The first time you participate in the Pandharpur wari, it’s a sheer jolt to the senses. Countless saffron flags fluttering in the air; men ...
The first time you participate in the Pandharpur wari, it’s a sheer jolt to the senses. Countless saffron flags fluttering in the air; men in colourful turbans and white Gandhi caps, veenas, mridangams and other instruments in hand; women with pots of water or tulsi plants on their heads; truck horns blaring on one side of the road and loud melodious chanting of the pilgrims on the other. Like a mighty river, the procession flows.
The wari pilgrimage is the defining ritual of the Warkari panth (a Maharashtrian Vaishnava religious tradition). At the centre of this tradition is the town of Pandharpur, which is considered the abode of Vitthal.
Even though the wari is undertaken four times a year, in the Hindu months of Chaitra, Magh, Ashadh and Kartik, it is the Ashadh pilgrimage that has come to be the largest and the most prominent one.
The Ashadhi wari, as it is known, originates from the samadhis or commemorative shrines of the tradition’s many sant-kavis (poets-saints) and converges on the temple-town of Pandharpur on the auspicious day of the Ashadhi Ekadashi – the eleventh day of the bright fortnight of Ashadh.
The journey, which spans three weeks on average and is traditionally undertaken entirely on foot, is a...
