The Mīnās (Gurmukhi: ਮੀਣਾ; mīṇā) were a heretical sect of Sikhs that followed Prithi Chand (1558–April 1618), the eldest son of Guru Ram Das, after his younger brother Guru Arjan was selected by the Guru to succeed him. Prithi Chand would vigorously contest this, attracting a portion of Sikhs to his side who followers of Guru Arjan referred to as ਮੀਣੇ mīṇe, meaning "charlatans," "dissemblers," or "scoundrels." They sustained their opposition to the orthodox line of Gurus through the seventeenth century, and upon Guru Gobind Singh's founding of the Khalsa in 1699, they were declared by him, as well as by Khalsa rahitnamas (codes of conduct), as one of the Panj Mel, or five reprobate groups, that a Sikh must avoid. They are occasionally referred to in the more neutral terms Sikhān dā chhotā mel ("those who remained with the true Guru lineage for a short time") or as the Miharvān sampraday (Gurmukhi: ਮਿਹਰਵਾਨ ਸੰਪਰਦਾ; miharavāna saparadā; meaning "the order of Miharvan") in scholarship. Minas referred to themselves in their writings as Sikhs.
They emerged as the only major rival sect of the Sikh Guru period, whose line of succession ran in parallel to that of Guru Arjan and his official successors. They controlled Amritsar and Harmandir Sahib built under Guru Arjan for much of the 17th century. The number of Minas rivalled that of the orthodox Sikhs and remained numerous in Malwa until the nineteenth century. The Minas gradually faded into the background of Sikh society in relation to the mainstream Khalsa, as Mina literati declined along with the sect. A surviving Mina group can be found in Guru Har Sahai, Punjab.
