The Cult of Vithobx and the Vahkari Panth Descriptive
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THE CULT OF VITHOBX AND THE VAHKARI PANTH DESCRIPTIVE SURVEY THE VlRKARI PANTH CHAPTER I The religious movement known as the VXRKARI PANTH wet until the publication of Mr. R. D. Ranade's work on "Mysticism in Hfthar$|i$ratt, little known to European Soholars. Indeed the word Varkarl'very seldom occurs in Indological studies. We find brief mention of .that sect in the publications of Farquhar and of Stevenson., According to the first of these wr i t e r s t h e Varkarls are a Qhagpvata seot worshipping a God representing ...... -•......-.......' " ' £ together the characters of Visgu and of &iva* The second oftlls _______ _______ _ • it a Buddho-Vai§navite seot on the ground that its followers worship Buddha under the local name of Vi|h$hala* Another writer, Hopkins3 only reproduces the statements of Stevenson I "Vithfhala Pa^duranga is the Buddha”* According to Niool MacNicol* the Varkarls are a Vaig^avite sect akin to the other Vaifnavite revivalist movements, whioh after the death of Ramanania spread all over India* The poems and devotional songs composed by the saints of Pandharpur ezert a living influence on the Maratha people to this very day. Sacred musio also plays some part in their ceremonies* Among the writings of French soholars, mention of ■-------------------- - - — ■ ------------------ ■ - ■ ■ ------------- ■ — - - .... _ . ---------------------^ , 1 Farquhar, Outlines of Religious Movements in India»pp*142,234. 2 Stevenson, JRAS, 1842, p« 66. 3 Hopkins, Religion of India, p* 500 (footnote). % 4 Niool Mao^icol, Living Religions of the Indian People, p. 79. 5 Nicol MacNicol, Indian Theism, pp* 120, 126* 2. the Varkarl Seot can be found several times in a reoent publication on Classical India, written by various writers under A the direction of Prof* L, Renou. This revival of the Hindi faith does not seem to them to be a mere logical development of the Vedic tradition, but the birth of a new religion produced by the revival of old local cults merging into traditional Brahmanism. • According to them Pa^uranga is a local God who entered the Brahmanioal pantheon as an avatara of Yignu tThese various references to the Yarkarl seot, lost as they are in books on Hinduism, do not throw much light on its nature and its unique character, among the other religious move- -ments in India. It is therefore useful at the beginning of our • - enquiry to know what Varkarl signifies for a Varkarl himself. The most qualified of them, Principal S. V. Dandekar, will guide us in our answer. 7 _ The word Varkarl is composed of the two words "varl" and "karl* : ’varl* has a very definite and almost technical meaning. The root *var' means time as in the expressions three times, four times and son ont so 'varl* stands for the regular "occurrence of the pilgrimage to Fandharpur, the annual going to and coming from that saored place* "Karl" means the one who does) Varkarl therefore means one who journeys to Pandharpur at the fixed time* And this is indeed the first characterfstie of the Varkarl, a regular pilgrim to Pandharpur. It is not an occurrence which may happen once in a life time, as in the ease of a Hindu going to Kasl and Ramesvara or a Muslim going to Mecca) Varkdrls must go to Pandharpur twice every year, at least, • > L* Banou, L*Inde Classique, p. 445. 7 S.V.Dandekar, Varkarlpanthaca Itihasa, pp* 1 and 2. 3. and if possible on foot* on the ifS|hl EkadasI day and on the Kartikl EkadasI day, i.e. on the eleventh of the bright fortnight of the lunar months of Kartika and l$adha. Some who oan afford to do so may go there on every ekadasl, while the most ardent of them may be found spending their whole lives on pilgrimages between Dehu, l^andl and Pandharpur. Although this last mentioned type of Varkarl does not differ from the vairagls or the various kinds of aadhus who oan • - be seen on any of the Indian roads, he would be an ^xeeption among the Varkarls because the kind of life led by the ever wandering s a n y a sis is not held in high esteen by than.. Be has not to renounoe his family, or his work, or his home, he has not to cease to live in the gghasthasrama state and to adopt the sanyasasrama way of life. In European terminology he is not a monk, but a tertiary. The movement is open to all, and as a matter of fact the majority of Varkarls are villagers, peasants, craftsmen and tradesmen. The Varkarl is sometimes oalled Ma^karl or "the one with a garland” on account of his wearing around his neok a rosary of Tulasl beads. Tulasi is the favourite plant of Kf^ga and it is to honour him that the Varkarl wears a tulaslmala. This necklace has also another significance. It is the sign that the wearer is a vegetarian. Indeed, if a Varkarl is »sked why he is wearing the tulaslmala, he will answer "because we have made a vow not to eat meat". Thus, this name of HaJJcarl gives us two new characteristics of the Varkarl i.e* his favourite God is Kfsna iand he is a vegetarian. # Another name8 given to the Varkarls as a whole is - - • 8 Ibid., p. 2. 