The Experience of Hinduism : Essays On

title:
Religion in Maharashtra
author: Zelliot, Eleanor; Berntsen, Maxine
publisher: State University of New York Press
isbn10 | asin: 0887066623
print isbn13: 9780887066627
ebook isbn13: 9780585068480
language: English
subject Hinduism--India--Maharashtra.
publication date: 1988
lcc: BL1226.15E86eb
ddc: 294.5
subject: Hinduism--India--Maharashtra.
 Page i

The Experience of Hinduism

Page ii
 Page iii

The Experience of Hinduism

Essays on Religion in Maharashtra
Eleanor Zelliot and Maxine Berntsen
Editors

State University of New York Press

 Page iv
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 1988 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner
whatsoever without written permission except m the case of brief
quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
For information, address State University of New York Press, State
University Plaza, Albany, N. Y., 12246
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
The Experience of Hinduism.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. HinduismIndiaMaharashtra. I. Berntsen,
Maxine, 1935. II. Zelliot, Eleanor, 1926-
BL1226.15.M33E86 1987 294.5'0954'792 87-10138
ISBN 0-88706-662-3
ISBN 0-88706-664-X (pbk.)
10 9 8 7 6 S 4 3 2 1
 Page v

CONTENTS
Preface vii
Maxine Bemtsen
Acknowledgements xiii
Introduction xv
Eleanor Zelliot
Notes on the Writing of Marathi Words xxii
I. The Concept of the Sacred
1. "Boy-Friend?": An Essay 3
Irawati Karve
2. "The Vow": A Short Story 7
Shankarrao Kharat
3. One Face of God 17
Maxine Berntsen
4. Gods, Ghosts, and Possession 26
John M. Stanley
5. Scattered Voices: The Nature of God 60
R.N. Dandekar, Anonymous, Narayan Surve
II. The Practice of Faith
6. "A Town without a Temple": An Essay 69
Irawati Karve
7. The Ganesh Festival in Maharashtra: Some Observations 76
Paul B. Courtright
8 The God Dattatreya and the Datta Temples of Pune 95
Charles Pain with Eleanor Zelliot
9. The Religion of the Dhangar Nomads 109
Gunther-Dietz Sontheimer
 Page vi
10. The Birth of a God: Ram Mama of the Nandiwalas 131
K.C. Malhotra
11. "On the Road": A Maharashtrian Pilgrimage 142
Irawati Karve
12. The Gondhali: Singers for the Devi 174
Ramchandra Chintaman Dhere
13. My Years in the R.S.S. 190
V.M. Sirsikar
14. Scattered Voices: The Experience of Ritual 204
D.B. Mokashi, Vitthalrao Ghate, Anasuyabai Koratkar,
Anonymous, Anutai Wagh
III. Reform and Rejection
15. "All That Is You": An Essay 213
Irawati Karve
16. The Last Kirtan * of Gadge Baba 223
G.N. Dandekar
17. Orthodoxy and Human Rights: The Story of a Clash 251
Kumar Saptarshi
18. The Orthodoxy of the Mahanubhavs 264
Anne Feldhaus
19. The Birth of a Rationalist 280
K.N. Kadam
20. Scattered Voices: Refuge in the Buddha 291
Bebi Kamble and Ulpabai Chauhan
IV. Coda
21. Bhakti in the Modern Mode: Poems and Essays 297
Ashok R. Kelkar and Sadashiv S. Bhave
V. Appendices
A. Glossary 323
B. Gods, Goddesses, and Religious Festivals 334
C. The Hindu Calendar 341
D. Castes 342
Contributors 345
Selected Bibliography on Religion in Maharashtra 350
Index 371
 Page vii

