Silver Robe Society

Drawing of silver robe officials meeting with a herder.

The Silver Robe Society (මෝඕන්ගෝඕන් දේඒල්, moongoon deel), which has also been called the Grey Robe Society and the Badi Society, was a civil society that emerged in the aftermath of the Badi Reaction during the Khyalbar Khanate. Members of the Badi clergy who held offices in the native governments of the Great Steppe were assigned to this group and oversaw professional regulation, organization of labor, and spiritual development projects.

History

After the fall of the Uluuchig Confederacy, the political and economic activities of the Badi clergy were effectively absorbed by the Yellow Robe Society. The sagtans were quickly secularized and the Badi priests had very little influence on public policy despite having a prominent role in life on the grasslands. This was a contentious period and it was a primary concern of the Khyalbars when they took power in the late 4th century. To ameliorate this problem, the Badi clergy were again enfranchised with the state and given the responsibility and power over the development of skilled professions in the khanate. The Khans were specifically anxious to encourage the growth of metalworking and the weather prediction. Badi priests of the air sect were called upon to establish schools to teach weather forecasting and it was during this period that the Book of Clouds was written, an important religious work that was used to predict the weather based on cloud shapes.