Devotees (bhakta) of the deity Vishnu, manifested as Vithoba, form a religious group.
Varkari devotion has concentrated on Vithoba's temple in
Pandharpur, Maharashtra's southernmost district.
Jnaneshvar, Namdev, Eknath, Tukaram, Chokamela, Gora,
Janabai, Bahina Bai, and many others are among the extraordinary devotional
(bhakti) poet-saints who lived from the twelfth to the seventeenth century.
The pilgrimage to Pandharpur was one of the ways these
saints expressed their devotion, and it is still the most important ritual act
in the Varkari community.
Varkaris visit Pandharpur twice a year, and they plan their
journeys so that everyone arrives on the same day—the eleventh day (ekadashi)
in the bright half of Ashadh (June–July) in the summer and the eleventh day in
the brilliant half of Kartik (October–November) in the autumn.
Individual pilgrims travel in small groups known as dindis,
which are often made up of individuals from the same area or region.
The dindis are grouped into palkhis, each of which is
identified with one of the Varkari poet-saints and headed by a palanquin
(palkhi, an enclosed single person litter carried on the shoulders of bearers
by means of poles) carrying the saint's sandals.
Each palkhi travels from a location linked with its own
saint—for example, the palkhi of Jnaneshvar departs from the town of Alandi,
where he lived—and so he and all the other saints continue to go to Pandharpur
twice a year in symbolism.
Pilgrims recite devotional songs composed by these
poet-saints on their trek.
The pilgrims are so imitating the saints before them, both
physically and spiritually, by following in their footsteps and chanting their
devotional melodies.
Although the pilgrimage ends with the admission into
Pandharpur and the adoration of Vithoba, the trip itself is the most
significant element.
G. A. Deleury, The Cult of Vithoba, 1960; I. B. Karve,
"On the Road," Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 22, No. 1, 1962; and
Digambar Balkrishna Mokashi, Palkhi, 1987 for further details.
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