PREFACE
We have titled this book The Experience of Hinduism: Essays on
Religion in Maharashtra. The title is intended to indicate that the
book is not a technical treatise on Hinduism but an attempt to
convey what it means in human terms to be a Hindu in one
particular area today. The limitation of our subject to one area we
feel essential, for while Hinduism in one area shares many features
with Hinduism in other parts of India, the experience of each one is
shaped by its own ecological setting, history, and traditions.
To talk about people's experience of religion is, first of all, to talk
of their conception of the sacred. "The Concept of the Sacred" is
the theme of the first section of this volume. Irawati Karve begins
the theme in "Boy Friend?", a personal essay. In it she starts out
lightly playing with the concept that Vithoba is her boyfriend, but
ends by confessing the great gulf which separates her from the
divine. In my essay, "One Face of God," I touch on the vast range
of objects of worship and deal in particular with the conception of
God as a harsh power demanding ritual worship. Shankarrao
Kharat's story, "The Vow," vividly portrays the anxiety people feel
in meeting the demands of such a deity.
 Page viii
John Stanley's essay, "Gods, Ghosts, and Possession," deals with
the most dramatic encounter with the sacredpossession by gods and
ghosts. Though from the standpoint of Marathi culture the
experience of possession by a god and by a ghost are polar
opposites, both types of possession, Stanley argues, are religious
experiences. The experience of possession by a ghost is in his view
an experience of defilement, of disorder; and being cured is an
experience of "coming fight," of cleansing and restoration of order.
If this is an accurate account of how the possessed understand their
experience it is highly significant, for it comes closer to the
Christian understanding of sin than any other account of Hinduism
I have seen. The section closes with the first of three "scattered
voices," which here are brief statements on the nature of God. The
first selection is an excerpt from an article on Hinduism by the
noted scholar R.N. Dandekar. The next two, the voices of ordinary,
uneducated people, are short statements remarkable for the beauty
and power of their expression. The section ends with a poem by the
dalit poet Narayan Surve.
The second section of this volume, "The Practice of Faith," deals
with religious institutionsthe rituals and practices which give
expression to faith. It opens with an Irawati Karve essay reflecting
the Tamil saying that "one should not have a house in a town
without a temple." A temple, Karve says, "is the focus of a
community's faith, a symbol of its hopes and aspirations. . . . A
temple gives form to the formless. It is where that which has no
beginning is installed, and on occasion where that which has no
end is destroyed." We see this function of the temple clearly in
Anutai Wagh's brief statement in the second group of "scattered
voices" telling how the worship of Ganesh served to unite her
home town of Morgaon. In their essay on the increasingly popular
worship of the archetypal guru, Datta, Charles Pain and Eleanor
Zelliot reveal not only how the temple is the venue for moving
communal worship but how the sect as a whole brings God close to
man in a series of gurus, some of whom are incarnations of Datta.
Paul Court-
 Page ix
right's article deals with the Ganpati festival, an extravaganza that
dominates the life of urban Maharashtra for ten days each year.
Irawati Karve's classic essay "On the Road" deals with her personal
experience of that most typically Maharashtrian institutionthe
pilgrimage to Pandharpur.
Dhere's article on the gondhal *, a dramatic performance in honor
of the Devi, is especially significant as an account of an institution
that preserves and transmits religious traditions. Sontheimer's essay
on the nomadic Hatkar Dhangars is a richly-textured account which
shows the close interweaving of the shepherd's life and their
preoccupations with their religious practices and symbolism. To me
one of the most moving details in the essay is that the Dhangar
takes off his shoes before entering the sheep-pen; the sheep-pen is
sacred ground.
The second essay on the religion of a nomadic people is Malhotra's
study of the Nandiwalas. This study, which was initiated under the
direction of Irawati Karve, recounts the remarkable story of a man
who was murdered by his fellow tribesmen and then later venerated
as a god. In addition to being a valuable contribution to the history
and anthropology of religion, this story strikingly illustrates the
ambivalence people have in regard to their deities.
In Sirsikar's account of his experiences in the R.S.S. we see the
deliberated development of a modem institution using a broad
Hindu identification as its ideological base.
Though the selections here deal largely with group practice, some
of the most typical Hindu rituals take place in the privacy of one's
home. The "scattered voices" in this second section include an
account by Vitthalrao Ghate of his adolescent delight in the details
of rituala delight shared by the adolescent K.N. Kadam, whose
autobiographical account appears in the following section. We end
with two much more austere comments from women on the
function of ritual practices in inculcating discipline and attaining
power.
