In times of Sanatan 'Khalsa Raj' (when the Sikh Kingdoms flourished throughout Punjab), the dominance of Sikhi extended from the borders of Afghanistan in the west of the Indian subcontinent, to far as borders of Uttar Pardesh in eastern India, and, from Jammu and Kashmir up north, to south as far as the borders of Sirhind. Indirectly, the influence of Sanatan Sikhi extended all over the Indian subcontinent.

The missionaries of Sanatan Sikhi - the Udasis and Nirmalas, masters of Ayurveda and Sanskrit learning, were introducing Sanatan Sikhi throughout the Hindu world across the Indian subcontinent. In the region of Sarhind the Seva Panthi (also known as 'Adan Shahi') Sikhs were greatly expanding the influence of Sikhi. Even the Akali Nihangs had established for themselves a position of great respect and honour in Southern India in the Muslim Kingdom of Hyderabad.

Its 'Nizam' (ruler), Sikandar Jah, in the 1830's had asked the Sikh King Maharaja Ranjit Singh to send him five hundred of his finest law-keepers to control marauding Marhattas in his kingdom. Ranjit Singh sent down five hundred, mostly Akali Nihang Sikh warriors. The present community of 'Hazoori Sikhs' of southern India are mostly their descendants. Thus before annexation of Punjab by the British Raj, Sanatan Sikhi was a vibrant expanding spiritual way.

This all came to an end as British implemented their tried and tested "divide and conquer strategy" in the Punjab, creating divisions between Sikhs from Hindus and Sufi Muslims.