History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c74.t8.1

v5.c74.t8.1

This is one of the most popular places of pilgrimage in the Bombay State. Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims visit it every year. The Bombay Gazetteer vol. 20 (for Sholapur District) devotes pp. 415-482 to Pandharpur. This sacred place cannot claim very great antiquity. On the materials so far available it is difficult to decide when the shrine of Vithobā was established, but there is sufficient evidence to enable one to say that it was certainly in existence in the middle of the thirteenth century A. D.¹⁶²⁶ The Padmapurāṇa (Uttara-khaṇḍa 176. 56-58) mentions the image of Vitthala Viṣṇu on the bank of the Bhīmarathī which has only two arms and is called Bindu-mādhava. The difficulty is about the date of this part of the Padmapurāṇa. In my opinion it is a late addition and cannot be placed earlier than about 1000 A. D. The modern town of Pandharpur lies along the right bank of the Bhīmā river. The chief temple in Pandharpur is that of Vithobā in the centre of that part of the town which is considered holy. The Bombay Gazetteer vol. 20 describes at some length (pp. 417-424) the main temple of Vithobā and its adjoining parts. Behind the temple of Vithobā is the temple of Rakhumāī, the consort of Vithobā. There is a large staff of priests and attendants in the temple of Viṭhobā, the chief of whom are those called Badves (who are the most numerous body of the staff and who once claimed to be owners of the temple, but who are now held to be the trustees and guardians of the temple property and of the god's jewels under a scheme of management framed by the High Court of Bombay).¹⁶²⁷ Except the Badves all other attendants are called *sevādhārīs* and they are of various grades, viz. the *pujārīs* (who take the principal part in the worship of the God), *Benarīs*¹⁶²⁸ (who repeat mantras and hymns at different services), *paricārakas* (who bring in a large silver dish the water with which the pujārī washes the image of the God and brings the lamp for waving it before the image at the evening and night services), *haridās* (who sings generally five verses in honour of the god at the morning, evening and night services), the *dingres* (who hold a mirror before the God at the early morning service after the god has been dressed and before the lights are waved), the *divtes* (the torch-bearers) who hold a lighted torch when the last night ceremonies are over and carry the slippers of the god in torch-light processions three times a year on the Full Moon days of Āṣāḍha and Kārtika and on the *Daśarā* night), the *dange* (who stands with a silver or gold-plated mace outside the ante-chamber at the morning, evening and night services). The goddess Rakhumāī has only one set of priests known as *Utpāts*, of whom there are over a hundred families.