IDEOLOGY AND EXPERIENCES OF VARKARI: GENDERED ANALYSIS

Hello all. Here is my another research work done on Varkari sampraday. Varkari sampraday(sect) is one of the important sampraday in Maharashtra. Saint tradition has been widely spread and accepted. Abhang, Bhajan, Bharud are different forms through which varkari saint has built ability among people –to listen and understand difference between good and bad. This sect has enormously worked to demolish caste system based on Varnas, Looking through this spectrum how does this sampraday thought about patriarchy, gender equality, women saint poets writing that has been studied in this research paper. This research is an ‘effort’ to study about Varkari sampraday hence possibilities of mistakes so please revert on it.

CHAPTER 1- VARKARI SAMPRADAY – HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

The Varkari sampraday—referred to as the Bhagavata sampraday of Maharashtra is Vaishnva bhakti tradition whose distinctive feature is its pilgrimage to Pandharpur, in south-eastern Maharashtra. The term varkari refers to those who regularly ‘do’ (kari) the ‘pilgrimage’ (vari) to Pandharpur and who worship and are devoted to Vitthal or Vithoba of Pandharpur¹. The Varkari sampraday recognizes over fifty Marathi male and female saint-poets across a period of over five hundred years, whose compositions form the teachings and corpus of the tradition and whose lives are regarded as classics.

In India there are different types of sects like nath, data, shaiva, vaishnava, chaitanya, panchratra, virshaiva, vallabha, nimbarka, ramanuja, madhav. Varkari comes under vaishnava sampradaya. But it follows Advaita philosophy of Upanishads, Brahma Sutras and Bhagvad Gita’s. Varkari is one of the largest sects in Maharashtra and has followers from South India, Gujrat and Madhya Pradesh also. Datta Sampraday, Nath Sampraday and Chaitanya Sampraday came together unanimously and merged to form Varkari Sect. In the same way, Other Vaishnav cult has directly or indirectly merged in Varkari Sects. The Varkari Sect is inclusive, universal in nature which gives accommodation to everyone (Gethe). All other Sampraday like Ramanujacharya, vallabhacharya, madhvacharya, nimbark are vaishnav sampraday but they are based on powers like- Chaitanya, Anand, Swarup and Prakash. Every one of the above sampraday belongs to only one of this power but Varkari Sampraday is merged with all powers, it is complete, and overall (More; Dehukar, 2012:16). Saint Dnyaneshwar has taken heritage of Yog and Bhakti experiences from Nath Sampraday which is carry forward in Varkari Sampraday(Bahirat and Bhalerao;1972;309).

As different sampraday merged to form the Varkari tradition is inclusive in nature because of characteristics of different sampraday merged and form new sect².

¹Subhash Gethe (2015). Varkari Movement. Accessed from <https://www.academia.edu/4231089/Book_Varkari_Movements> >on<19 August2016> and <10am>.

² Also In India we called ‘sect’ as panth or sampraday which is breaking away from main religion.

1)      Pandharpur – A Historical Perspective

Pandharpur is located on the banks of the Bhima River, which is alternatively known as Chandrabhaga because of its half-moon-like shape. The city is named after a great merchant, Pundalik, who achieved self-realization there. Pandharpur, also known as Pandhari, hosts the renowned Vitthal temple on the banks of Bhima. "Vithoba", "Pandurang", and "Pandharinath" are the popular alternate names of the deity, Vitthala, who is regarded in Hinduism as a form of Lord Krishna. Krishna is considered as an incarnation of Lord Vishnu. Rakhumai or Rukmini is Vitthala's consort in the temple. Also there is another story of Pandharpur, Pundalik was Lord Shiva’s Bhakt, he prayed for Shiva. Because of his praying Lord Shiva pleased and asked him to demand what he wants. Pundalik asked lord that ‘you seat in cemetery and meditate for the god, where is ‘that’ god?’ after listening this Lord Shiva gifted him crowbar. Where that crowbar stands properly there will be ‘that’ lord Shiva replied. In Pandharpur that crowbar stands properly. Pundalik wallowing on ground for Vitthala to make others happy by getting rid them of from miserable life (More; Dehukar, 2012:11).

The worship of Vithhal in the Pandharpur temple is based mainly on the contents of the  Puranas and the contributions of the Vaishnav  saints of Maharashtra and Karnataka during 13^th  to 17^th centuries.

Pandharpur has been known to different names since ancient times till today like Pundalikpur, Pandurangapalli, Pandhari, Pandharpur, Lohdandakshetra, or Pandhari. The scientific finding of inscription on rock was found to be the establishment of Vitthala’s temple of Pandharpur in 11^th Century. Then it was renovated in 12^th Century by Shalivahan kingdom. Priest and devotees also protected the idol of Lord Vitthala from the invader Allaudin Khilji in 13^th Century A.D. and from Aurangzeb in 17^th Century. The Varkari sect is also called Bhagwata pantha, following Bhagwata dharma. It is important to note that unlike bhakti in other parts of the country wherein the devotee is typically portrayed as a wife or a female lover seeking love and attention from the beloved i.e. the deity, in the Varkari sect all the stake-holders of bhakti are regarded as mother. In the Varkari tradition the god, the saints and the devotees are all regarded as mauli or mother. Even though in the saint literature Vitthala is sometimes regarded as a friend, brother or father, the prominent image of Vitthala is of mother. This practice of calling everyone Mauli, irrespective of age, caste, class and more specifically gender is evident in the palkhi procession (Kulkarni, 2015).

Vari means pilgrimage. It comes in Ekadashi. There are 24 Ekadashi’s in a year. Those Ekadashi which comes during Aashadh, Kartik, Chaitra and Magha month of Hindu calendar, most of the varkaris comes in Aashadh and kartik Ekadashi month for pilgrimage. Dindi is a particular formation of collective people. Musical instruments like Veena, Mrudanga, Taal used in dindi for chanting Bhajans. The person who carries Veena is a supreme head in Dindi. He gives particular instructions about bhajan to the followers. There is a sequence of chanting bhajans while walking in Dindi. A group who carries flag walks ahead of the dindi followed by a lady who carries Tulsi planted then musical troop including bearers of Veena, mridangam and taal along with folks of men and women doing vari (Gethe S).

Bhajana and Kirtana from the perspective of their importance in attaining para-bhakti, especially according to Bhagavata dharma in Maharashtra. Bhajana is derived from the root bhaj, meaning to share, to enjoy, adoring, to worship. Bhajana therefore means sharing, service, adoration, worship.  Bhajana consists of singing the glory of the God while fully exerting one’s general ability to sing. The specific meaning of bhajana in Maharashtra, especially for the Varkari sampradaya, is singing the devotional songs of the saints. In the Varkari sampradaya, bhajana and kirtana play an important role in attaining para-bhakti. This is because varkaris are acquainted with the teaching of the saints through bhajana and kirtana rather than through the written scriptures (Koiso, 2010). ‘Bhajana-kirtana is helping varkaris for binding together and work efficiently’ as Kusum Dhamale(Varkari) said while talking in interview.

Kirtana- The Satpancassataka and Bhagwata Purana ascribe same meaning to Kirtana, i.e. atonement. In Narada Bhakti Sutra it is asserted that for worldly people, sravana and kirtana are two bhakti activities that are easier than others such as the abandonment of all sensible objects (Mizuno, 2010). Bhajana-kirtana is helping varkaris for binding together and work efficiently. All Dindi decide their Bhajanmalika (Series of bhajana). Mostly Saint Dyananeshwar, Tukaram are preferred in bhajanas. Other saint poets Eknath, Muktabai also considered at some extent as told by Varkari Kusum Dhamale.

2)      Varkari Saint

The word ‘Saint’ has meaning of decent person in Sanskrit. Saint doesn't exist as separate independent category or as a new paradigm. But in Varkari sampraday it erased all this and emerged as independent category and new paradigm. In 12-13^th   century Mahanubhav Panth address their respectable person as 'Ishwar', later they addressed them as 'Mahant' or 'Aacharya'. The tradition of calling all respectable people as 'saint' has been started by scholars who studied it. They generalize idea of 'saint' which is actually followed in Varkari sampraday. 'Tatiche abhanga' are one of the inspirational and life changing moment for Dnyaneshwar. It can also compare with how Lord Krushna told about Karmayog through 'Geeta' and how Saint Muktabai motivated Saint Dnyaneshwar for sainthood. How saint should behave, how saint should react, co-operate are all discussed in ‘Tatiche abhanga’(More, 1995:9;27).

The Varkari saints themselves were for the most part householders, not Sanyasis. They advocated the practice of the path of devotion (Bhaktimarga) even while living within the entanglement and responsibilities of life in the family and in society (Samsara). The significant basis of the sect is that it does not demand renouncing of a family or worldly life. It does not demand the Varkari to abandon his Grihasthashrama (household duties) and enter into Sanyasashrama(renunciation). Rather, it tries to strike a fine balance between these two. The movement is open to all and as a matter of fact the majority of Varkaris are villagers, peasants, craftsman and tradesman. Recently the individuals from the corporate world, students and researchers are participating in the pilgrimage in

large numbers³. ‘Youngster participates in pilgrimage mostly in Pune for some period of time not for the entire Vari. For long route only old people comes we need more youngsters participation. Also For being Varkari one has to avoid eating non-veg strictly. No meat or fish consumption allowed and also need to wear tulsimala’, it is believed that it will save us in circumstances and no experiences of ‘ghost’ occurred in life. Varkari should do namsmaran of ‘Ram Krushna Hari’. It is mind refreshing as Kusum Dhamale  said.

