The Waree and the Warkaris

As a kid, I heard my grand mother talk of the stories of the panDharee chee waree. Vithoba-Rakhumai at the homestead devghar (temple) used to get extra offering on the aashaaDhee ekaadashee (the 11th day of the waxing period of moon in the month of aashaaDh). The weary call after asthma attach, by my grand mother usually was “vachav ray Panduranga, kiti anta baghashil” (Panduranga, have mercy).

So was Pandurang introduced to me; – the savior of the ordinary, the up lifter of the downtrodden, the helper of the weary, the chief protagonist of the bhakti-movement.

It may have started as a simple preaching in the form of folk music from the likes of Sant Namdev and the translation of Geeta by Sant Dnyaneshwar or the ovi-abhanga with loaded messages by the likes of Sant Tukaram, Sant Janabai, Gorha Kumbhar, et al. This avatar of Vishnu, worshipped mainly in Maharashtra and some portions of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh etc. has a huge following. The intellectuals and social-reformers of Maharashtra owe a lot to the bhakti-movement. The strong but spiritual revolt against the ills of caste system may have laid the foundation for the education and emancipation centuries later.

The bhakti-movement culminates into what’s known as a waree – a long march from Alandi and Dehu and many other places in Maharashtra that reach the deity at Pandharpur on aashaaDhee ekaadashee every year.

Every year, two palkhis – the carts – carrying the padukas of Tukaram Maharaj and Dynaneshwar Mauli start from Dehu and Alandi respectively. After a walk of more 250 km, over 22 days, these palkhis reach Pandharpur. Almost 1 – 1.2 million devotees participate in this long march. The devotion, teetering on the edge of madness, of these devotees is more than words can explain. People of all walks of life – the rich, the poor, the farmers, the workers, the young, the old, the men, the women, the rural folks, the urban folks – participate in this long march. No one invites them, no one, not even the deity gives them anything in physical form. The egoless and selfless march draws the warkaris to meet the big lord every year. But what draws the warkaris to this madness?