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CHAPTER VI RELIGIOUS FAIRS IN MAHARASHTRA CHAPTER - VI RELIGIOUS FAIRS IN MAHARASHTRA 1) INTRODUCTION: Pair is one of the oldest socio-economic and cultural institutions that served a variety of purposes during the past and it serves them, even now. The practice of pilgrimage in Hinduism follows from some of the basic underpinnings of its philosophy. Perhaps the earliest allusion to the practice of pilgrimage in Indian literature is to be found in the Aitareya Brahmana of the Rigveda. References to pilgrimage are also found in various religious scriptures as "Nadistuti" (river-hymn), Manu Smrlti and Puranas. The practice of Pilgrimage, with its ancient and diverse origins, continues to be popular among the Hindus. In fact, one can mention, without fear of contradiction, that more people now visit more sacred places than ever before in the history of India . This can be explained on the ground that increased facilities of travel are offered by government and private agencies. Several tourist agencies offer round tour packages providing for visits to places of religious interest and large cities etc. Even students visit religious and other places of interest on study tours by chartered buses hired by the school authorities. Of course, this new trend is the result of ever increasing rural and urban prosperity on the one hand and the general trend of travelling to different areas partly as a need of the modern civilization and partly the affliction -119- for one's own religion. In ancient times most people lived on farms or on large estates. There were no shops. Also there were not enough goods or people for daily trade. But people always came together for religious festivals. The merchants waited for the times people gathered in large groups to sell their goods. The Egyptians set up markets for buying and selling when they gathered at their tombs and burying grounds for religious ceremonies. In the Roman Empire fairs were closely connected with religious harvest festivals. This is how the fairs of ancient times began. In fact, the word fair comes from a Latin word 'feria' meaning 'feast day' 2 or holiday . Sanderson rightly points out that 'This is true of every community, except the most primitive in the world, that periodic fairs have played a significant role in the national economy of many countries when human contact was purely local, means of communication inadequate and rural economy simple and mediaeval • The fairs in Maharashtra usually serve more than one purpose. No doubt they are primarily religious gatherings of persons, belonging more often, to not one particular religion. However, they also bring into the 'market' the various indigenous articles produced by the villagers and thus, serve as a place for exchange of the goods of village artisans. Within the network of economic organization, therefore, the fairs play a fundamental role in ru ra1 economy. -120- The preceding discussion makes it clear that, invariably, every fair is a 'mix' i.e., besides serving the religious and/ or social purposes it is an occasion for buying and selling articles of daily use, sweetmeats and entertainment of various sorts (tamasha, open air movie, and races of bullock carts, wrestling, sports etc.). Certain ancient fairs are also known to be significant from point-of-view of settling marriages e.g. Tembhurni Fair (Ta. Basmat. Dist. Parbhani) and Bhagoria Festival (Ta. Barwani Dist. Khargaone) of Bhils. With the opening of the modern means of communications, opening of retail shops in the villages and round, about greater movement of people from one place to another and, above all, the setting up of markets at important places, the fairs, it is true, are now losing their former economic significance, though some fairs still claim to retain it. The religious and cultural aspects of the fairs, however, still remain intact though not to the same extent as before. Though all the fairs have in general a religious bias there are some fairs which are purely religious and which the people visit more out of religious sentiment than for any other reasons. The transactions, if any, at such fairs are mainly of articles of worship including coconuts, sugar candi, churmuras, bukka, kumkum, turmeric powder, flowers and sweetmeats etc., for being offered to the god, a portion being given back for distribution as "prasad". Though all the fairs have more or less the same variety of stalls in them, yet certain fairs are characterised by a distinct sort of trading activity. Thus, -121- Kanifnath fair at Madhi (Ta. Pathardi Dist. Ahmadnagar) is famous for the trade in donkeys that is transacted at the fair. A Bazar of horses is attached to the fair at Malegaon (Ta. Kandhar, Dist. Nanded). Some fairs are visited by the villagers for purchasing products of domestic use. In these fairs items such as salt, chillies, oil, clothing, spices etc. are bought and sold. » • The influence of clifmjkifce»-and harvesting