Marathi saints were open to all castes, including untouchables and women and insisted on sharing the language of the masses. Saints were very much a part of peasant communities of their time. Jayant Lele(1981: 107) notes that they were ‘a community of active producers. Dnyaneshwar explicitly rejects the renunciation of productive life and ridicules the claims of liberation through rejection of activity’.

The saints while celebrating human productive activity were a part of the community of the oppressed. They consciously preferred to write in a language that highlighted the everyday practices of common people. Their idiom of writings was direct and dialogic, thus reaching out to women as well. The women of the period, especially those whose were in search of creativity and freedom, realized that the doors of the Varkari sampraday  were open to them.

Jayant Lele notes that saint poets of medieval Maharashtra offer a most important methodological lesson of unmasking the hypocrisy and falsehood of orthodox beliefs, but they also teach us to develop the art of listening. Sadanand More considers the Varkari tradition as the core of Maharshtrian culture and sees Tukaram as a social critic and poet of a high order with matchless clarity of expression and an utter fidelity to his own integrity as a free and radical human being and bhakta (Bhagwat,2005).

The earliest visual manifestation of saintly figure is found in an Indus Valley civilization seal which shows a male figure in meditative mood. According to the tradition there

³  Pilgrimage as Public Performance of Bhakti. Accessed from < http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/probing-the-boundaries/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Vsambhus-sj2-dpaper.pdf >on<9 August2016> and <1pm>.

have been Rishis and Maharshis who have been guiding spirit behind Sanatan Dharma. The Upnishadas, Puranas and Epics provide us names of prominent saints who propounded earliest vision of ‘Truth’ and expounded that with characteristic wisdom. It is not only today but even in early historic days that saints and their sermons were injured by evil forces.

Saintness imparts an uncommon strength even to those who are otherwise weak. When the spirit of God has taken possession of one, one then does not care very much for the conventions of the world. Rishi Narad says about bhakti,: “with a choking voice, a thrilled frame and tears (filling their eyes), they converse with one another… they purify their families and the earth too. They make holy places, holy, render actions righteous and good and lend authority to scriptures”. There are not distinctions among them caused by birth, learning, family, wealth, professions, etc. The saints are truly citizens of the world; they belong to all mankind, they have no narrow attachments.

In Bhagwadgita a saint is described as sthitaprajya (one who is steady in wisdom), gunatita (one who has gone beyond the gunas which are the constituents of material nature), bhakta (devotee), yogi (who has complete control over body and soul) and brahmabhuta (one who has become Brahma).

Saints are compassionate, liberal and compassionate in distributing the gains of their experience for the benefit of humanity. According to tradition when a cow was being beaten marks of beating appeared on the back of Tukaram. The saints see the same divine reality in every being. It is the love of God or the universal vision of the supreme Spirit that moved. The saints spend themselves in the service of the mankind. Insight into the plenary truth and carefulness from all known attachments are what characterize the saints.

The saint is one who has gone beyond the three gunas when they are in action, nor drive them when they cease: he stays calm, undisturbed by the gunas (gunatita); he does not have the gunas when they are in action, nor drive them when they cease; he stays calm, undisturbed by the gunas, knowing full well that it is they function and not he; he is, therefore, the same as pain and pleasure. There is no distinction between things dear and things not dear, and blame and praise are one; honour and dishonour are the same to him; he remains unaffected by the phenomenon of change and mutation. He is without the thought of ‘I’ and ‘mine’ and regards pain and pleasure as all one and has fortitude and forbearance; he is ever content. He does not disturb the world nor the world disturbs him, Godly realization is his only end (Singh,1999).

The saint-poets of Maharashtra enumerate various moral virtues; they are individualistic and practical. Sardar mentions, ‘All the saints sought to make the “social order” a vehicle for the new spirits’ (Sardar, 1969: 32). The core of that social order was bhakti. Bhakti is the base that touches upon all the important virtues that the saints have propounded. The saint-poets of Maharshtra contributed to the progress of society by teaching and practicing bhakti. They were realistic and worked within the framework of society to reduce social inequality. The circumstances of their time did not allow them to pursue any radical social change. However, they made an enormous contribution that is worth considerable deliberation. They provided spiritual support and guidance to the masses to lead them to an ideal way of life (Koiso, 2010: 200).

To be a Varkari is first to make this pilgrimage faithfully, at least once and preferably twice, every year, in the company of all the other Varkari saints. As Deleury points out, the word ‘saint’ in Varkari terminology is applied "to any pilgrim on his way to Pandharpur". So the company of the saints on the pilgrimage includes all the ordinary Varkari men and women as well as their present gurusthal is, the entire living Varkari community of today. But it also includes all the great saints of the past.

Dnyaneshwar born in 1275 and took samadhi twenty-one years later. Dnyaneshwari is commentary on Bhagwadgita however Amrutabhav is philosophical text contains many abhangas. Dnyaneshwar and his brothers and sister, Nivrittinath, Sopandev and Muktabai, were born to a Deshastha Brahman woman after her husband had returned to her from a state of sanyas. Although he had been sent back to his unfulfilled wife by his own guru, he was immediately outcaste by his fellow Brahmans, the ritual priests of the Desh area of Maharashtra and in time his children were also scorned.  

Eknath, a Deshastha Brahman who lived as a householder in Paithan, is a pivotal figure in the Varkari tradition. He serves as a link between past and present, between high Vedanta philosophy and common religious devotion, between scholarship and popular vernacular kirtans. He edited the Dnyaneswari that we have today. He translated a book of the Bhagwat Purana which is known as the Eknathi Bhagwat, and is second only to the Dnyaneswari as a ''text" for the Varkaris. He wrote amusing drama-poems called bharuds which brought the message of devotion in colorful style to the common man. And he carried forward the idea of a company of saints with an abhanga.

Saint Tukaram born about the time of Eknath’s death and lived until 1649, Tukaram's mature years coincide with the rise of the great Maratha Kingdom founded by Shivaji. Under this Maratha king a state was born which formed something very like the nation states of European area with a mass culture of belonging, of unity, of a national spirit. Shivaji the King, however, was a devotee of the goddess Bhavani and a patron, so far as we know, not of Tukaram but of Ramdas, a saint of a more militant and political bent than the gentle Varkaris. Nevertheless, it is perfectly possible that the unity built by the saint-poets from many castes, the commonality built by the Marathi literary tradition and the pilgrimage itself, formed the underlying sense of belonging which is the hall-mark of the modern state.

‘Saint Namdev elaborated work of Dnyaneshwar in Varkari sampraday after him. But Namdev’s work has been taken into consideration in Ghuman(Punjab) well than Maharashtra. Saint Namdev’s work isn’t being appreciated in Maharashtra properly. Namdev Maharaj’s descendants are also responsible for this. Also we need to understand that Varkari Sampraday has been flourished by varkaris than their descendants hence it’s still surviving today’ as Shivaji More Ex-President of Dehu Sansthan gave information.

Saint Chokhamela was a householder  and the fact that his wife, son, sister and brother-in-law were also saint-poets. Chokhamela protested that the Ganga is not polluted by low caste, nor is the holy earth defiled, but he left the temple  domains and worshiped from afar. Chokhamela was both a devout and often joyous singer of songs of devotion and a man anguished by his status in life (Mokashi-Punekar,2005:126).

A Brahman woman, Bahinabai, found her Guru in this Shudra saint, and wrote a spiritual autobiography about her struggle for a devout life. Saint Muktabai, Janabai, Soyrabai, kanhopatra are woman saint poets of varkari tradition. Saint Muktabai’s ‘Tatiche Abhanga’ was enlightening for Saint Dnyaneshwar who was pillar of Varkari sampraday. No bhakti saint-poets flourished under the rule of the Peshwas, chief ministers to the then powerless descendants of Shivaji and rulers of an expanding Maratha Kingdom which reached North, East and South in the 18th century. The Varkaris were immortalized, however, in the writing of a Brahman hagiographer, Mahipati. In several volumes of lives of the saints, Mahipati, as did Eknath, added the saints of the Hindi tradition. He also included Ramdas, the devotee of Ram, founder of a sanyasi order, writer of religio-political tracts, not songs to Vithoba. And since Mahipati's time, Ramdas has been included among the saints in a sort of generalized mystical tradition of Maharashtra. The saint-poet tradition is by no means the only literary school in the Marathi language in the pre-modern period, but it is clearly the one most thoroughly shared by elite and common man, by intellectual and illiterate. It also has the continuing capacity to inspire modern creative work, a capacity not shared by the pandit poetry, nor by the bardic⁴  traditions of powada (heroic ballads) and lawani (romantic songs)(Zelliot, 1987:46). Also All saint poets of Varkari like Dnyaneshwar, Tukram, Eknath, Namdev,Bahinabai has inner consciousness to build up Varkari Sampraday and hence filled gaps between each others abhangas and brought it forward to people(More;Dehukar, 2012:14). As More praise knowledge all above mentioned saints but in this where does lower caste Saints like Chokhamela, Soyarabai, Janabai stands isn’t figured out.