The third section of this volume is "Reform and Rejection." An
attack on the institution of casteespecially un-
 Page x
touchabilityand the ethical relation between person and person are
prominent themes here, themes that may appear conspicuously
absent from the earlier sections. Here Irawati Karve's essay ''All
That Is You" finds, in the Upanishadic doctrine of non-duality, a
firm basis for a system of ethics:
While you still have the feeling of duality, those who are outside you
are "others," strangers. But really it is atma * that pervades all.
Bebi Kamble and Ulpabai Chauhan, two Mahar women who have
rejected Hinduism and become Buddhist, put their finger on a
similar argument which they take to be the essence of Buddhism.
Buddha wrote that we ourselves are God. There is no God in the
world, and nobody should put any hope in Him. Nobody should feel
that if he fasts or does other such things he will see God. A person
should honestly follow his own path. The atma* is God.
The doctrine of non-duality is also mentioned in Saptarshi's
account of his confrontation with the Brahman priest who refused
to let the Untouchables enter his temple. At one point Saptarshi
asked the priest why the Hindu religion, which saw brahman in
everything, was not ready to regard the Untouchables as men. In
Saptarshi's account, and frequently in contemporary Maharashtra,
the Upanishadic doctrine of non-duality shades imperceptibly into
the modem notion of manuski*, a term that would best be
translated as "humanitarianism" if the English word had not gotten
watered down through time. The last kirtan* of Gadge Maharaj, a
contemporary saint in the Varkari tradition, contains a thundering
attack on untouchability, again based on the fact that human beings
are one, that the only two "castes" are male and female.
Within the doctrines of Hinduism, then, there is a philosophical
basis for ethical concern and the rejection of caste differencesfor a
kind of humanism. There are many Maharashtrians, however, who
base their humanism on more
 Page xi
Western concepts of science and rationalism. K.N. Kadam's
autobiographical account tells how he developed from a devout
Mahar to disciple of Bertrand Russell and a militant atheist.
Of course, reform movements in Maharashtra are not new. The
Mahanubhav sect rose in the thirteenth century as a protest against
the casteism, ritualism, and polytheism of popular Hinduism. Anne
Feldhaus shows how much of Mahanubhav religious practice today
is in fact not very different from orthodox Hindu practice.
Moreover, the sect has withdrawn into itself and has lost its
potential for exercising a democratizing effect on Hindu society.
Our volume closes with a section we have called a coda"Bhakti in
the Modem Mode." This section presents a number of
contemporary Marathi poems, followed by a discussion by Ashok
Kelkar and Sadashiv Bhave. Both the poems and the discussion
bring together many of the themes that have emerged in this
volume. In the poems we find again and again the same sense of
distance from the divine that we saw in Irawati Karve's "Boy
Friend?". Kelkar's broad sketch of the strands of Hindu tradition
gives a useful overall structure to which we can relate various ideas
of the sacred and various religious institutions. Kelkar and Bhave
differ in their assessment of the relationship of these poems to
earlier traditions. According to Bhave the poems under discussion
are bhakti poems, and, moreover, the bhakti tradition is not
opposed to Advaita Vedanta philosophy, but is part and parcel of it.
Kelkar, on the other hand, contends that one must be wary of too
facile and unhistoric identification of the attitudes of one time with
those of another. The argument is unresolved, but it is stimulating
and provocative.
The essays in this book contain many themes not discussed here.
Often the themes repeat themselves so that the essays illuminate
each other. Whatever lacunae there may be, or deficiencies in
scholarship, we feel that the material is rich enough for the
specialist to find something of
 Page xii
interest and for the general reader to get some sense of what
Hinduism in Maharashtra is today.
MAXINE BERNTSEN
 Page xiii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Special thanks are due to Philip C. Engblom, who proofread,
prepared the index, and made almost countless helpful suggestions
in the final preparation of this volume. Anne Feldhaus has
contributed to the process of transliteration and definition as well
as written her own article and translated another. We are also
grateful to the many other contributors to the volume, who have
waited patiently for their stories and essays to appear in print.
Among them, the work of Jai Nimbkar should be singled out, since
her translations of Irawati Karve's essays bring important material
into English for the first time. Grants at various times from the
American Institute of Indian Studies and Carleton College have
furthered our work. We have many other obligations, and not the
least of these is to our students, whose attempts to grasp the
complexities of Maharashtrian culture have inspired us. For the
rest, how can we properly thank all those who encouraged,
questioned, stirred our imaginations, answered our questions, and
spurred us on to finish a project which has taken much of our
scholarly and personal lives for the better part of the last two
decades?
 Page xv

