables were known as Chandals. Despite the decline of a proper-functioning varna system, the Brahmins, Khatris, and Rajputs still considered themselves superior to other sections of the Hindu society and were patriarchal. Mercantile castes were more likely to be literate and trained in account-keeping. Administrative castes were educated in the Persian language, the language of governance. Hindu society still studied religious literature like the Vedas, Puranas, and Upanishads, and religious philosophy such as the six traditional schools of Hindu thought. Furthermore, they studied the secular fields of math, astronomy, medicine, grammar, prosody, jurisprudence, palmistry, and magic. Sati and child-marriage was practiced while widow remarriage was not. Hardship was explained as being due to the age of kalyug passing.