Saint poet’s social work has been done unknowingly. Varkari panth celebrated  enlightened lower caste, women by raising self realization of own dignity and power in

^{4 ‘}Bardic’ originated from ‘bard’ which means professional story teller. Accessed from <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bard> on< 16 August2016> and <1pm>.

them. Saint has done work on root cause of caste system. They worked on hierarchical system of caste through abhanga and kirtana (Bahirat and Bhalerao; 1972:355).

3)      Pandharpur Pilgrimage as Public Performance

The uniqueness of this pilgrimage to Pandharpur is that the foot images or what is called ‘paduka’ of the saint-philosophers of the cult are carried in the palanquin or Palkhi. Padukas can roughly be understood as wooden sandals. These padukas are of utmost importance for the devotees as they are the symbols of the living spirit of their saints. The Padukas carried in a Palkhi of various saints start procession from various parts of Maharashtra. The Palkhis are the focal point of the entire organization of the pilgrimage.

In India religion is public and private both, it can’t be central to private only or public only. Religion in India has diversity and complexity in nature. Pilgrimage has idea of bringing people together. Pilgrimage brings idea of synergy created through people’s collective performance and also these people share their experiences based on common grounds when they come together. Victor Turner’s idea of communitas similar here as, ‘Communitas is an acute point of community. It takes community to the next level and allows the whole of the community to share a common experience, usually through a rite of passage. This brings everyone onto an equal level: even if you are higher in position, you have been lower and you know what that is.’ pilgrimage had certain similarities with such rites in the way it encouraged people to move (literally and metaphorically) from their normal, everyday lives and enter, however temporarily, different social and spiritual worlds. They coined a term for the experience of 'losing' one's old identity and freely and spontaneously encountering others on pilgrimage: communitas. Many villagers, peasants, craftsman and tradesman join Vari to forget their misery occurred in life. Peasants consider Vari as rejuvenation, refreshment, energetic to deal with all mishaps in rest of the year.

Also Emile Durkheim’s argument on collective effervesces relates the idea of when people collectively come together that becomes sacred due to their sharing of common hood, ‘the universal religious dichotomy of profane and sacred results from the lives of these tribe members: most of their life is spent performing menial tasks such as hunting and gathering. These tasks are profane. The rare occasions on which the entire tribe gathers together becomes sacred, and the high energy level associated with these events gets directed onto physical objects or people which then become sacred.’  

Different caste, nature, age, gender people participate in Vari as we said before. They all merged in one i.e. ‘love for God’. By collection of such differences each individual has chance to work on his or her religious and ethical development. Also this idea of collectivity makes individual to leave routine life’s slight imaginations (Bahirat and Bhalerao; 1972:288).

The Bhakti movement is open to all, and as a matter of fact the majority of Varkaris are villagers, peasants, craftsman and tradesman. Recently the individuals from the corporate world, students and researchers are participating in the pilgrimage. Bhakti seeks to form publics of reception rather than communities that imply a single cohesive issue or idiom. To Sankara, around the 9^th century CE, is attributed the argument for an individualized, monist vision of bhakti, which he is said to have expressed in the Sivananda lahirl by his metaphor of the river, or self, joining the ocean, or Brahman. His broad influence had much to do with philosophical-religious understandings of bhakti in the direction of a personal pursuit. Yet the metaphor is telling? The river may be an individual stream on its way to the ocean, but it is also one of the central venues of collective, social Hindu religious practice⁵ and also, universally, a key site for commerce, economics, travel, and urban development. The river is many things: a boundary, a threat, a source of sustenance, a channel of trade. The river is an apt metaphor for the public, as much as it is for bhakti and religious expression itself (Feldhaus, 1995). River is joining different people across also they bring them together to sharing goods, emotions, practices etc.

In Sadashiv Atmaram Jogalekar’s book Sahyadri, he classifies three central rivers of Maharashtra in terms of a variety of categories. The three rivers with the three most popular Varkari poet-saints, Dnyaneshwar, Tukaram, and Namdev. Dnyaneshwar was born at Apegav, on the Godavari, and Tukaram lived in Dehu, on a tributary of the Bhima. Namdev, who is supposed to have lived and died in Pandharpur, on the Bhima, presumably gets assigned to the Krishna because he is not quite as popular as Dnyaneshwar or Tukaram, because the Krishna is the river that is left over, and because his own river, the Bhima, eventually flows into the Krishna. The Bhima “harmonizes” the other two river’s characters, without assigning it a character of its own. The very next sentence singles out the Bhima as the “boundary of liberation” without saying anything equivalent about the other two rivers. Finally, the categorization of the Bhima valley as the “land” of the “King of Pandhari”—i.e., of the Varkaris’ god Vithoba, whose main temple is at Pandharpur on the Bhima (Feldhaus:1995). Hindu religious practicess⁵ largely attached with river. Most of the practices performed near river, also religious places situated near river.

Despite Sankara's usage, we also find in Sanskrit an impressive series of texts that associate bhakti with public performance. In treatises on aesthetics, and especially in texts attributed to Abhinava Gupta in the early 11^th century, the nature of bhakti as affect is debated. Bhakti in this context is beyond rasa, beyond the "flavor" of a performance, but is one of those key "experiences," or bhavas, that a rasa might explore; all roads, as it were, may lead to bhakti, and it cannot be limited to any particular kind of effect. It is thus understood not only to be a shared experience, like love and anger. But an expressive one - an expression of the self, perhaps, but an outward expression of the self, a performance of emotion. The relationship between rasa and bhava, and in particular it’s affective display, its public performance, suggests both publics that theorize and publics that consume bhakti as a key “experience “of life. The public created when bhakti is invoked is ruled neither by dogma nor coercion, but made cohesive by a kind of social agreement. Bhakti indicates a practice of sharing,

⁵  Hindu religious practices e.g.Kumbha Mela in Banaras

equal distribution and mutual enjoyment, what Karen Prentiss calls “participation” (1999: 24), an interaction that suggests the “embodiment” of bhakti as a prerequisite for its practice. This is a crucial point when we are discussing systems of memory that are often extra-textual and appeal to people who are not literate or who do not engage with bhakti through literacy. Just as the public sphere requires literacy, the publics of bhakti in South Asia require “embodiment,” the human as medium. This very useful notion of “embodiment” does not simply exist as a trope of literature, but is deeply engaged in the performance of the discourse of bhakti. Manifestation of bhakti not only in performance through song or literacy, but also through all those actions and bodily displays that make up bhakti in the broadest sense, such as those outlined above: pilgrimage, puja, darshan, the wearing of signs on the body and so on. Embodiment then is not so much a technique of bhakti as its very epicenter: bhakti needs bodies. In other words, bhakti needs the medium of the living human or remembered bhakta in hagiography, and the ways in which bodies are objects of public display hardly need rehearsing here. There is then almost a symbiotic equation between bhakti and performance. Hence we can say here, a public is necessarily created. The publics in the context of bhakti are both created and opposed, they both unify divide. Initially this fact seems to disallow the possibility of single social movement configured around the idea of bhakti in India. Overall, the literature of bhakti defined its publics as inclusive, contrasting them to associations that form along lines of class and caste, which are their primary “others”. Yet exclusivity is also expressed through the media of bhakti –in practice if not in theory. The idea of public allows us to engage both the inclusive and the exclusive assertions of the texts and practices associated with bhakti and allows for social effects of both kinds (Novetzek, 2007).

Theory and narrative often hide the true motives of the theory-makers and thus the gap between bhakti theory and practice is quite intentional and quite intentionally concealed. From this perspective we might see bhakti hagiography as a form of hegemonic discourse designed to create a bhakti “tradition,” an intentionally selective version of the past designed to connect with and ratify a present that is in the interests of the dominant social class (Williams 1997: 115-16). Pilgrimage has idea of inclusivity which is depicted through poetry and literature. But also they have thought of people who are not varkaris are ‘other’. They try to focus, elaborate, highlight varkari sampraday so widely and consider it as best and hence to follow by all. Shivaji More Dehu Sansthan Ex-President gave information that ‘Mokla Samaj (Free society) and Dindi Samaj (Dindi varkaris) are two types of people in Vari. Dindi Samaj follows rules and regulations of Vari because they have been informed every time by Dindi Owner. However Mokla Samaj operates in their way, they are not Varkaris. They choose themselves when to join procession or when to rest, hence they create trouble to discipline of Vari sometimes’. But at the same time this ‘public’ inclusiveness spread the nature of collectivity among each other who are ‘varkaris’.

Also Vari has distinct feature as it is not similar to yatra or other pilgrimage these pilgrimage join once in life to gain virtue and purgation, but varkari goes every year to Pandharpur vari for devotion towards Lord Vitthala. This devotion is never ending process. You thirst to gain it more and more (Bahirat and Bhalerao; 1972:143).

CHAPTER 2 – BHAKTI AS TRADITION IN THE CONTEXT OF VARKARI

Bhakti cult has performed an important role in both Saivism and Vaishnavism and in particular the bhakti cult in Vaisnavism has been based on theory of Vedanta school. The concept of Bhakti first clearly mentioned in Bhagvad-Gita which has completed around first century and has been nourished.

Before 10^th century, however Brahmins carrying on the vedic tradition hardly recognized bhakti as a means of attaining moksa. Sankara, who was contemporary Vedanta master affirmed that Brahman is only real existence having no attributes (nirguna) and is impersonal consciousness (caitanya) identical with an atman and that  the phenomenal and multiple world is unreal existence caused by avidya(the nescience). Thought of this kind might explode the theoretical basis of bhakti cult, because shakti should be devoted to personal God with attributes (saguna), because one who is devoted to bhakti should be different from one who devotes bhakti and because the phenomenal world should be regarded as real experience in which a devotee practice several activities to express bhakti. Bhagwata Brahmins considered effective means of attaining moksa an authority of Veda or Upnisads (Kimura,2010).

