Badi Reaction

The Badi Reaction is a historiographical term used to describe the religious upheaval of the Great Steppe in the early first century CE following the decline of the First Phuli Empire. It was characterized chiefly by conversion of Oroqic peoples from Satyism to Badi, the destruction or ostracism of Satyist religious organizations, and the construction of Badi shrines. This period generally refers to 25 to 125 CE, from the withdrawal of the First Phuli Empire, to the Uluuchig adoption of Badi as their state religion.

Many natives of the grasslands viewed Satyism as an inherently bureaucratic, urban practice because of its focus on the monastery as the center of the community. While they observed, abstractly, the principles of humility and reincarnation, their most common interaction with Satyism was paying tributes and receiving punishments.

During the first century BCE, Dezevauni city-states had emerged, nurturing Badi and expanding it along with its trade network. The decline of Phula not only signaled a vacuum for religious authority, but also a gap in transcontinental trade. Dezevauni merchants brought Badi to the Great Steppe overland, along with their caravans. Extremely strong spiritual connections were forged with the use of entheogens. Additionally, the material culture and ethic of craftsmanship resonated with the inhabitants of the steppe, who personally made almost everything that they owned.

Elements

Sagtan

The Sagtan (සග්තන්), from saɣ (healthy) and dɨ̄n (spirit), were the short-range traders who were instrumental in the spread of Badi around the steppe. The Sagtan were originally hired couriers who would travel around to isolated communities to collect furs and skins that the nomads had hunted for. They greatly accelerated trade in the region and enriched traders, since they could collect furs that would normally only be traded during the winter season when the nomads settled close together; these goods found their way as far as Dezevau.

The role of courier developed to include proselytizing and ministrations. They were a welcome interruption to daily life during the grazing seasons that pushed the nomads far apart from each other and left them isolated. The Sagtan were also a convenient method to distribute entheogens and local news.

After the collapse of the Uluuchigs, the Sagtan formed the basic element of the Yellow Robe Society.

Fetishization of Bhumi

One of the elements of Satyism that was retained in some places was the Bhumi language, which was used as the language of magic and incantations. It was used in combination with the Badi principal of materialism to develop the tradition of paper eating. The Bhumi-Oroqic creole still persists to the modern day and is occasionally used by shamans to conduct their rituals.