Vithoba, the ruling
deity of a well-known temple in Pandharpur, Maharashtra, is known by this
epithet.
According to Deleury, the oldest attested name for the
Pandharpur deity is Vitthala, which is a more literary form.
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The presiding deity
of the same-named temple in Pandharpur, Maharashtra; Vithoba's other epithets
include Vitthala and Pandurang.
Vithoba was a deified hero who was assimilated into the
larger Hindu pantheon as a form of the god Vishnu, according to some theories.
Vishnu is drawn to Pandharpur by the filial piety of a young
boy named Pundalika, according to the temple's founding legend.
When Vishnu arrives, Pundalika is massaging his father's
feet, and when Vishnu requests the hospitality due to any guest, Pundalika only
stops long enough to throw a brick over his shoulder, allowing the god to stand
out of the mud.
Vishnu becomes rooted to that spot and has remained there
ever since, impressed that Pundalika's devotion to his parents exceeds even his
devotion to God; Vithoba's image depicts him with his hands on his hips (still
waiting, perhaps, for Pundalika).
Apart from this story, Vithoba has a surprising lack of
mythic history, despite becoming a powerful regional deity.
The Varkari Panth religious community, Vithoba's devotees
(bhakta), make pilgrimages to Pandharpur twice a year.
Pilgrims travel from all over the world to visit Pandharpur,
which is located in the Bhima River valley on the Maharashtra-Karnataka border.
Individual pilgrims travel in small groups known as dindis,
which are usually made up of people from the same neighborhood or area.
The dindis are organized into palkhis, which are led by a
palanquin (palkhi) bearing the san dals of one of the Varkari poet-saints.
Each palkhi leaves from a location associated with a
particular saint—for example, Jnaneshvar's palkhi leaves from Alandi, where he
lived, and thus he and all the other saints are still symbolically traveling to
Pandharpur twice a year.
Each of these palkhis follows a predetermined route, and
pilgrims time their departure and arrival in Pandharpur to coincide with the
eleventh day (ekadashi) in the bright half of Ashadh (June–July) in the summer
and the eleventh day in the bright half of Kartik (October–November) in the
fall.
Pilgrims liken their journey to a small stream merging with
other streams, eventually forming a mighty river that flows into Pandharpur.
Pilgrims sing devotional songs composed by poet-saints such
as Jnaneshvar, Namdev, Eknath, Tukaram, Chokamela, Gora, Janabai, and Bahina
Bai while on their journey.
By walking in the footsteps of the saints before them and
singing their devotional songs, the pilgrims are emulating them.
The pilgrimage ends with the entry into Pandharpur and the
worship of Vithoba, but the journey itself is the most important part.
G. A. Deleury's The Cult Of Vithoba, 1960; I. B. Karve's
"On the Road," Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 22 No. 1, 1962; and
Digambar Balkrishna's Digambar Balkrishna's Digambar Balkrishna's Digambar
Balkrishna's Digambar Balkrishna's Digambar Balkrishna Palkhi: An Indian
Pilgrimage, edited by Mokashi, was first published in 1987.
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Vishnu meaning the “all-pervasive” in Sanskrit, is one among the three most powerful deities in the Hindu pantheon, with Brahma, Shiva and the Goddess.
All three are significant for being largely unmentioned in
the Vedas, the oldest Hindu religious books, and their rise, as well as the
progressive eclipse of the Vedic gods, indicates a marked change in Hindu
religious life.
Vishnu is the one who appears most often in the Vedas among
the three.
Many hymns that mention him refer to him as a helper to
Indra, the major Vedic deity, and one of Vishnu's epithets is Upendra
("junior Indra").
He also appears as an autonomous actor in certain late
hymns, linked with wonderful works for the benefit of the cosmos, such as
measuring out the universe in three steps.
Vishnu is also linked to the sun, both in terms of his
ability to travel through the skies and his ability to fall on (and therefore
"observe") everything.
Vishnu is the sustainer or maintainer of the universe,
according to the holy trinity of Brahma Vishnu-Shiva.