INTRODUCTION
This volume is a tribute to Irawati Karve (1905-1970), an
acknowledgement that all of usanthropologist, sociologist, political
scientist, historian, historian of religion, writer, and student alikeare
in her debt. Her classic article on the Maharashtrian Varkari
pilgrimage, "On the Road," 1 illustrates why. This essay offers a
fresh approach to the complexities of Hinduism. Her viewpoint is
that of a participant-observeremotionally and intellectually part of
that Pandharpur pilgrimage, but also emotionally and intellectually
somewhat distanced. The result of that perspective sheds brilliant
new light on the annual pilgrimage of the devotees of the god
Vithoba. It gives a sense of the actuality of that all-important,
uniquely Maharashtrian religious phenomenon; it gives a new way
of looking at the reality of religious belief and practice.
Irawati Karve was best known as an anthropologist. She received
her Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Berlin; she
taught in that field for many years at the Deccan College
Postgraduate and Research Institute in Pune.2 In her scholarly
writing, Irawati Karve dealt with religion in
 Page xvi
an academic way, as part of the phenomena of Hindu society, caste,
group relations, etc. 3 She did not consider her essays on religion
part of her scholarly work. In fact, "On the Road" and her three
other essays in this volume were written as lalit nibandha (artistic
essaysin a sense, belles-lettres) for a popular Marathi-speaking
audience.4 Their initial purpose was to share her individualistic
attitudes and personal reactions with others equally involved in
Maharashtrian life and letters. In this volume, we have attempted to
build on the insight of Karve's essays rather than the academic
findings of her scholarly work. The material collected here forms a
multi-colored image of contemporary religion in the Marathi-
speaking area. The degree of our success in shaping this image is
largely due to Irawati Karve's curiosity and energy, to her honesty,
to her ability to probe new ways of thinking, to her impatience with
the trite or the obvious.
The beginnings of this volume were in a seminar held under the
auspices of the American Institute of Indian Studies in 1971, the
year after Irawati Karve's death. An unconscionable amount of
time has elapsed since that first planning session. I can only hope
the volume's concept and contents have matured during the time
lapse. It should be noted, of course, that some of our contributors
have also matured. In the cases of Anne Feldhaus and Paul
Courtright particularly, the material here was written when they
were beginning to probe the fields in which they have now
published mature work.
Our approach to this volume was to invite scholars working in
Maharashtrian religious matters to shape an article that would be
based on observation or experience, utterly realistic and down-to-
earth. To that collection of essays we have added translations of
some material already available in Marathi. Such an approach has
limitations, since the result is by no means an inclusive study of all
of the most important aspects of Hinduism in Maharashtra. Some
of the gaps are heartbreakingly apparent: there is no study of any of
the important Devi temples nor an analysis of what
 Page xvii
the goddess in her many forms means in Maharashtra, although she
is often mentioned in these essays. There is no description of a
traditional village pilgrimage-fair, a jatra *, nor of the major
holidays of Dasara, Holi, and Nagpanchmi. Discussion on the
household ritual or the life-cycle rituals of Hindus is too brief.
Neither the ashrams of the world-famous gurus situated in
Maharashtra (although their mother tongue is not
Marathi)Muktananda, Meher Baba, and until recently Rajneeshnor
those of the less famous, more typical Marathi-speaking gurus are
described. The non-Hindu religions of MaharashtraIslam,
Christianity, Buddhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, the Lingayat sect,
the animism of the tribesare mentioned only in relation to
Hinduism. There is also a Pune bias in this selection, due in part to
our connections with Pune, in part to the dominance of Pune in
literary matters, and in part to the fact that scholars have not
roamed the Vidarbha, Marathwada or Konkan areas5 in the way
that they have moved in the Desh area around that great city.
But with all its limitations, it seems to me that our approach offers
at least two rather exciting insights. One can see not only the
synthesis of Shaivism and Vaishnavism, which is the hallmark of
Maharashtrian Hinduism, but the interrelationships between sect
and sect, between one school of thought and another. The Datta
cult is urban and Brahman-dominated; the Varkari cult is rural and
non-Brahman in character. Yet these two cults come together in
such things as the use of the bhajan (group devotional singing), and
they share past history: both are associated with the shadowy
figures of the Naths from the North6 and both have great centers
near the Karnataka-Maharashtra border in the south. Possession,
healing, and nayas (vows made to a deity in the hope of wish-
fulfillment) are not part of the cult of Vithoba, but do appear in
