Vari Pilgrimage: Bhakti, Being and Beyond

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The Vari to Pandharpur is one of the most significant pilgrimages in Maharashtra and India. It is a living tradition and attracts millions of pilgrims annually from across the Marathi-speaking region and beyond. This book highlights the structure, organization, symbolism, and wide range of social interactions during the Vari pilgrimage through the dindis and palkhi processions. Varkari Sampradaya is a community of devotees unequivocally associated with the Vari pilgrimage. While understanding and analyzing the Vari pilgrimage, the book also discusses the Varkari Sampradaya, its ethos, philosophy, santa tradition, literary canon, and how it has contributed to shaping Maharashtrian culture. It is argued that the Varkari bhakti ethos is circulated through various public means of bhakti, and the Vari pilgrimage is the most prominent site of this circulation. Though the Vari pilgrimage is considered mainly a spiritual and religious phenomenon, an attempt is made to highlight its social, political, and cultural dimensions. Vari is a site that enables the negotiation of social and cultural power relations. The book argues that the Vari is an inclusive and open platform. In the process of the Vari pilgrimage, a particular kind of public emerges that acquires a Varkari identity without necessarily transcending social identities and power structures attached thereto.

Dr Varada Sambhus is an Assistant Professor at Maharashtra National Law University, Mumbai. She held a prestigious Research Fellowship at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi. She earned a PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University. New Delhi. Her research focuses on bhakti, religion, society, and culture in India. Trained in Political Studies, her work is deeply interdisciplinary.

This book is about one of the most prominent pilgrimages in Western India, in the state of Maharashtra, known as the Vari pilgrimage. It examines the pilgrimage practices that occur during the Vari pilgrimage in Maharashtra in contemporary times. It investigates if the Vari pilgrimage generates a homogeneous Varkari community and whether pilgrimage processes influence existing power structures, thereby shaping the socio-political dynamics in Maharashtra. In this effort, this book explores the Vaisnava bhakti Sampradaya, known as the Varkari Sampradaya. It argues that the Varkari bhakti ethos is circulated through various bhakti practices, with the Vari pilgrimage being the most significant site for this circulation. The annual frequency of the Vari pilgrimage, as well as the systems of palkhis, dindis and phadas enable multi- layered interactions between Varkaris as well as Varkaris and non- Varkaris. It contends that, while the Vari pilgrimage is primarily viewed as a spiritual and religious experience, it is also a social and political phenomenon, enabling the negotiation of social and political power dynamics. It inquires into the question of whether caste and gender hierarchies continue to mark the Vari pilgrimage or whether the setting of the Vari allows for the transcendence of caste and gender identities.

It is a matter of pride for me to have been requested by Dr Varada Sambhus to write a foreword to a book she has written entitled Vari Pilgrimage: Bhakti, Being, and Beyond. It is a comprehensive, multifaceted work, like a compendium about Vari.

While going through it, I observed that Varada has meticulously consulted almost all significant works on Vari by scholars, both Indian and foreign, who have dealt with the Vari pilgrimage to Pandharpur. Ultimately, it showcases a spectrum of multiple views. Her focus is mainly on the Vari pilgrimage; while working on this theme, she has considered the pros and cons, considering the writing about it by those who have expressed their views.

This book gives various details and aspects of the Vari, and while dealing with this, she has mentioned the characteristics of Varkaris and the Varkari Sampradaya. The work is divided into several chapters, each containing sub-titles substantiating the theme tackled in that chapter. The author has also deliberated upon multiple aspects of Vari, like Varkari code of ethics, the deity (Viththala), santas, literary canons, the philosophy of the sampradaya, and organization. Her discussion about the above-mentioned facets is more or less based on the opinions and views expressed by the scholars who have worked on the subject matter. Moreover, she has either commented upon these or put forth her own experience and thoughts that she deduced from her own independent study.