Vishnu is pictured reclining on the back of his serpent
couch, Shesha, in the primordial ocean at the moment of cosmic disintegration
in one of the most prominent creation myths (pralaya).
Vishnu's navel produces a lotus, which opens to reveal
Brahma, the creator, who starts the creation process.
When the time comes for disintegration, the whole process
reverses, and the cosmos is pulled back into Vishnu, who is therefore
considered as the source of everything.
The cosmos is also sustained by Vishnu's avatars or
incarnations, who come into the world to restore balance to a universe that has
been dangerously out of balance, generally as a result of an out of proportionally
powerful demon.
There are 10 avatars as far as we know.
The Fish avatar, Tortoise avatar, Boar avatar, and Man-Lion
avatar are the first four in nonhuman forms.
The other six are in human form, frequently as sages or
heroes: Vamana avatar, Parashuram avatar, Rama avatar, Krishna avatar, Buddha
avatar, and Kalki avatar.
In each of these instances, Vishnu takes on a physical form
in order to avoid tragedy and preserve the cosmos' purity.
The theory of the avatars served as a means of assimilating
existing deities into the broader pantheon while still granting them distinct
status.
Although most of the avatars are no longer objects of
devotion (the Boar and Man-Lion avatars each had a significant following early
in the common period), Rama and Krishna's adoration has entirely exceeded that
of Vishnu himself in most of northern India.
Vishnu is still revered throughout southern India,
especially among Shrivaishnavas.
Apart from the avatar idea, notable local deities like as
Jagannath, Venkateshvara, and Vithoba have all been absorbed into the pantheon
as manifestations of Vishnu.
Vaishnavas and Shaivas established sectarian rivalry in
medieval Hinduism, both claiming supremacy over their own deities (Vishnu and
Shiva).
Despite the fact that Vaishnavas see Vishnu as the
universe's highest force, his legendary persona and activities are vastly
different from Shiva's.
Vishnu's headgear is a crown, and his persona is that of an
all-ruling monarch, but Shiva is linked with ascetic life and practices (tapas)
and hence with the religious force created by such acts.
Vishnu frequently succeeds by guile, ingenuity, and deceit,
but Shiva eliminates his mythological enemies with sheer might, which is devoid
of any finesse.
Each deity's followers recognize their divinity as the
supreme force in the cosmos, from which all other gods get their power, and
both are portrayed as kind and caring to their worshippers (bhakta).
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Deleury speculates that the Maharashtrian god Vithoba arose from such a deified hero, who was later assimilated into the pantheon as a form of Vishnu, and that such stones can be found all over the Deccan region.
Whether the separated lovers are two human beings or devotee (bhakta) and deity, the genre focuses on describing the pain that results from the separation of lover and beloved.
Separation is thought to cause specific physical symptoms, which the poets describe in great detail—lack of appetite, insomnia, inability to attend to daily life, or think about anyone but the beloved.
Because love in union is sweetened by the presence of the beloved, whereas the former must stand alone, the type of love felt in such separation is thought to engender an even more intense love for the beloved than love in union.
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Muktibai (1279–1297?) was a poet and saint of the Varkari
Panth, a religious group focused on the worship of the Hindu deity Vithoba at
his temple in Pandharpur, Maharashtra today.
Muktibai was the sister of Jnaneshvar, the renowned Varkari
instructor, according to legend.
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Mahipati (1715–1790) was a Hindu ruler who lived from 1715
to 1790.
Mahipati was a writer and hagiographer of devotional
(bhakti) poet-saints, particularly those associated with the Varkari Panth, to
which he also belonged.
The Varkari Panth is a religious organization dedicated to
the worship of the Hindu deity Vithoba, whose temple is located in Pandharpur,
Maharashtra.
Mahipati was a government worker in his hometown, according
to legend.
He was called to work one day after failing to do his
regular worship.
Mahipati completed the task at hand, but then quit,
promising to only employ his writing in the service of the saints.
Mahipati readily confessed that he drew a lot of his
information about the saints from older writings, notably the Bhaktamal by poet
saint Nabhadas.