By around 7th century, the medieval Hinduism was under devotional transformation. It received its initial impulse of transformation from the bhakti movement. The bhakti, a Sanskrit noun, is derived from the verb bhaj, meaning broadly "to share, to possess", and occupies a semantic field that embraces the notions of "belonging", "being loyal , even liking"⁶ . The grammarian Panini speaks that even in the early period the world's most important practice was in the domain of religion⁷.

Bhakti, which implies "devotion" or "love" in later literature, is one of the central

⁶ Fridhelm Hardy, Virah-Bhakti: The Early History of Krsna Devotion in South India (1983), p. 7.

⁷ S.N. Das Gupta, Hindu Mysticism (New York, 1959), particularly Popular Devotional Mysticism, pp. 144-148.

concepts of hinduism. It describes that side of Indian religion in which the personal engagement of a devotee with a personally conceived religion is understood to be the core of religious life. It arose from Tamil land in the 7^th century, gradually spreading to north India, Bengal, Karnataka and Maharashtra by the 15^th century. The Tamil culture played a very crucial role in making it all encompassing emotional reality. This very emotional texture, along with its social and spiritual values, brought about remarkable changes in the quality and structure of religious life. From ritual observance and the performance of prescribed duties, or alternately, ascetic withdrawal in search of speculative knowledge of the divine, the heart of religion became the cultivation of a loving relationship between the individual and a personally conceived supreme God.⁸

Bhakti has been look at by different philosophies. Bhakti deals with human body, it appear as part of existence for Varkari. They can’t separate themselves without bhakti. Even their existence is negligible for them without Vitthala. Also Bhakti is considered way towards moksa hence to attain it Varkaris believe it.

    1)    Brahmanism and Varkari Movement

The importance of Bhakti in Varkari tradition is borrowed from Bhagwata. Even though the Bhagwat Gita discusses bhakti path of salvation, it is the Shrimad Bhagwat which has the exclusive account of bhakti path of salvation. Salvation no longer remained the preserve of the upper castes but became privilege of all, and strongly attacked mindless ritualism of the brahmanical tradition or Pandits to bring about simplicity in one's religious life. It led to the proliferation of vernacular languages or regional languages as the saint-poets of this great tradition composed the devotional songs in their respective languages to attack brahmanical Sanskrit language. This very growth of vernacular languages all around India resulted in giving regional orientation to the regions, like

⁸ Region And Religion: Reconstructing Maharashtra. Accessed from http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/17284/8/08_chapter%201.pdf> on <2 September 2016> and<10am>.

Sikhs, Marathas, Bengalis, etc. ; while in their devotional practices, the bhakti followers strongly attacked all forms of worship and brahmanic temple rituals.  Shivaji More Ex-President of Dehu Sansthan supports this idea by saying, ‘Bhagwat Dharma has given simple way to live religious life. Dnyayneshwar Mauli has started implementing it and then Saint Namdev has carried forward it with others’.

The period of Shivaji equally saw strong religious orientation of the Maratha state with its full blown up form visible during the Peshwa period at Pune, resulting in thoroughly brahmanised culture. Princess and prominent families lavishely donated land grants to the temples and brahmins. However, the religious life of the rulers, particularly from the Shivaji period onwards, was curious blend of secular and sacred ambience of the medieval politics. It may show the common form of medieval society and politics of early modern Europe as well, but the religiosity of rulers in Indian context seems more to do with Indian tradition than anything else. In the pre-industrial context Patricia Crone⁹ speaks that the monarch was often required to protect the religious establishment and promote the divine order, not just in the general sense of righteousness, but also in the specific sense of religious law and morality. In fact, this very religiosity in Indian context is equally tied up with the issue of king in his relationship with brahmins, and King vis-a-vis Dharma. Also it provided the religious as well as cultural base in reorienting their power and authority from Shivaji onwards, despite bhakti remaining a dominant form of institution.

Early 19^th Century Peshva dynasty were corroborated. Varkari sampraday was bahujan sampraday and it doesn’t have Brahmanism privileging culture hence Peshva overlook it (More; Dehukar, 2012:33).

The non-brahmin movement itself became political, tended to lose interest in social equality involving the lowest castes, and in the era of democracy brought political power to the Marathas and middle level castes (Rinehart, 2004).

Bhakti movement provided strong base for the common masses to realize God at the

⁹  Crone, Patricia.  (1989).  Pre-Industrial Societies (Basil/Blackwell), p. 48.

individual plane and get away from the ritually oriented traditions preserved by the brahmins. The bhakti movement subverted the hegemonic position of brahmins in society to make each caste dry group equal and nurture a sense of identity - be it of 'region' or 'community' as the interrelationships among the saints-poets point to the growth of regional identities. Jayant Lele points out that tradition is that in which the experience of all past struggles is kept alive and incorporated. It remains accessible as a source of inspiration for collective social action under appropriate conditions and through contextualized reinterpretations¹⁰.

The lineage-clan obligations and corporate corporations between different jatis seem to have remained the main basis of social order. With the shaping up of peasant economy after the Gupta period, the village emerged as the focal point in Maharashtra. The jati system became the primary basis of interaction, emerging out of occupationally specialized, endogamous corporate groups. The social order, in fact, started revolving around the village vatan-jati nexus of institutions since early medieval times¹¹.

Brahmanism gained its ascendance out of its placement in Varnashram Dharma with its crucial claim of brahmanic superiority. Varna system made its deep depression into the Indian society as well as Maharashtra. The medieval transformation of brahmanism with its contemporary features, seems further to have incorporated a range of Vedic as well as popular terms and beliefs combined with a more sophisticated religious theory which acquired a much higher degree of acceptability for itself (Lele,1990:18).

The varna theory, with its crucial claim of brahmanic superiority became quite powerful proposed idea of aspiring chieftains and the priestly brahmins. Brahmanism found its base in Maharashtra due to its drive to provide legitimacy to the aspiring persons for power. Due to bhakti tradition brahminism challenges this idea of hierarchy in medieval times. But also we need to consider that all pujas, mahapujas are performed by

¹⁰ Lele has talked about the role of tradition 'as well as the modernity of tradition in the context of bhakti movement, Tradition and Modernity in the Bhakti Movement (London, Brill, 1981),p.4.

¹¹ A.R. Kulkarni, Maharastra in the Age of Shivaji (Poona, 1967), p. 24.

Brahmins in Pandharpur Temple today. I asked Kusum Dhamale (Varkari) about it, she replied ‘Brahmins knows mantra and puja performing so that is why they are doing it’. Also Shivaji More provided information that ‘earlier Badve and Utpat (Brahmin families) were performing puja in temple. But now lower caste people can perform puja. Who believes in equality either Brahman or lower caste can perform puja. All this pujari are decided. But still dominating Brahmins are there in society and pretend them as pujari’. Within this Varkari movement Marathi as a language has been taking shape through saint poets and varkaris. The important output of this movement it speaks against Brahmanical hierarchy. However it remained rooted in its own structure unable to blow away the subordination of women suffering in society and the brahmins well hegemonic position. Also why it didn’t speak about patriarchy which was whole heartedly rooted along with brahminism is unanswered question. It was a mystic and devotional movement which certainly brought about other left out streams of society into the play of history. The bhakti movement was in constant conflict as well as in dialogue with the Maharastrian Hinduism. The saint-poets, of both Hindu and Muslim origin, carried out a common base for prayer and worship.

2)    Dnyaneshwar: Looking Bhakti through Bhagvad Gita

Ramanuja placed bhakti as highest position and referred to jnanayoga in category of karmayoga and explained that premising the rejection of karma, jnanayoga is actually difficult to perform. In this manner, Ramanuja re-evaluates karmayoga and acknowledges jnanayoga, to which Sankara assigned only secondary importance. Moreover, he avoids Sankara’s opinion that jnanayogais the only means to liberation. On the other hand, by identifying bhakti with sensation (vedana) and meditation (upasana, dhanya,nididhyasana,smrti),he attempts to establish harmony with the Upanisadic tradition of intellectualism and meditation. Whereas Madhva attempts to emphasize differences with Sankara more distinctly for example, a liberated person is not integrated into Brahman and one who gains direct perception also has the possibility of transmigration.

Dividing the Bhagvad-gita into three parts-karmayoga and jnanayoga(chapters-1-6),bhaktiyoga (chapters 7-12), and other miscellaneous topics- Saint Dnyayneshwar places bhaktiyoga at the highest position, over karmayoga and jananyoga.  Within Chapters 1-6 (Bhagwad-gita) where Karmayoga and jananyoga are mainly discussed- as some researchers regard Dnyayneshwar as ‘completely non-dualistic’ (purna-advaita) and as he himself discusses the identity of Brahman and atman (6.383;398,etc.) and explains that the world is maya (2.105; 166; 4.444,etc.)- his interpretation of the Bhagvad-gita is characteristically under the strong influence of Sankara’s thought. Besides, he states the method of Tantric meditation developed in the Nathas (the method of meditation by being trained in the Nathas; he himself describes it in 6.291) as a time-consuming karmayoga that gradually leads to the direct vision of the identity of Brahman and atman, especially as stated in Chapters 5-6 (Iwao, 2010:187).