connection with Datta, Devi, Khandoba, the Mahanubhavs, and the
Nandiwalas. Hindu-Muslim interaction, an area not directly
touched upon, is suggested in the history of the Varkari and Datta
sects, reappears in the autobiographical statement of K.N.
 Page xviii
Kadam, and is totally rejected by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak
Sangh.
Reading these essays as a whole brings to my mind a sense of the
constant change in Maharashtrian religion, which of course is
combined with the phenomenon Sontheimer notesnothing is ever
completely lost. One must question the meaning of modernity in
religion as one reads. The Ganpati or Ganesh festival in its current
form and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh are the products of the
modem period, indeed of the same militant Hindu political
tradition. But, on the one hand, the Ganpati festival has become a
joyous event for entire communities, where the benevolent
traditions of the elephant-headed god are combined with themes of
international solidarity as frequently as those of national unity. On
the other hand, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has, if anything,
become more Hindu, more militant, and more political in the fifty
years since its birth.
Most of the Datta temples in Pune described in Pain's essay were
built in this century, and avatarsreincarnations of that Godcontinue
to appear. The seven-hundred-year-old tradition of the Varkari sect
produced a saint in this century: Gadge Maharaj. A figure out of
the past in appearance, he was totally committed to the old forms
of devotion, and yet with a social philosophy more modern than
that of many urban intellectuals. "The Birth of a God" tells of a
recently created deity, worshipped by a tribe which is an
anachronism in this most industrialized of Indian states. But the
events described are indicative of a process that may have
produced many of the regional deities of this area in the distant
past, deities now linked to the larger Sanskritic tradition. The
wealthiest, proudest, and most thoroughly integrated of all the
nomadsThe Dhangarsstill move through this area. They exhibit in
some ways the least adaptation to this century of any groupyet we
and they know change must come. Settlement seems inevitable as
irrigation spreads and pasture lands are depleted; we look to see the
ways in which they are already close to
 Page xix
the settled agricultural community, as in the case of the worship of
Khandoba.
The Gondhali, a prime example of religious functionaries adapting
through the ages, may survive in the modem world through the
commitment of elite musicians to tradition, through the power of a
government bent on communicating modernity to the rural areas by
traditional forms, and through their own dynamism. Is there an
exception in the Mahanubhavs? Surely this heterodox sect made its
accommodation with mainstream Hinduism long ago and survives
by its very inconspicuousness and its clearly delineated areas of
service in the form of healing. And yet there seems to be a new
intellectual interest in the Mahanubhav philosophy and practice,
perceptible on the Maharashtrian scene in novels as well as purely
scholarly work.
It is clear that modernity and change do not necessarily involve
Westernization. The dynamic within Hinduism itself seems
sufficient to create new thought and new forms. And
Westemization itself may not be a secularizing force. Indeed, the
most exclusively Hindu of all the new movements, the Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh, is at the same time the most Western in its
organization and psychology. And at the same time, a
contemporary Datta gum finds the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
too unorthodox in its attitude toward untouchability. And those
Untouchables who reject Hinduism completely find both solace
and intellectual legitimation for rationalism, equality, and
humanitarianism in the religion of the Buddha, twenty-five
hundred years old.
Something about the soil of Maharashtra produces fascinating
religious continuity and profound and unusual religious reform.
Perhaps it is its function as a bridge between North and South
India, its ability to absorb and combine influences from Aryan and
Dravidian cultures. Perhaps it is due in part to an unusual cultural
cohesion, a sense of a regional ethos sustained in spite of the
newness (1960) of the Marathi-speaking areas as the single state of
Maharashtra. Or perhaps it is related to the economic mix of the
 Page xx
modem periodan exceptionally wealthy trading and industrial
world centered in the city of Bombay, with a hinterland in which
rainfall is unpredictable and a hardy peasant tradition has learned to
cope with scarcity as well as plenty. Whatever the reason, the
traditions of Maharashtra are inextricably mixed: they cut through
social and caste layers from high to low and exhibit a lively pattern
of change and adaptability. It is our hope that these studies of facets
of a living religion in a single language area may offer a better
understanding of that region and also stimulate comparisons of the
ways in which traditions appear, change, and blend in other areas
of Indian culture. 7
ELEANOR ZELLIOT

