This is an archive article published on June 30, 2020
Maharashtra: ‘Padukas’ of saints head for Pandharpur today, CM to perform puja
"I will go to Pandharpur on the auspicious day and pray for freedom from coronavirus. I recall, in 2010 I had gone there during the celebrations to click aerial photos and I was overwhelmed at seeing the devotion of the warkaris," said Uddhav.
Accompanied by 20 warkaris, the “padukas” will be taken by special buses of the state transport. The district administration has decided not to reveal the route to be taken by the buses and timing when the “padukas” will be carried from the temple premises. (File)
Keeping the centuries-old tradition intact, the holy “padukas” of Sant Dnyanewshwar and Sant Tukaram will leave from the temple towns of Alandi and Dehu for Pandharpur, Lord Vitthal’s abode, on Tuesday and reach there in five hours for the Ashadhi Ekadhashi celebrations the next day.
Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray will perform the customary puja on the Ekadashi day at the Vitthoba temple. It will be his first as CM. “I will go to Pandharpur on the auspicious day and pray for freedom from coronavirus. I recall, in 2010 I had gone there during the celebrations to click aerial photos and I was overwhelmed at seeing the devotion of the warkaris. May Lord Vitthal remove all hurdles and problems in the state,” he said.
Accompanied by 20 warkaris, the “padukas” will be taken by special buses of the state transport. The district administration has decided not to reveal the route to be taken by the buses and timing when the “padukas” will be carried from the temple premises.
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In 335 years since the official version of “palkhi procession” — better known as ‘wari’ or foot march — started this will be the first time, the holy ‘padukas’ of the two saints will be carried by buses. Every year, lakhs of “warkaris” accompany the two palkhis from Alandi and Dehu to Pandharpur, a distance of around 240 km. Every year, it took 22 days for the palkhi or palanquin procession to reach Pandharpur. Both palkhis took different routes and meet close to Pandharpur located in Solapur district. While the palkhi of Sant Dynaneshwar Maharaj took 15 overnight halts, the palkhi of Sant Tukaram took 18 halts. This time though there will be no halts. The buses will stop at four spots where no one is present and that too only for one minute for ‘abhang aartis.’
According to descendants of Sant Tukaram, like this year, in 1945 too the palkhi procession was not held. “As per government records available with us, the then British government had not allowed the procession due to plague fear prevailing then. The palkhis were then reportedly carried by train… There are not much details available about this in government records. One thing is certain, whether plague or coronavirus, nothing has stopped the padukas of the saints from reaching Lord Vitthal’s abode of Pandharpur,” said Manik More, 10th descendant of Sant Tukaram.
The official palkhi processions of the two saints started in 1685. “It was Sant Tukaram’s youngest of three sons, Narayan Maharaj, who took the initiative for carrying the silver padukas of the two saints together in 1685. From 1675 till 1685, groups of warkaris in a ‘dindi’ used to separately carry the padukas. Narayan Maharaj put the silver padukas of Sant Tukaram in a palkhi. He proceeded with the ‘dindi’ to Alandi, where he put Sant Dnyaneshwar’s padukas in the same palkhi and thus started the official palkhi tradition,” More said.
In 1832, there were changes introduced in the palkhi tradition. “The two palkhis got separated. Haibatravbaba Arphalkar, a devotee of Sant Dnyaneshwar, started the Dnyaneshwar Mauli’s palkhi tradition from the temple town of Alandi,” More said.
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Anita Landge, a warkari from Pimpri-Chinchwad, said, “The two palkhis first meet in Nana Peth in Pune on their second day. On 19th day, they meet at a village known as Tondla Bondla and then at Wakhari near Pandharpur…For years, I and my husband have been walking with the two palkhis to Pandharpur. This year, we will have to take darshan on TV.”
Meanwhile, District Collector Naval Kishore Ram said all arrangements have been made for the paduka processions of the two saints. “But we will not reveal anything about routes or timing to keep the crowd away,” he said.
Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.
Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives.
Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees.
During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa.
Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.
Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More
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Accompanied by 20 warkaris, the “padukas” will be taken by special buses of the state transport. The district administration has decided not to reveal the route to be taken by the buses and timing when the “padukas” will be carried from the temple premises. (File)