Saint Dnyaneshwar has elaborated idea of 'saint' in Dnyaneshwari so well. In actual Bhagvadgita concept of 'saint' is not there but Dnyaneshwar included it as new concept and spread it as new paradigm (More, 1995:11). Saint Dnyayneshwar simplifies Bhagwad Gita for common people. He brought philosophy of Gita in Ovi style. The path of Knowledge, the path of action, the path of yoga and the path of devotion has been discussed in BhagvadGita according to common man’s understanding. He has used a lot of examples and metaphors from day to day life and from nature to make the meaning very clear to a common reader¹².

¹² Saint Dnyaneshwar wrote this critique on the instructions of brother Nivruttinath who was disciple of Gahininath, one of the nine gems or Navnaths of the Nath sect.

3)    Tukaram: Conceptualizing Bhakti

The Bhakti is rooted in a very humanistic feeling. The adoration of someone or something is inherent in human nature. Bhakti-marga is universal in that it is open to all. The path of bhakti is the religion for all. Humbleness is the most essential and elementary attribute of the bhakta. The concept of bhakti according to the Bhagavata dharma includes all necessary principles regarding social philosophy.  A true bhakta attains the state of para-bhakti, he is able to see God everywhere, within himself as well as outside himself; this state is characterized by absolute samatva(equality). According to the advaitic approach, everything is filled with nothing but Brahman. There is no room for discrimination. Bhakti marga is open to all human beings, without of varna or creed. The samatva approach can be in the writing of the saint-poets of Maharashtra.

Serving the sarvabhuta(all being) as God is the approach of the samatva followed by advaita-bhakti. Sarvabhuta actually implies all beings and it indicates the pursuit of not only the abhyudaya but also nihsreyas. Whenevr bhakta serves sarvabhuta as God, his attitude towards sarvabhuta must unconditionally be that of niskamata.

Niskamatakarma is understood as action without expectation of reward and practiced with detached attitude. According to Tukaram Bhakti is not merely worshipping God, but the service of all beings as if they were God. Additionally, bhakti can be a social force. Whatever works men undertake in society. If they are inspired by the love of God, they will experience no conflict with society.

The reason for Tukaram’s popularity is that his spirituality and longing for Vitthala are deeply rooted in humanism; he lived in an era when Marathi literature was flourishing; this is reflected in his abhangas. Although he was a householder, he was not interested in worldly life. His abhangas are simple, straightforward and powerful. As Tukaram was always considering God, he reiterates the importance of worshiping Vitthala. Tukaram emphasizes seeing Vitthala in everything in living as well as nonliving entities. Tukaram believes that the Lord is present in the image of Vitthala in the Pandharpur temple. He supports image worship. Though Tukaram continues the practice of image worship, he seeks to steer clear of idolatry. He believes that God whom he worships in the idol is transcendent in His intrinsic reality. He is not limited to the image (Dabre 1987: 25). Routine life reality used to be depicted by Tukaram’ in simple words. He used common people language to convince ethics. As he was against of disheveled charitable also he was against of disheveled business.

In reality bhakti through bhajana is dialogue between God and the bhakta. Also it is equally easy to practice for every bhakta. P.C. Engblom (1987: 25) says, what makes bhajana so attractive sadhana(spiritual means)is that it is comparatively accessible to the common person and does not require mysterious disciplines. A bhajana is an act of the most complete self-abnegation and total self-surrender to Vitthala’¹³.

The Varkari tradition applies its methods of moral and spiritual teaching to the cultural level of simple people.  Because the previous saint-poets have written a vast amount of poems which contain moral and philosophical teachings, singing and listening to bhajanas has obtained greater significance. Saint Tukaram Consider as prominent saint poet which deals with bhakti and service to society simultaneously. He doesn’t trapped himself in image worship.

4)    Chokhamela and Untouchability

Chokhamela was 14^th century untouchable saint-poet. The bhakti movement was a questioning of the orthodox and repressive brahminical understanding of Hinduism and as such made it possible for the lower castes and women to give a form to their religious aspirations, emphasizing devotion and love, not knowledge, as a means of salvation. In a newfound burst of confidence, it relocated the bhakti marg, the way of devotion, in the pursuit of salvation. In Maharashtra this democratizing devotional passion seems to have mainly precipitated the varkari community in the 13th century.

¹³ Louis Althusser speaks about ‘Ideological State Apparatus’ in which bhakti also can be considered. As in bhakti ideology operates in varkaris mind where they have internalized and submitted themselves to this ideology. Althusser says any submission would lead to asking no question and no more thinking.

The untouchable saint-poet Chokhamela in particular whose life captures the typical uncertainty of Hinduism: it’s liberating intellectual plurality and its equally restricting social construction. His is perhaps one of the first, if not the very first, marginalized voices in Indian history. There is very little in very first, marginalized voices in Indian history. There is very little in the way of recorded history of Chokhamela’s life.

Chokha was a Mahar, one of the lowest in the Hindu hierarchy of castes and as such his duties, too seem to have involved like other in his situation, tasks menial in nature. Mahars, as other Untouchables, are considered outcastes in the sense of being outside the four-fold varna system, although they are all member of various Untouchable castes. Their identity in society is shaped through a series of cancellation.

Chokha’s habitual place seems to have been at the foot of the outer doors of the temple, on the threshold. His poems quite simply and humbly refer to his standing there, quite without self-pity and certainly without resentment. He is rarely angry, but sometimes he does strip away the facades of religious hypocrisy to expose human cruelties. Chokhamela’s poetry in short, quietly reverses the normative understanding of divinity and social structure. Chokha questions pollution and untouchability. He is too intelligent not to perceive the self-interest of the powerful classes behind the façade of religion, but his heart full of love seems to melt anger into understanding (Mokashi-Punekar, 2005).

Eleanor Zelliot writes about saint Chokhamela in ‘The search of Chokhamela’ that, the Dindi to Pandharpur of Chokhamela has been diminished to a few old folk and the once crowded Dharmashala in Pandharpur is empty except for three or four varkaris. The Chokhamela temple in Dehu was at one time a place of worship, but only Mahars came. Now it is empty and has become a hatbhatti, a place selling illicit liquor, but as Sadanand More writes ironically, all castes now come to the temple which they once used to avoid.

Also Shivaji More Dehu Sansthan (Ex-President) informed that, Chokhamela was great Saint in Varkari Sampraday but in Mangalvedha unfortunately we don’t have his temple. Mangalvedha is place where he born. Also in Alandi, Pandharpur chokhoba’s temple isn’t there. In Dehu we have his temple. We are planning to request government to renovate it.

Chokhamela was untouchable saint hence his poetry has been least considered. His poetry highlights darkness of life, pain and sufferings of people. As Zelliot points out Chokhamela’s temple has been turned into hatbhatti which means how Chokhamela’s history has been tore apart from history of tradition or intentionally blurred.

Chokhamela and his family have been marginalized figures in the bhakti movement. But after seven centuries, he still commands interest, affection, wonderment. He and his family still have the power to speak to us of pain and piety, of devotion and degradation, of the ever-lasting hope that manuski, Dr. Ambedkar’s favourite word, and will triumph (Zelliot, 2005).

CHAPTER  3 - VARI AS AN EVENT

Vari as tradition is been flourished from ancient time. But now if we see it contemporary perspective, it is also celebrated as an event now. People who involved it actively are mostly those who have tradition in home going to Pandharpur with Varkaris. And those who passively participate are been directed by media, surrounding atmosphere, ‘others participation’ and hence it became ‘event’. Advertisements, media content creates atmosphere of celebrating a festival by repetition of content or invoking idea of ‘culture’. Surrounding atmosphere is been ‘created’. Idea of other participating in culture event and not we is also lead to larger participation.

1)    Personal Experience

It was evening 6pm when I reached at Chinchwad in Pune. My friend Prashant’s uncle came to pick me up at the Chinchwad station.  While going at uncle’s place we stuck in the traffic because of long queue of varkaris who were crossing the road. When I was sitting on bike, one 9-10 years old boy came to me and put varkari’s ashthgandh on my and uncle’s forehead and waited to take money from me. I gave him around 10 rupees. This boy did same thing with others who was standing in the traffic. I don’t know how much boy knows about varkari and meaning of putting this ashtgandh but doesn’t matter he was earning money out of it for his daily needs.

When we reached at uncle’s place (in Nigadi) all women were preparing dinner for varkaris. Contributing for making food for varkaris is assumed as ‘privileged’ in terms if you can’t be part of varkaris then at least you can be part of their needs which gives you ‘blessings’ and ‘virtue’ in return.

In Tukaram’s palkhi behind chariot Dindi number 16 takes halt at Prashant’s uncle’s place every year. So every year they offer dinner for this Dindi varkaris. This varkari did bhajana and aarti before having dinner. While serving food women and men sat in different rooms but they had food all along no preference to male for having food which we generally observe in the hindu homes.  After finishing dinner varkaris are not allowed to take their plates to the kitchen, their plates are taken by server, this again consider as virtue for server. After everyone done with their dinner we went to sleep around 12.30am and next morning we had to get up at 4 am to start walking from Akurdi to Pune station. I got up on time and waited for my turn to take bath. When you want to be with Varkari for procession you have to be quick in taking bath, having food and in other daily chores.