He depicts each of his themes as a paradigm of devotion,
much as Nabhadas did; the tales reaffirm and confirm the ability of dedication
to conquer all difficulties.
The Bhaktavijaya and the Bhaktililamrta are his main
writings; sections of the former have been translated by Justin E. Abbott as
The Life of Eknath, 1981, and The Life of Tukaram, 1980; while the latter has
been translated by Justin E. Abbott as Stories of Indian Saints, 1982.
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Maharashtra is a modern Indian state that stretches from the Arabian Sea to the Deccan Plateau, reaching east through the Western Ghats.
Maharashtra is one of the "linguistic" states
established following India's independence in 1947, with the goal of uniting
people who share a similar language and culture (in this instance, Marathi)
under a single government.
It was established in 1960 when the previous state of Bombay
was divided into the current states of Gujarat and Maharashtra.
Bombay, India's capital, is the country's financial and
industrial hub.
The western parts are heavily industrialized, whilst the
eastern regions are mainly agrarian, with sugar plantations dominating the
landscape.
Maharashtra is historically the home of the Marathas, a clan
whose eighteenth-century dominion spanned much of northern India.
Maharashtra is home to the Rashtriya Svayamsevak Sangh and
the Shiv Sena, two Hindu nationalist groups that have attempted to influence
Indian politics.
In addition to its economic and political significance, the
state is home to several historical, cultural, and religious attractions.
The rock-cut caverns of Ellora, a UNESCO World Heritage
Site; the Buddhist caves of Ajanta; and the cave temple at Elephanta in the
Bombay port are among the historical and cultural monuments.
The Godavari and Bhima rivers, as well as their associated
sacred sites (tirthas); sites associated with the Varkari Panth religious
community, particularly the temple to the god Vithoba at Pandharpur; and three
of the jyotirlingas, which are particularly holy to the god Shiva:
Bhimashankar, Ghrneshvar, and Tryambakeshvar.
See Christine Nivin et al., India. 8th ed., Lonely Planet,
1998, for general information about Maharashtra and other Indian states.
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(1275–1296?) Poet and
saint who founded the Varkari Panth, a religious order focused on the worship
of the Hindu deity Vithoba at his temple at Pandharpur, Maharashtra, in the
present state of Maharashtra.
Jnaneshvar was an outcaste brahmin, according to legend.
Because his father was a lapsed ascetic—he left his wife to
become an ascetic, only to return to his family at his guru's command—he received
this punishment.
Jnaneshvar hailed from a devout family: his sister Muktibai
is a Varkari deity in her own right, and his older brother Nivrttinath is said
to be a "spiritual grandchild" of the legendary ascetic Gorakhnath.
Jnaneshvar spent most of his life in Alandi, according to
Varkari legend, although the veracity of many of the events connected with his
life is disputed—for example, he is believed to have had a buffalo recite the
holy scripture known as the Veda in order to humble the local brahmin priests'
pride.
The Jnaneshvari, a Marathi language commentary on the
Bhagavad Gita, one of the most significant Hindu holy books, was Jnaneshvar's
most famous work.
He's also known for his Vithoba adoration songs, which the
Varkaris still sing today.
G. A. Deleury, The Cult of Vithoba, 1960; Justin Abbott and Narhar R. Godbole (trans. ), Stories of Indian Saints, 1982; and G. A. Deleury, The Cult of Vithoba, 1960.
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(18 At the Varkari Panth, a religious group focused on the worship of the Hindu deity Vithoba at his temple in Pandharpur in the contemporary state of Maharashtra, modern ascetic instructor and religious preceptor.
The clay pot (gadge) that was his lone possession gave him his name, representing his rejection of all riches and worldly entanglements.
Gadge was born into a washerman's caste, which is regarded as a low-status group since their daily labor exposes them to other people's unclean clothing.
Gadge not only emphasizes the value of devotion to God, which is the characteristic of the bhakti (devotional) movement, but also argues for temperance, poverty, and vegetarianism in his teachings.
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