Notes
1. See page 142.
2. This volume, however, is not a memorial by her students.
Indeed, the work of some of her finest students and closest
associates, Y.B. Damle, Vidyadhar Pundalik, Sumati Kirtane, G.V.
Dingre, Vijay Bhanu, R.K. Mutatkar, Savitri Shahani, is not in a
form which suits the purpose of this volume.
3. See, for instance, I. Karve and J.S. Ranadive, Social Dynamics of
a Growing Town and Its Surrounding Area (Poona: Deccan College
Research Institute, 1965). The Bulletin of the Deccan College Post
Graduate and Research Institute 31-32 (1970-1972) contains a
listing of the 122 published works of Irawati Karve.
4. The lalit nibandha or artistic essay is an important genre in
Marathi literature, meriting much critical attention. An example of
other serious lalit nibandhas is Irawati Karve's Yuganta: The End
of an Epoch (Poona: Deshmukh Prakashan, 1969), a series of
essays on the Mahabharata*, which in its Marathi version won the
Sahitya Akademi's prize as best book of Marathi literature in 1967.
A Sangam reprint of the English translation appeared in 1974.
5. Vidarbha, the eastern part of the Marathi-speaking area, was part
of Berar and the Central Provinces during British days;
Marathwada was under the political hegemony of the Nizam of
Hyderabad; the Konkan is the coastal area stretching south of
Bombay. The Desh, the plateau east of the Sahyadri Mountains
(Western Ghats) which includes Pune, was the heart of Marathi
consciousness before the State of Maharashtra was created in 1960.
 Page xxi
6. There is almost nothing in English on the history of the Naths in
Maharashtra, although clearly they were of importance in the past.
The Nine Naths (nao-nath *) can be found in religious pictures and
some are remembered by small shrines. Ian Duncan of Massey
University in New Zealand is now working on the place of the
Naths in Maharashtra.
7. The new Encyclopedia of Religion, edited by Mircea Eliade
(New York: Macmillan, 1986), contains articles on religion in India
by linguistic region. The essay on "Marathi Religions," written by
Eleanor Zelliot and Anne Feldhaus, is an attempt briefly to touch
all facets of religion in Maharashtra, noting what seems to be
unique or unusual.
 Page xxii