I came in tempo with Dindi varkaris from Nigadi to Akurdi for joining the procession. This tempo(vehicle) is second home for all varkaris going till Pandharpur. All their clothes,luggauge, utensils are kept in this temp. It was 5 am in the morning and long queues of varkaris walking on the roads with flag, Dindi number plate, tulsi, veena, mrudunga, taal, etc. Varkari’s bhajana, hailing ‘Dnyanoba, tukaram’ and no disturbance of vehicles on the roads and everyone in their bhakti. In vari, to refer other varkari called ‘mauli’ irrespective of age, caste and gender. This is one of the appreciable nature to address others which shows ‘equality’.

My friend Prashant’s brother and grandmother helped me a lot during Vari. Before entering in the procession I was told by Prashant’ grandmother, to touch ground and put little soil on forehead. It is varkaris belief that this soil becomes ‘sacred’ after chariot of saint’s padukas and varkaris went on it.  Structure of Dindi arranged as, one man holding Dindi number plate at the starting, then woman holding tulsi plant on her head and other varkaris singing abhangas behind one main person of vari, this person either Dindi owner or Dindi leader. One veenekari (holding Veena) is also compulsory for establishment of Dindi.  In our Dindi only Maratha caste people were there. One thing is prominent in Varkaris that you can be part of varkaris through participating in their different related activities but you cannot be ‘Varkari’. For being varkari you have to wear Tulsimala, put ashtgandh, hail ‘Jayharikrishna’ and go to the Pandharpur for Ashadhi and Kartiki Ekadashi. Hence you will be treated as equal or being part of ‘them’ but you will still remain ‘other’.

People standing outside the road were distributing chikkis, rajgira laddus, water, biscuits etc. for gaining ‘virtues’ from varkaris. We took first break around 9.30am, as we all were walking on the service road. We sat there to relax and having breakfast.  During break I went to chat with Prashant’s Grandfather Jagnnath Hinge who is caretaker and owner of Dindi, he told me about varkari sampraday and its inclusive nature but he also criticized that ‘earlier vari was much in discipline but nowadays people are taking it lightly, no discipline maintained by people’. Also when I asked him about other caste people participation in vari so he said, ‘all kinds of people participate in Vari. Some lower caste people also participate in vari but their representation is limited.’ I asked ajoba about toilet facilities for varkari, he replied From Pune station to Pandharpur we have ‘Nirmalvari Abhiyan’ where thousands of toilets provided under this programme joint venture with Maharshtra State government, but we don’t need such facility in Pune may be because it’s city’.

After finishing breakfast we all joined procession. As distribution of food was going on one side but I couldn’t see any toilet facility for women, as men can go anywhere but woman can’t go in open place.

In the procession I took Tulsi plant on my head for some time. We took lunch break after some time.  Here lunch arrangement was done by local people. I was told by other varkaris that we have to finish food fastly because one more dindi going to come here for lunch. So I sat with woman varkaris and finished my lunch. Here also no specific arrangement of toilets for women varkaris. Our lunch break was for two hours so some varkaris prefer to take nap after lunch, some talk with other varkaris. After finishing lunch break we started walking in the procession, here chariot was little slow so I could see and take darshan of chariot where Tukaram’s paduka were held. Around  5pm we took small break of half-hour. Here all Dindis formed their own circle while seating and started playing fugadi or dancing by saying ‘Dnyanoba- mauli-Tukaram’. I also played fugadi.  Fugadi is mostly performed by female during Ganpati-Gauri festival but here men and women were both playing.

After half-hour break we all started walking towards Pune station. I asked our dindi’s veenekari from how long he is been going to vari, he told me it’s been more than 20 years, his wife was also varkari’. I aksed him, are women not veenekari in the vari so he replied, ‘women are also veenekari in the vari but very less in number, his wife was  veenekari when she was alive.’ When we were walking near FC college road area many youngsters were playing fugadi or dancing, hailing abhangas, people were taking photos with varkari, veenekari were so common. This is contemporary celebration of varkari. Some varkaris were annoyed with people taking selfies or photographs. They says, ‘these youngsters don’t understand simplicity of vari. They just celebrate it without knowing it’. We continued walk from 6 pm to 11 pm. In between no halt and also no facility for toilets. After reaching at Pune station area there was big pandal built for varkaris where aarti performed by varkaris and all left to their respective Dharmshala. Prashant’s brother Shubham accompanied me to guide about varkari’s halt and accommodation.

Prashant’s grandmother has booked one room for ladies in the ‘Saint Gadge Maharaj Dharmshala’ so we all stayed there. It was small room but we all adjusted, as adjustment in minimum resources and keeping calm is another principle of being varkari. Next day is relaxation day for varkaris. But still when I got up in the morning around 6 am I heard sounds of taal and bhajanas with the full of energies. On this day dindi owner had meeting with ‘Nirmalvari Abhiyan’ organizer, I was told by Prashant’s grandfather to join this meeting for more details on vari. Shubham came with me to attend this meeting where all Dindi caretaker, owner had come. I observe only male had come for this meeting. Not single woman are owner or caretaker of any dindi. Meeting was based on how this ‘Nirmalvari Abhiyan’ going to be held in this year and cleanliness will be maintained. This Abhiyan providing toilets facility to Varkari in Pandharpur during Ashadhi Ekadashi. So cleanliness of this toilets and place will be maintained by Abhiyan volunteers, also tree plantation programme also conducted by them. After meeting, me and Shubham went to Dharmshala. No other programme was on that day about vari so I returned in the afternoon to Mumbai.

As vari seems to be inclusive in nature but it has male supremacy. No hierarchical role given/assigned/done by woman varkari, male domination perpetuated through this.  Also Dyananeshwar, Tukaram’s bhajanas were chanted prominently during the procession, no woman saint poet’s bhajanas or name recognized much. Though Referring ‘Mauli’ to other is form of inclusivity in vari. Also playing fugadi, eating habits are performed together by male and female varkaris.

CHAPTER 4 – GENDERED CRITIC OF VARI

Varkari sampaday considered as inclusive in nature irrespective of caste, class and gender, but at the same time women varkari seems to be at ground level. Varkari women saint poets doesn’t have equal position as male varkari saint, their poetry talks about personal experiences within household phenomenon it’s not talking about women oppression in the society. Also Bhakt-mother relationship is widely accepted by society. Idea of motherhood through God, Vitthala is propagated¹⁴.

Irina Glushkova(USSR) analysed, the concept of Women in the poems of Tukaram. Two basic premises underline these poems: one being parallel between God and Mother concomitant with the parallel between Bhakt (devotee) and Child: the other being that the concept of woman is dichotomized into categories of ‘Aspired for’ and ‘Repulsed’. In this poetry God resembles with mother as in mother’s identity of nurturing, caring and unselfish love. So through this her womanhood is limited to these characteristics only. Also if she can’t bear a child means if she is not mother then she is not resemble with God, then God- bhakt relationship cannot be created. In this manifestation as a mother, woman is ‘Aspired for’ her anti-thesis, a woman as woman or as wife, is perennial source of carnal temptations (Kosambi, 1991).  Also Bhakt-Mother relationship is highly valued, while the Bhakt-woman relationship is shunned as a symbol of danger. This duality saturated Tukaram’s poetry.

1)    Woman saint poet’s perspectives towards Bhakti

Varkari sampaday is open to all caste and many women. It was also inclusive of householder phenomenon. Woman saint poets bhakti towards vitthala is imagined in daily chores, it is imagined within household. Their bhakti based on personal experiences of life.

¹⁴ Mahar were thought to be impure because of menial jobs were assigned to them. They were considered polluting.

Woman saint poets in Varkari sampraday are all house oriented, they all based on householder phenomenon. Their bhakti towards Vithhala is also through different activities, practices performed at home. Woman saint poet imagined god through household phenomenon. Domestic practices were prominent and inseparable part of woman life even today¹⁵. Woman is not imagined as alone, independent human being in Indian context hence her bhakti is also contextualized within house domain¹⁶.

Patriarchy does exist in woman saint-poet’s life. Hierarchy perpetuated through controlling her day to day activities. As bhakti is personal devotion but that was also controlled or internalized in such a way that woman has to look bhakti from household only. The typology developed by A.K. Ramanujan for women saints- early dedication to God, denial of marriage, defying societal norms, initiation, marrying the Lord- does not apply to either Soyrabai or Nirmala as it does not to Muktabai or Janabai, other women poets of the period, nor do they qualify as being ‘superior to their husbands’, which Ramanujan notes is the pattern of saint’s wives. Soyrabai and Nirmala write of family, of their devotion to the god Vithoba, of the joyous pilgrimage to Pandharpur, of the various ways of maintaining the household and still finding true freedom (Zelliot, 2005).

Bhakti makes a language for aspiration and desire, through a notion of personal devotion and more direct communication with a compassionate god, which is embedded within experiential base-particular sorts of hierarchical, patriarchal and feudal relations-a location which defines both the power and the vulnerability of such a language. Once assimilated into mainstream Hinduism, the critical edge of dissenting forms of bhakti is dull, yet the language remains evocative, long after the movements have themselves waned, because its experiential base has altered but not disappeared (Sangari, 1990).

¹⁵ Idea of womanhood is constructed through only considering woman as mother possessing love, affection and sacrifice for her family.

¹⁶  Woman body is socially and culturally constructed from ancient time through which male domination is celebrated in different ritual performance and religious practices.