seasons is apparent in the dating of the fairsjpflt may be remarked in this connection that in Christian countries the great festivals which most often accompany the great fairs are those of warm season. In the non- Christian countries there is a similar resemblance between the 4 religious, the commercial and the climatic rhythm . The analysis regarding seasonality and fairs, so far as Maharashtra is concerned, is given in Chapter II. The complex of Hinduism, established throughout India and embraced by most of its population, lacks the formal organiza­ tion of religion in the West. Common forms and a sense of community have been maintained by means of largely informal autonomous circulatory flows. One such circulation is the move­ ment of religious practitioners and propogandists; another, far greater in volume, is the pilgrim traffic to Hindu holy places . The phenomenon of fairs conforms to various attributes of the "General Movement Theory'. Any religious fair involves movement of devotees from their places of residence to the shrine of -122- their god or goddess and back. Thus, the religious circulation of people has following attributes : The religious movement has an origin in geographic space. The devotees have to cover a specific distance from their respective places to religious place and back. The devotees travel along definite paths, that may not be straight. The movement requires expenditure of time and human efforts. The movement is purposeful i.e. it is performed for religious purpose. These fundamental elements of the general movement theory are observed clearly in the analysis of religious fairs. The Viththala of Pandharpur, Khandoba of Jejuri, Ambabai of Kolhapur and Bhavani of Tuljapur are the four Principal family deities of Hindus in Maharashtra and even outside. Among all these four gods and goddesses it is the Viththala of Pandharpur that exerts religious influence covering almost entire Maharashtra. The consideration of umland, meaning thereby the sphere of influence or hinterland or tributary area, is an important concept in geography. A city performs an assortment of functions for the city people, as well as, for those of the countryside. Religious function is also an important function, performed by such places as Pandharpur, Jejuri, Tuljapur, Mahur, Kolhapur, Nasik, Amravati, Bandra (Bombay), etc. The most important aspect is the need felt by devotees of the respective god, goddess or saint to visit the respective place of worship either on a stipulated day or days of a year or any time during 123- the year. Thus, rhythmic movements of devotees result for meeting their religious needs. 2) SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF RELIGIOUS FAIRS IN MAHARASHTRA; The fairs are held in honour of local deities that of Mhasoba, Khdndoba, Viroba, Mahadeva, Bhairava, Vishnu, Rama, Ganesha, Datta, Navanatha, various Goddesses, various Saints and Muslim and Christian Saints. Many of these religious fairs attract a large number of devotees from distant quarters of the state. Eleven thousand four hundred twenty five fairs of varying sizes meet every year in this state. Ninety seven fairs out of the total are of fairly large size i.e. where the congregation of people exceeds twenty five thousand (Refer Table No. 6.1 and Fig. No. 6.1). Table No. 6.2 and Fig. No. 6.2 throw light upon the spatial distribution of religious fairs in Maharashtra. Out of the total number indicated above, ten thousand nine hundred fifty seven fairs are held in rural areas and the remaining in urban areas. The highest number of fairs are held in Pune district (1349) followed by Satara District (1072), Ahmadnagar District (999), Ratnagiri District (815), Solapur District (716) and Nasik District (709). In other words, these six districts account for twelve per cent, nine per cent, seven per cent, six per cent, six per cent and six percent, respectively, of the total number of fairs in the state. Thus, about 46 per cent of the toal fairs in the state are concentrated in these six districts. On the other hand, the districts of Bhandara, Wardha and Chandrapur have T—" T <jg i U-.u»-tt* ? 3 B I *• * N « Q o a. « .. BOH,, J&& mi: PUNE SATARA AHMADNAGAR RATNAGIRI SOLAPUR NASIK AURANGABAO PARBHANI SANGLI JALGAON BEED </i OSMANABAD KOLHAPUR THAN A NANDED DISTRIBUTION RAIGARH OF AKOLA FAIRS DHULE IN AMRAVATI YEOTMAl MAHARASHTRA BULDHANA NAGPUR BOMBAY CHANDRAPUR WARDHA SOURCE. CENSUS CF INDIA . 1961. VGt. X BHANDARA MAHARASHTRA, PART. VII -E. FAIRS 0 600 'DC 80L 900 1C0C 1100 12C-C 13C "•A 00 FIG.6-2 -124- a negligible number of fairs. It is clear from the preceding discussion that the large number of fairs are held in the five contiguous districts of upland Maharashtra viz., Nasik, Ahmadnagar, Pune, Satara, Solapur. This can be explained on the ground that firstly a sizable part of these districts occurs in the transitional zone in the rain shadow area of the Western Ghats.

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