NOTES ON THE WRITING OF MARATHI

WORDS
To help the reader understand Marathi pronunciation, we have
adopted a somewhat original approach to the writing of Marathi
words. Throughout the text, italicized Marathi words are written
with the diacriticals described below. As in most northern
vernaculars, the short a inherent after a consonant is frequently
eliminated in pronunciation, and we have omitted it in
transliteration as warranted. The sounds peculiar to Marathic *
which is pronounced ts, j which is pronounced dz, and l*
(retroflex)are all marked in a way not found in orthodox
transliteration of Sanskrit words. We have, however, used standard
transliteration for quoted Sanskrit and Pali words and Marathi and
Sanskrit book titles. Also, in the appendices at the end of the
volume, we have added standard transliteration in parentheses after
the Marathi word. These are the policies we have followed:
1. Indian words commonly used in English are not italicized or
written with diacritical marks.
2. Frequently used proper nouns and all place names are not
italicized or written with diacritical marks in the text.
3. A glossary and appendices (lists of gods, goddesses, festivals
and castes; and the Hindu calendar) appear with both standard
transliteration as well as our system of writing Marathi words
where these differ.
4. Some words from Persian or from nonelite groups are used in
Marathi but do not appear in any Marathi dictionary; these words
have been given diacritical marks only as a guide to pronunciation.
5. Words have been used in English plural and possessive forms.
6. Recent governmental policy has resulted in changes in place
name spellings, such as Pune (old Poona) and Thane (old Thana).
We have retained the old spellings when appropriate and all
spellings currently used are given in the Index.
 Page xxiii
7. Our guide to the pronunciation of Marathi words:
a is a short vowel pronounced as the vowel in English but or the
first a in the midwestern pronunciation of American.
a * is pronounced as in English father.
e is pronounced as the vowel in English day.
c* is pronounced as English ts.
i* is pronounced as English dz.
ch is pronounced as in English church.
j is pronounced as in English judge.
ri* is used to indicate a sound midway between ri and ru.
h is used following another consonant land the diagraph ch) to
indicate aspiration.
A dot under t*, d*, n*, and 1* is used to indicate retroflex-ion; t, d
and n without a dot indicate dental sounds, while 1 without a dot
indicates a normal lateral.
The letter usually transliterated as v is given as v, w, or o in our
writing system, according to pronunciation.
dny is used in place of the standard jn* since it is closer to Marathi
pronunciation.
The nasal dot (anuswar*) is rendered as n or m, as pronunciation
demands.
8. As with all caste names, "Brahman" has been used throughout
without italics or diacriticals. It must be distinguished from the
name of the god, Brahma, and from brahman, which is generally
translated "the absolute."
 Page 1

I.
THE CONCEPT OF THE SACRED
 Page 3

1
''Boy-Friend?": An Essay*
Irawati Karve Translated by Jai Nimbkar
I was just back from Pandharpur, resting on the sofa. My daughter
was reading something in a chair near me, and her husband was
walking back and forth from the verandah to the room and back to
the verandah. People were coming to see him on various kinds of
business. When someone came he went out, when they went away
he came in and talked to me. Our conversation went on like that.
He came in, took a chair and sat down in front of me. He said,
"Well, did you see your boy-friend?"
For a few moments I was baffled by the question. Then it dawned
on me that the boy was asking me about Vithoba. I said, smiling,
"Yes, I saw him."
* "Boy-Friend?" from Gangajal * [Ganga Water] (Pune: Deshmukh
and Company, 1972).
 Page 4
Some people came then and he went out.
But his question had jolted me out of my doze. In a way, boy-friend
was a new term; but its sense was not new. People have called
Vithoba their mother, father, friend, in-law, lover, and many other
names. Doesn't boy-friend mean the same as lover? Haven't many
devotees addressed him as a lover?
He came back in. Heaven knows how he could keep track of our
conversation, when he kept going out and talking about something
else in between. He said, "Doesn't your husband mind your having
a boy-friend?" I said, "Husbands don't mind this kind of boy-
friend." Even before I had finished answering, some more people
came. He went out but my mind kept going over our conversation.
What did I mean by this kind of boy-friend? The kind that is made
of stone? No, a stone lover is not necessarily acceptable to a
husband. Meera's husband, Sakhu's husband, Bahinabai's husband,
all objected even to a stone lover. 1 So a husband's acceptance of a
lover depends not on whether he is made of stone or flesh and
blood, but on how well the god is loved. Meera could not live
without Giridhari. Bahinabai and Sakhu left their homes and
husbands to go to Pandhari. I am not like them. I take the car on a
holiday when it won't cause my husband any inconvenience. I
make sure that the streams on the road to Pandharpur are not in
spate. I also make sure that it is not a special dayekadashi*
dvadashi*, gopalkala* and so onso that there won't be a crowd in
the temple and I can take darshan without a long wait. I think of all
these things before I go to Pandharpur. As far as my husband is
concerned, not only is this boy-friend made of stone, my
involvement with him is not very great either. Then why shouldn't
he put up with him? He even asks me now and then, of his own
accord, "How come you haven't been to Pandharpur for a long
time?" Then for a day at least he is free from my nagging and
chattering. So this kind of boy-friend is not merely acceptable, he
is often very convenient.
My son-in-law came back in and sat down in front of me
 Page 5
again. "Well, and what did your boy-friend have to say?" I smiled.
"He said, 'So you have remembered me, I see.'"
Before my sentence was completed this whirlwind had left his
chair and gone out again. "So you have remembered me." What
does this mean? Vitthal stands on the same spot day and night. He
always remembers. He is waiting. I only think of him once in a
while. Even when I think of him I don't immediately go to see him.
I go in my own time, at my own convenience. What else can he ask
when I go on one of these once-in-a-while visits? There is really
another question implied in this "so you remembered me," and that
is, "Why have you come, my dear? What do you want? What's
lacking in your life?'' Meera had become obsessed with the love of
God. She wanted only him. I am not like that. Only when I have to
carry a burden that is too heavy for me do I remember him. I run to
God only when I feel alone, when I have to face a difficult
situation, or bear some hardship. I have not gone beyond the first
two levels of devotionthat of the desperate devotees and the ones
who want something. So really what God should ask me is, "Why
have you remembered me now?"
The door opened again. The people still waited outside. He came
out again. "Couldn't you go tomorrow?"
"No, I have a lot of work waiting for me. I must go today."
"I am going to the farm with these people. I'll be back late. By the
time I return you'll be gone. Take care. You are looking very tired."
He ran his hand tenderly over my face and went away.
I thought, devotees have imagined themselves as having every kind
of relationship with Vithoba; but they have never made him a son
or daughter. He is mother, father, brother, sistereverything. Then
why isn't he ever a son? Why doesn't Jani 2 say,
Vithuraya of Pandharpur, like a son to me
A strong stick to lean on in old age.
Vithuraya touches me with a tender hand,
Saying as my own son would, Mother you are tired.
But no, neither Jani nor Tukaram3 could possibly call
 Page 6
Vithu a son. I don't think any devotee has imagined Vithoba as his
child. Even though all the familial relationships have been used to
describe God, he is never thought of as inferior to the devotee. As a
lover he is an equal, but even here God is always the man, and the
devotee, whether he be a woman or man, always takes the role of
the woman. A well-known saint from Varhad 4 wore black beads
around his throat and bangles on his wrists in the name of Vitthal.
In the bhakti known as madhut (sweet) bhakti, the male devotees
imagine themselves to be Radha. Whichever relationship has been
imagined, Vithoba has always been assigned the roles considered
superior by the Hindu tradition. The baby Krishna is worshipped
among the household gods, but I don't remember anyone having
called Vithoba a son. Only Yashoda has the right to call Krishna a
child. She earned it by sacrificing her own child. She did not gave
birth to God, but she kept him alive against tremendous odds. Who
am I to call God anything like this? I am not that close to him. We
had used the words "lover" or "boy-friend" only in joke.
Unfortunately, the distance between him and me is great very great.

