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JUNE, 1882.]
PANDHARPUR.
149
PANDHARPUR.
BY THE REV. DR. J. MURRAY MITCHELL. THE following notes on Pandharpur are in trees, so as to secure some measure of privacy.
1 tended as a kind of supplement to the We could not have desired a more pleasant paper on Tukaram in the Antiquary, supra, position. We were separated from the town pp. 57-66. Oor readers will remember that by the Bhima, which, however, was easily Papaharpur was to Tukaram a kind of fordable on pony-back. I gazed with no small heaven on earth; equal to all other holy places interest on a stream so celebrated in Mårathi put together. To bathe in the waters of the poetry. It seemed about three feet deep, and Bhima, to dance on its sands, and to gaze on perhaps some thirty broad; winding with a the image of Vithoba,--this was, to the Maratha clear, swift, whispering current, to mingle its poet, the consummation of blessedness. His classic waters with those of the distant Krishņâ. ardent utterances powerfully sway, up to this We were tired by a series of long marches; hour, the mind of Maharashtra; and the for there was no railway in those days, and we number of the pilgrims who visit Pardharpûr had started from Bombay almost too late to is not, as yet, perceptibly falling off.
witness the beginning of the yátrá. Next My object in this paper is to give an account morning we did little more than see visitors, of what I saw at Pandharpur, and to do so in the who had already discovered the presence of simplest language possible. My purpose is not European strangers. to moralize, but to describe.
Ir the afternoon towards evening, however, we I have not been able to visit Pandharpur crossed the river, and walked along its ample recently. I had planned to do so from Poona sands. Everywhere the scene was most striking. during last rains; but on inquiry I found that The temperature was perfect; the golden lustre the Government bungalow was full of officials, of the setting sun filled the whole valley, save who required all the available room; and I where it was slightly dimmed by the smoke of could not trust to finding a suitable corner in the pilgrims' fires; the moon, nearly full, was the town at a time when it was full to over- shining, half way up the sky, with a silvery flowing of pilgrims. I shall state towards the light ever brightening as the golden hue receded ; end of my paper in what respects Pandharpur the Bhima glittered and hastened on its way. has changed since I knew it. The worship, at The pilgrims seemed for a time subdued almost all events, has not changed ; and it is of the into silence by the exquisite calm of the sunworship almost exclusively that I mean to set. Then as the evening advanced, and we speak.
threaded our way amidst a multitude of tents, My friend H. and I reached Pandharpur, at great and small, extending along the sands for night, on the 16th December. The town is & mile at least, we came to one company after about 112 miles S. E. of Poona. We were another engaged in religious recitation. easily led to the place by the rockets that were Here is a gathering of at least two hundred ascending in great numbers-partly, I suppose, people, men and women, seated in a circle on to guide the pilgrims who had begun to pour the ground with no studied separation of the in. On entering the town we could find no one sexes; and beyond the sitters, are many standwho could or would tell us where to put up. ing. The principal actors form a kind of inner Every one seemed a stranger to the place. We semicircle; they are about twenty in number; rode along, on our tired ponies, over paved and each is provided with a tál; several have slippery streets, catching from a lofty bank a chipalya and cymbals; there is also a small glimpse of the Bhimå glittering in the moon- drum; many have garlands round their light. We found our way to the public chavadi, necks. Within this semicircle stands the chief where we were advised to put up in a math performer, with a vind in his band; he on the opposite bank of the river, the Govern Beems about forty-five years old, rough, and ment bungalow not being yet furnished. almost ragged, not high-caste in appearance, Happily we had a small tent with us, which yet said to be a Brahman. He and his twenty we pitched close to the math under a clump of companions stand on a carpet, which extends