The bhakti movement that allowed women to transcend the physical constraints imposed on them by institutions of caste, marriage, and female seclusion. Women saint poets wrote about their ‘lived’ experiences. Women saint poet from elite and from the lower reaches of society write, but not those of agriculturally-based middle. The ‘vein’ is realism and writing based on personal experiences. Muktabai, the sister of the founder Dnyaneshwar, begins the line of women saint-poets in the 13^th century; Janabai, the maidservant of Namdev, along with the wife and mother of Namdev and his daughters and daughters-in-law continue the tradition in the 14^th century; Kanhopatra, the dancing girl, adds her unusual voice; the saint Chokhamela’s wife and sister Soyrabai and Nirmala, add voices from the Untouchable community; and Bahinabai, the Brahman woman who brought her husband with her to become a disciple of Tukaram, brings the woman saint poet line to an end in the 17^th century¹⁷.

The writing of women saints was seen for long time, in fact up to 1975,only as a part of the spiritual realm, and women saints like Muktabai and Janabai  were treated as woman who had already transcended the physiological division of humans into ‘man’ and ‘woman’. But in this process it was ignored that women saints were very much a symbiotic part of the Varkari masses. They were also a part of the social historic reality of the Marathi-speaking region.

The first phase of women's literature in Marathi covers a period from 13th century AD to the beginning of colonial rule at the end of the 18th century. During these six centuries we come across a long line of women saints. They followed one after the other with amazing regularity. Some of them are known and cherished in all Maharashtrian households. Women of all castes and regions in Maharashtra - Janabai, Muktabai, Gonai, Rajai, Ladai, Kanhopatra and Bahinabai - have left a rich body of literature. This is no accident. All men saints in the Varkari movement always supported the cause of women. Eknath is considered to be one of the four pillars of this tradition. Zelliot has translated one of his songs 'Amba, satvar pav ge mala' [Zelliot 1987:98-99]:

Save me now Mother

 I'll offer you bread, Bhawani

Father-in-law is out of town

Let him die there

I'll offer you bread. Mother Bhawani

Mother-in-law torments me

Kill her off

I'll offer you bread. Mother Bhawani

Sister-in-law nags and nags

Make her a widow I'll offer you bread, Bhawani

Her brat cries and cries

Give him the itch

I'll offer you bread. Bhawani

I'll give my husband as a sacrifice'

 free me mother!

I'll offer you bread. Bhawani

Eka Janardan says

Let them all die

Let me live, alone!

The song offers a classic example of the Varkari understanding of women's problems. Zelliot writes, "A woman's plea to the Goddess for deliverance from husband and in-laws is, one of Eknath's most popular bharuds today - in spite of the fact that it counters the image of the devoted wife."

Janabai, for example. She was born into a shudra (low caste) family and functioned as a dasi. i.e. as a bonded domestic servant. While the tradition insists that the household in which she worked brought her up benevolently as one of its own, the fact remains that Janabai always identified herself as "Dasi/Jani. Her poetry is full of references to the hard chores which she had to perform, which deprived her of the space necessary for a dialogue with her own emancipator God. Janabai recovered her status as a free and autonomous human being. Her poems offer us a combination of a deeply felt sorrow, a product of the fact that she was born as woman, and a confident assertion that she could in real life undermine the cultural confines which denied identity to her kind.

Then take Muktabai.

Do you desire self realization?

Then do not blindly follow others.

Search for the truth in your own self

There lies wisdom.

[Tatiche Abhanga 1978: 12]

Muktabai’s thoughts in her century were remarkable. She has understood myth of living life. Searching truth by own self is modern thought which was told by her in 12^th century¹⁷. Tatiche Abhanga is enlightening abhangas for Dnyaneshwar depicted by Muktabai. Muktabai is the one who told about sainthood to Dnyaneshwar and how sainthood is important in society to deal with their miserable life. In that sense we can say she is the major character who gave strong back up and boost to Saint Dnyaneshwar for being pillar of Varkari sampraday. But in Varkari sampraday her role isn’t consider that much important. My point is here that in Varkari sampraday Tukaram and Dyanoba are more recognized, praised and flourished saints. But the person who did enlightening

¹⁷ Finding truth by own self is modern thought it connected with idea of questioning and doubting the existed phenomenon hence finding truth which is understand by you i.e. giving individual freedom to think.

in Dnyaneshwar’s life was not equally praised that much.

The strength of her character and conviction is attested by the following myth which is popular in Varkari circles. It is recorded in the Hari vijay a popular text of the Varkaris. Once when Muktabai was bathing in the nude, Changdev, a reputed male yogi, happened to come that way. When he saw her, he turned his back in shame, Muktabai found fault with his behaviour, as he was known as an accomplished yogi. She told him quite bluntly that:

One is not ashamed to stare at

the niches in the wall

Do the cows grazing

in the fields have any clothes!

I too am like the cows.

Why are you embarrassed at my sight?

As Ramanujan has remarked "... By exposing the difference between male and female, by becoming indifferent to that difference, she is liberated from it-and liberates anyone who will attend to it" [Ramanujan 1973: 13]. In time period of 12-13^th century Muktabai gave this knowledge of gender separation. Clothing which attached to human body is part of civilization hence what is inside that artificial clothing is more important. Muktabai’s  such knowledge is still relevant in today’s context.

Bahinabai was the last great woman saint in this tradition. Even though a brahmin by birth, she accepted Tukaram, a great Varkari saint of shudra origins, as her guru. This created a crisis in his personal life. As Feldhouse relates "...with wounded pride, unable to understand devotional religion, and lull of the prejudice of his high caste and superior sex, Bahina's husband prepared to leave her.' (Feldhaus 1982: 5961.) In a perceptive account of Bahinabai's life and work Hardy has noted: "it is certainly true that some general complex, say 'bhakti', was operative in Bahina's environment independently from whatever personal application an individual might use it for. Nevertheless Bahina shows quite clearly that such complexes become alive only in specific, individual contexts that might in fact modify them considerably... And this resource itself was by no means pre-given to her; it came about through unconscious struggle and personal choice. The result too throws light on her Hinduism'. She emerges as a woman who had come to terms with the problem of Iife, ready to take on a positive, active note, and who at the same time knows that... life has come to an end for her". Bahinabai was strong enough to defy the traditional ideal of a 'pativrata' (a loyal wife) defended by the orthodox patriarchal order. She chose to interpret her 'pativratadharma'¹⁸ in a startlingly novel manner. She, concludes that women as also men who live their worldly lives with a sense of 'nijananda gnana' (supreme self realisation) are true wives. The path of a true wife is as necessary for a man as it is for a woman. A measure of Bahinabai's achievement can be gained from the fact that in the end she actually managed to convert her husband to the Varkari sect. She persuaded him even to accept Tukaram as his guru! Bahinabai also interpreted her duty towards her child in a revolutionary manner. She bore only one child and regretted this bitterly. Using a strategy totally different from the stereotype handed down by the patriarchal order through the centuries she transformed her child in her mind and treated him as a companion in a former life. Bahinabai must have gained this daring and independence of mind through her close contact with the living tradition of emancipator resistance waged by the outstanding women saints from the 13th century to her own 18^th century (Bhagwat, 1995).

Identity of this Varkari saint is established in relation to their male gurus or mentors. Like Jani of Namya, Muktai of Dnyaneshwar, Bahinabai of Tukaram. All these prominent women saints seem to be internalized hegemonic order and legitimizing through their existence and work. But also we need to think of literature which they have produced in their specific era talking about individual and social problem. Also their class and caste experience and household problems are needed to be taken in consideration while

¹⁸ Pativratadharma is wifely duty. This concept is highly patriarchal and hence under this woman subjugation, oppression done directly or indirectly.

reading their literature in contemporary context. Women saint poets in Maharashtra has adherence to their husband and household. Saint Bahinabai was not attached to brahminical orthodoxy hence she wrote greater freedom for women.

‘The upper caste male’s battle is with the system as a whole, often internalized as the enemy within, whereas a woman saint’s struggle is with family and family values.’ The woman saint remains feminine because ‘she has nothing to shed: neither physical prowess, nor social power, nor rudeness, nor even spiritual pride. She is already where she needs to be, in these saints legends’.

Jayant Lele in his edited work on bhakti Movements (1981) makes observations about women saints in the context of the tradition-modernity debate. He argues that when dharma speaks only as an oppressive moment, as a duty from which the joy of performance has been stolen, it becomes coercive. He sees saint women’s rebellious posture v/s the social order in the context of their reality as communally exchanged young brides in an alien patriarchal/patrilocal family, in an often hostile household.

Women saints were seen as ‘extraordinarily courageous and creative women who asserted right to their own life as they defined it’. Their writing was seen as a celebration their individual choice and their religious path as an escape from the narrow confines of domesticity. Susie Tharu and K.Lalitha compiling an anthology of Women Writing in India (1995: 35) argue that, ‘we might indeed learn to read them not for the moments in which they collude with or reinforce dominant ideologies of gender, class nation or empire, but for the gestures of defiance or subversion implicit in them.’ Tharu observes the path of devotion set up no barriers of caste or sex. The women poets of the bhakti movements did not have to seek the institutionalized spaces religion provided to express themselves and women’s poetry moved from the court and the temple to the open spaces of the field, the workplace and the common women’s health. Within an economy where the labour of women and the surplus production of the peasant and artisan are customarily and 'naturally' appropriated by the ruling groups, the high Hindu traditions sought to encompass and retain the management of spiritual 'surplus' and to limit its availability along lines of caste and gender. In this spiritual economy, the liberalizing and dissenting forms of bhakti emerge as a powerful force which selectively uses the metaphysic of high Hinduism (maya, karma and rebirth), in an attempt to create an in appropriable excess or transcendent value grounded in the dailiness of a material life within the reach of all. Even if bhakti does not substantively break the boundaries of high Hindu traditions it redefines these in content, modality and address, i.e., in what is said, how it is said (orally-in defiance of the centralization of knowledge in written texts), and who it is said to (Sangari1990).

