| Temples & Legends Of
Maharastra |
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| Temples & Legends Of
India |
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PANDHARPUR - VITTHAL |
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| The Varkaris,
although apart from the rest of the society, in that they have bound themselves to the
devotion of a particular deity, to perform the biannual pilgrimage to Pandharpur, to do
nothing that can be construed as a breach of the accepted modes of saintly conduct, do not
form a brotherhood or community like the sanyasins or Nath-sampradayins. They do not
renounce the material aspects of day to day life. And although their philosophy teaches
them to dissociate mentally from the material world it does not advise renunciation
as such and hence they continue to live in society and pursue their professions as
the rest of the people. They come from all castes and classes. Their separate identity is
never emphasised to such a degree as to mar the basic unity of the Hindu society. The
initiation' into the panth is usually done through some guru' or spiritual leader and as a
mark of the initiation, the new recruit wears the tulshi bead rosary, a mala, and for that
reason a Varkari is often known as a malakari. The wearing of a mala binds the man not
only to perform the pilgrimages but imposes the strictest sort of taboo against
non-vegetarian food. He has to take only vegetarian dishes and to observe fasts on the
ekadashi days. More often than not the Varkaris form a mandali or society for singing of
the Bhajans either on each ekadashi day or some fixed day of the week. Here songs written
by ancient sages in praise of Vithal are sung to the accompaniment of tala and pakhvaj, a
sort of drum. |
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