Jai Hari Vitthala - A road trip to Pandharpur

The quiet town of Pandharpur, 400 km from Mumbai, comes alive during Ashadi Ekadashi when nearly a million pilgrims flock to the Vithoba temple for the annual festival. These devotees go to Diha (250 km), birthplace of Tukaram, birthplace of two famous devotees Vitthala (Vithoba), Dhyaneshwar (100 km). This pilgrimage is called Vari and the pilgrims are Varkaris. They take about 21 days to reach Pandharpur carrying the saint's paduka (shoes) in scrap. Chanting of Jai Hari Vittal is heard throughout the journey and along the way villagers take care of the pilgrims by providing accommodation and food.

Although I wanted to participate in the procession for at least two days, I could not go to Pandharpur during the festival due to various reasons. As a consolation, he decided to go to Panharpur a month before the festival and find out. The journey through sugar cane fields and banana tree lined roads was wonderful.

and Mayflower (Gulmohar) trees in full bloom. It took about 7 hours to reach Pandharpur from Mumbai with mandatory rest breaks and safe driving.

Pandharpur is not very commercialized yet but it is halfway there. Very few hotels can book air-conditioned rooms online (absolutely necessary in summer when the temperature rises to 40+ Celsius). Although it doesn't have a restaurant, he managed to find a place and it's a 10-minute walk from the hotel to the restaurant. I was surprised to see an ice cream shop there and it was clear that it was a "hangout" for the small and ordinary children of the town.

You can get to the temple by car from our hotel at a standard rate of 50 byr one way, m.

The road leading to the temple was lined with stalls selling offerings to the various temples, with Vithoba and Rukmini (Vithoba's wife) in the background.

There are 2 ways of darshan, muk darshan (see the whole face from a distance of 10 feet) and mata thek darshan (touch the feet of the idol with your head) and yes, it is more popular. We decided to do one muk darshan in 20 minutes while the other took two hours. Cameras and photos are prohibited. You can store your cameras in private lockers for just 20 rupees.

After Muk Darshan we went to Chandrabhaga River which is few minutes away from the temple. There are many temples on the road, the most important of which is the Pundalik temple.

Pundalik is responsible for bringing Vitoba to Pandharpur and is the founder of the Varkar sect. For more information about Pundalik click here , and here is the story of Vitoba who came to meet Pundalik.

By the way, most of Mumbai's "dabawals" belong to the Varkari community.

On the banks of the river, young people sculpt replicas of Vitobha and Rukmini, and for a small fee you can take pictures with the idols.

Then you have the boats to ride the river again, moderately

Price: As he paddled, he pointed out construction work on the other bank and marked it as a future ISKCON temple. It should be completed in a year or two and after its completion religious tourism and all luxury tourists should come round the year and this quiet town is on Shirdi Road. now there are also luxury hotels and an airport.

While in Pandharpur, visit the railway station. It is built like a temple and looks beautiful.

At the end of the day, after completing our tour, we return with fond memories of a relatively clean, physically and metaphorically beautiful city of pilgrims. I hope it will stay that way.

Here is a short video of our trip to Pandharpur.

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