4 . Bhagavata Panth. The word npanth" whieh has been used several times already has the meaning of "a road” or "a way", then "a way of salvation", then "a religious seot", in the same way as "varga" which means a "panth or road", and then the "path towards Mokga". But "marge" is used to signify the "corpus dootrinae" as in Bhaktimarga, whereas panth is used for the group of the followers e of this or that sohool of spirituality* It has in a way, the same meaning as the word "seot" in English, but as it also oonnotes something more than just "seot" we will use "Panth" in our text • - 9 in preference to the word seot, A panth is called Bhagavata when it teaches the Bhagavata Faith, that is to say whan it prefers to any other way, the bhakti way of*salvation* The fountain head of all the Bhagavata panths is the Bhagavata Purina .although there are two different interpretations* The various bhagavata panths of Northern India follow the Ramanuja inter pretation and belong to the Dwaita school of philosophy*The Varkarls on the other hand, although teaching the devotional way jof salvation, follow the philosophy of Sankara and its non- dualistic system* Their Bible* the "Jnanesvarl" is the follower of the Advaita school* Another term used by the Varkarl is "Santasajjanancl Mindl" or the Sooiety of the Saints* This is meant to imply not that the Varkarls consider themselves to be saints, but that they are persons who live in the sooiety of the saints, dead or alive. This is a very striking characteristic of the Varkarl Panth* The importance of being in close oontact either with the living ---------------------------- 5------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 9 B.K.Dhurandhar, Life of Tukaram, p* 24* 10 The Vallabha Panth of Gujarat however does not follow the Ramanuja interpretation* saints (best aehieved by accompanying them an pilgrimages to Pandharpur) or with the saints of the past (by reading and memorising their works) ia always stressed by the great teaohers of the Panth. We are now able to give a more aocurate answer to the question "what is a Vgrakarl"? He is a man who although living : e in the midst, of his ffemily and carrying on his profession or ^trade has pledged himself to reaoh mokgia through the way of bhakti, and by devotion to Lord Kjsna in the form of Vifhobi of -Pandharpur, and to go on pilgrimage to that place every year at the fixed time, guided on the road by the society of the saints. He is also a strict vegetarian. * The definition, although still very superficial, enables us to differentiate the Varkarl Panth from the other religious seots in India. They have a strong aversion to any form of rigorous ascetioism or fanatical devotion. Such manifestations arising out of a lack of spiritual balance, and so commonly encountered in other pilgrimages or ceremonies in Northern and Southern India, are not found in connection with the pilgrimage of Pandharpur. The devotees of Vijhoba do not throw themselves under the wheels of his chariot, nor do they pull it with ropes hooked to their limbst they do not sleep on beds of nails, or perform wonderful feats of asoetioism. They practise their religion at home, in the midst of their families, quietly, with the cheerful* -ness and the stolid common-sense of the Maratha peasant. The* Varkarl movement or the Varkarl sampradaya as it is oalled.in Marathi, is not a ohurch. There is no centralised organisation, no hierarchy, no general oouncils, no credo, no 6. sacraments* It is a spiritual movement, or more exactly a body of spiritual groups gathered around spiritual Gurus. It is a third order within Hinduisfe of people following the spiritual teachings of the great saints of Pandharpur. The only public manifestation of the Panth is the pilgrimage to that plaee. Membership of the Panth does not involve the abnegation of the ordinary duties of one*s cwn caste, which the Vlrkarl oan freely continue to perform. And as there are no speoial Varkarl ceremonies,or ' s a n s k a r a ' in addition to the usual Hindu sacraments, • ■ and no speoial esoteric rites either or exolusive ‘mantras* nor any characteristic symbols to be carried on the body or on the forehead, there is nothing which serves to distinguish a Varkarl from non-Varkarls of his own oaste.