Every succession in the Sikh line produced a claimant who lost, and several of those claimants founded lasting sects.
Prithi Chand, eldest son of Guru Ram Das Ji, was passed over for Arjan. His line, called the Minas by the mainstream tradition, held Amritsar for periods and produced its own literature, including the Bhagat Ratnavali and a Janamsakhi. Miharban, his son, wrote a major life of Guru Nanak Dev Ji that scholars still use.
Dhirmal, grandson of Guru Hargobind Sahib Ji, held the original manuscript of the Adi Granth at Kartarpur in Jalandhar district and refused to give it up. His descendants hold it still, and it is the single most important document in Sikh history.
Ram Rai, disowned by Guru Har Rai Ji for altering a line, was given land by Aurangzeb and founded Dehradun. The Ramraiya sect persisted.
Twenty-two claimants set up at Bakala in 1664 when Guru Har Krishan Ji died.
The Rehat forbids association with these lines by name. That prohibition is why they are barely known, and why their manuscripts, which are early and valuable, have been so little used.
The Handalis of Jandiala are a fourth line, founded by a follower rather than by a claimant, and they produced their own janamsakhi with a hostile account of Guru Nanak Sahib Ji that circulated for two centuries.
Each of these lines held property, and the property is why they lasted. A dera with land outlives a doctrinal dispute, which is as true of the eighteenth century as it is now.
Ram Rai, elder son of Guru Har Rai Ji, was set aside and established at Dehradun, where his dera still exists. Each rival line produced buildings, manuscripts and followings, and each is written out of the standard account.
Scholarship on the Kartarpuri birh.