2)    Intersectionality in Vari

The bhakti movement indicates that although there clearly was equality on a spiritual plane and some of the poets, both Untouchable and Brahmin, condemned caste, no specific social movement for an egalitarian society arose from the bhaktas.

The regular pilgrimage of the Varkaris to Pandharpur provides one of the clearest symbolic expressions of the unity of Maharashtra, bringing together as it does pilgrims of many different castes from all parts of the Marathi-speaking region (Karve, 1962).

The songs of saints must have been kept orally for generations, sung by pilgrimages going to Pandharpur, so those specifically about untouchability might have been considered inappropriate for the joyous pilgrimage. As we said earlier also Tukaram and Dnyaneshwar bhajanas and abhangas are widely praised and sung by varkaris. Soyrabai and Janabai are known to varkaris but they aren’t praised much though they have provided brick to form varkari sampraday.  

Eleanor Zelliot points out in ‘Untouchable Saints’(2005) that 62 abhangas of Soyrabai and 24 of Nirmala appear in the collected works of all the saints, they have received very little popular or scholarly attention. Only two of Soyrabai’s abhangas have found their way into the popular Maharashtrian tradition. Soyrabai refers to herself as hin, i.e. low or base. But she does refer in an indirect way to the restrictions to which the Mahars were subjected. Both Nirmala and Soyrabai speak joyfully of coming to the great door of the temple at Pandharpur, implying but not saying directly that they could not go inside to see the image itself.

As Varkari tradition assumed inclusive in nature for all but in 14^th century Soyrabai and Nirmala has to face discriminations. Though they reached to Pandharpur but couldn’t allow in temple. Bhakti seen as less important than these women saint poet’s caste identity. Due to their caste and gender identity they have been seen as more vulnerable¹⁹. In Zelliot’s (USA) paper’ A new Voice: Dalit Women’s Poetry’. The sophisticated poetry of few educated Dalit women selected for analysis revealed four different but not necessarily conflicting voices: an identification with gender across caste; a sense of double oppression by caste Hindus and by Dalit men; a sense of unity as members of Dalit movement spearheaded by Ambedkar and a strong criticism of the current Dalit social and political leadership as lacking genuineness.  

¹⁹ Due to caste and gender intersectionality woman becomes more vulnerable in all the ways. Her position is considered lower. She is been oppressed, deprived socially.  

CONCLUSION

Varkari sampraday is well known in Maharashtra. It has built its own way to challenge hindu tradition through bhakti movement. Bhagavata sampradayis Vaishnavi bhakti tradition. It is inclusivein nature. All different sampraday has merged into varkari sampraday, also it is for all like farmer, trader, peasants etc. hence it is assumed as greatestsampraday. But still there are minute loopholes in the varkari sampraday.

In varkarisampraday all address each other by ‘mauli’ irrespective of caste, gender, class and age where equality principle is followed through appearance and verbal expression.Bhajana and kirtana which is performed in Dindi during vari procession helps to bring people together. The idea of sinking all in one tune is flourished in varkari sampraday. Idea of saint is privileged in sampraday. Sainthood is without the thought of ‘I” and ‘mine’and regards pain and pleasure. Varkari sampraday also made clear distinction between Saint and Sadhu. Sadhu is solely dedicated to achieving moksa (liberation), the fourth and final aśrama (stage of life), through meditation and contemplation of Brahman.However sainthood is much ahead that and prefer to live with the people and tell, discuss with people how to deal with life’s circumstances and misery. Saint concept has been formed within varkari panth and saint is addressed to those who are idolatry person in sampraday but even in Mahanubhav panth this addressing name was different but this concept of ‘saint’ is generalized by scholars who studied it and addressed saint of different sampraday. Varkari saint has done path breaking reform through bhajanas and abhangas,they have worked on social exclusion not by movement but through erasing hierarchical thinking of people.

Vari procession brings people together. Pilgrimage has idea of public performance. People come together voluntarily and feel synergy between them. The idea of sharing, collectively working for each other also get developed here.This collective behavior makes people to leave out routine life, think beyond ‘I’ and ‘my family’. Also River is form of joining different people through sharing commonness. Religious places which have pilgrimages are situated on or near river. Also this public is ‘created’; outward expression of the self is decided in bhakti movement. Also Varkari are those who are part of procession i.e. Dindi samaj who are not Varakari are ‘mokla samaj’, they are included in procession happily but idea of them as ‘other’ is there at certain extent.

Bhakti movement is based on concept of devotion to god. This devotion requires human body. Varkari can’t separate them without bhakti. Varkari tradition challenged brahminism. Varkari sampraday brings simplicity in religious discourse. saint-poets of this great tradition composed the devotional songs in their respective languages to attack brahmanical Sanskrit language. Saint poet Dnyaneshwar, Tukaram, Chokhamela, Muktabai, Janabai, Soyrabai, Bahinabai and many other saint poet have done tremendous knowledge creation for common people.

From Shivaji period religiosity of rulers seems more to do with indian tradition. Rulers associated them with hindu dharma identity for religious and cultural base. Hence Varkari tradition also praised in this period. But in Peshva Varkari sampraday wasn’t appreciated, it was overlooked because varkari tradition which based on Bhagwat dharma was non-brahmanical. Saint Dnyaneshwar explains the world is maya through ‘Dnyaneshwari’ a commentary on Bhagvadgita. His translation of Bhagwadgita in Marathi was path breaking. He simplifies Bhagwadgita for common people and made it accessible for all. Saint Tukaram also conceptualized bhakti for all. He extended image worship and guided to work for society who is part of you and you are part of it. Saint Chokhamela’s abhanga aren’t been much flourished. He has raised marginalized voice from his poetry. Untouchable identity in society is shaped through a series of cancellation. Chokha questions pollution and untouchability. Also there is only one temple of Chokhamela’s in Maharashtra but that is also in bad position which needs to be renovated. So when Varkari sampraday claimed they have inclusivity for all kind of people then why Untouchable saint identity why is been flourished.

In Vari procession all varkaris forget their routine life and adjust themselves according to Dindi timetable. Adjusting daily chores in limited timing and place without any complaints is followed throughout. This idea is been internalized by Varkari. Also this has another angle of looking it as idea of collectivity where different people participate for common interest.

‘Nirmalvari Abhiyan’ is one of the appreciable programme has been started in Varkari sampraday. They have built up artificial toilets for varkaris in Pandharpur. They haven’t put up such toilets in Pune, but they are planning to do that in future. Searching for toilets as a woman is major issues which come across in the Vari procession. To making aware about this Abhiyan, organizer has conducted meeting of Dindi organizer. But in this meeting only male were there. Not single woman were presented as Dindi caretaker or owner. It also means that woman are part of procession but not at the hierarchical or decision making position. But adding to this information that what Shivaji More Ex-president of Dehu Sansthan said Woman varkari also take initiative and leading position. But I couldn’t come across with this in reality. There are varkari woman who supports and look after other women but they are not recognized as hierarchical position.

There is no doubt that male saint poet also written about woman. Saint Eknath wrote Bharud which actually counters image of devoted wife. But also we need to look at another side of it. Varkari woman is considered as parallel between God and mother in tukaram’s poetry. This means woman is always dichotomized into ‘aspired for’ and ‘repulsed’ characteristics. Woman socialization through religious and cultural practices is discourse which is followed everywhere. Woman saint-poet Muktabai’s great contribution ‘Tatiche Abhanga’ to varkari sampraday is path breaking. Here she counsel and console Saint Dnyaneshwar and told him about sainthood and how it is need of society. But she isn’t famous as equal to saint Dnayneshwar, I mean she is recognized but her identity as Saint Dnyaneshwar’s sister saint Muktabai. Also saint Janabai known as maidservant of Namdev, Soyrabai as wife of Chokhamela and Bahinabai as disciple of Tukaram. Saint Janabai’s poems are combination of a deeply felt sorrow. She was busy in hard chores of life all the time due to which she couldn’t manage to create space necessary for a dialogue with her own emancipator God. Whereas Saint Bahinabai has written poetry about routine life. She interprets ‘pativratadharma’ as women as also men who live their worldly lives with the sense of supreme self realization are true wives. Lower caste saint poets like Soyrabai, Janabai’ bhajans are hardly sung in procession. They have received very little popular or scholarly attention. All woman saint poets wrote tremendous poetry and created great knowledge about Vitthala, bhakti, sainthood but their identity being represented behind male gurus or male saint. Hierarchy controlled woman saint poets. Women saint poets look bhakti and conceptualize it only through household perspective. But also we can’t demean that knowledge considering contemporary context. Because what knowledge they have created through poetry is tremendous and path breaking in that time period. Also through Vari procession woman could come in open spaces of the field.

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