Editors' Notes
1. Meera (Anglicization of Mira*) was a bhakti saint-poet in the
Rajasthani/Hindi tradition who was devoted to Krishna (here
Giridhari); Sakhu and Bahinabai are women saints in the Varkari
tradition whose center is the god Vithoba at Pandharpur or
Pandhari.
2. Jani or Janabai, the serving-maid of the great Varkari Namdeo,
was a poet in her own right.
3. Tukaram was the seventeenth-century saint-poet of the Varkari
tradition, now the most beloved and most quoted of all the poets in
that seven-hundred-year tradition.
4. Varhad is an older name for the eastern area of Maharashtra
called Berar in British days, part of Vidarbha traditionally.
 Page 7

2
"The Vow": A Short Story*
Shankarrao Kharat Translated by Maxine Berntsen
Full-moon day, the day to keep the vow to the goddess. Midnight
had passed, the night was almost over. Under its basket the rooster
crowed. And Tatya Naik sat up with a start. His wife Sarji sat up
too. Tatya got up and walked to the comer of the room. He leaned
down and felt with his hand under the basket, listening to the
muffled krr krr of the chicken inside. He rose again, took the board
leaning against the door and put it on top of the basket. Then with a
sense of relief he sat looking at the door. Without getting up he
turned his head and spat into the comer. He called softly, "Sarji, are
you awake?"
Sarji immediately awoke from her doze. "What do you mean? Of
course I'm awake!"
* "Navas," from Sangawa * [It Must Be Told] (Pune: Continental
Praka-shan, 1962).
 Page 8
"Look here, it's almost morning. Didn't you hear the rooster crow?"
"Of course, that's what woke me up."
"Well then it's better to get started early making the Food
offerings."
"Yes, but it's still night. That's the first time the rooster has crowed
and everybody is still asleep."
"Are you sure?"
"Why, I haven't slept all night. I've been half awake. Look, it's not
quite dawn yet."
Though Sarji had tried to reassure him, Tatya was still worried.
"But the sooner we get started for the temple the better."
Sarji answered quickly, "Yes, yes, that's true, but there's not a drop
of water in the house. And this is the full-moon day of the goddess.
How can I start cooking without taking a bath?"
"Are you going to Follow all those rules and waste time and not be
ready to leave for the Fair till everybody else has gone?"
"It won't take any time. You put a little water in the jar and I'll get
my work done in a hurry."
So husband and wife talked in the early hours of the morning.
Then Tatya got up, opened the door, and went out. He stretched and
cracked his joints. He walked behind the house and looked up at
the moon. It was still high in the sky. Tatya looked around at the
Naikwada. 1 The whole neighborhood was still Fast asleep. There
was no movement anywhere, no sound of voices. The trees by the
doorway were silent. Somewhere in the distance the bark of a dog
fractured the silent moonlight. Tatya looked around again. Seeing
that everything was still quiet he said to himself, "Hey, it's still the
middle of the night." He went back inside the house.
Today was the Fair of the goddess Mariai2 at Degaon, six or seven
miles From Tatya's village. It was held once a year on the full
moon of Chaitra. Huge crowds always gathered.
 Page 9
People came like thousands of ants. In bullock carts or on
horseback they came from miles around. A rich man might bring a
goat as an offering to the goddess, a poor one might offer a cock to
keep his vow. Some would bring food-offerings, along with a green
blouse and a coconut for the goddess. Others would come
prostrating themselves at each step or rolling their bodies through
the dust; and when they arrived they would bathe the image in
curds and milk. Some came to keep the vow they made the
previous year.
Throughout the area the goddess of Degaon was known as a harsh
and powerful deity. If a man did not keep his vow, it is said, the
goddess would raze his house or cast thorny branches in his door.
So on the full moon of Chaitra people would go with fear and
devotion and would try at any cost to keep their vows. Last year
Sarji had made a vow, "Mother goddess, let the crops grow well
and watch over my children. And next year I will offer a cock and
give a feast at your door."
Sarji kept firmly in mind that she had to keep her vow. So when the
full moon of Chaitra drew near she set about making preparations.
Begging a little from this farmer and that, she had managed to
collect a payli * of jawar* and a few measures of wheat. The spices
for the curry were ground and ready, and she had brought a
measure of rice and a little jaggery from the grocer's shop.
Sarji had taken care of getting all the little things they needed,
while Tatya had promised to bring the cock. He had kept his word
and now they had no anxiety on that account.
She lay down again, keeping an ear open for the next crowing of
the cock. Tatya opened the door, and hearing the sound Sarji called
without getting up, "Are the neighbors up yet?"
"No, it looks like it's still night. The whole place is quiet. Even the
birds are quiet. The moon is still up."
"Then why don't you lie down for a while? Why are you staying
up?"
"Do you think I could still sleep? I'm worried about today."
 Page 10
"What are you worried about?"
"Well, there's nothing really, but I was wondering who all we'll find
at the fair. We'll have to round up people for the feast. Every now
and then they've invited us for meals, and now we'll have to pay
them back."
"You don't have to worry about that! They'll all come flocking like
crows."
"But it's a big fair. And everyone is involved in their own
business."
"Don't worry, two weeks ago I sent a message to everyoneMaushi's
daughter in Charegaon, your nephew in Limbuda, and there'll be
someone from my family. And we'll meet the people from Itlapur
and Ranjangaon there."
"Why, you've lined up so many! And how are you going to feed
them all with one chicken?"
"So what if there are a lot of people? I'll make a big stack of
bhakris *. You put some water to boil in a big pot. The chicken is
nice and fat. We can let the kids eat their fill. They never get a
chance to eat meat otherwise; at least let them get a taste in the
name of the goddess!"
"But all those people, besides you and me."
"Don't you worry. I'll take care of everything."
"All right. Do as you please."
Their conversation was suddenly interrupted by a loud, long crow
from the rooster. Tatya started. Sarji was shaken. Immediately
Tatya called to his wife, "Sarji, get up, the rooster has crowed
again."
"I'm up. That rooster must have been sent by the goddess. It wakes
us up just in time." Sarji got up and opened the door. She looked at
the white moonlight and said to her husband, "Now get up. Go
down to the stream and have your bath, then bring me some water
from the spring before there's a whole line of people there."
"You look after your work and I'll take care of mine," Tatya said,
taking a dhoti from the clothesline. He went outside. Putting a
waterpot on his shoulder he went down to the stream. He washed
himself clean in the water, while reciting the name of the goddess.
Then making rapid trips from stream to house he filled the water
jar in the house.
 Page 11
By then day had dawned. The sky became bright. The Naikwada
awakened. The birds began to twitter. Doors of the surrounding
houses opened and people came out. The dogs that had been
sleeping in the doorways came out into the yards. They stretched
and ran about. In some houses the cooking fires were lit. Smoke
started coming out of the roofs. The men and women from the
wada * filed down to the stream. A crowd gathered at the spring.
Everyone was in a hurry to go to the fair.
Sarji plastered the earthen stove with cowdung, lit it, and put an
iron pot on to boil. In the shed at the back of the house she sat on a
stone and poured warm water over herself. Then she quickly
scoured the pots and pans until they shone, put some sticks into the
fire, and sat down to make bhakris*. She worked rapidly. Bhakri*
after bhakri* fell onto the griddle. A stack of puffed bhakris* grew
on the piece of cloth at her side.
Full-moon day had dawned. Tatya looked at the light and folded his
hands in worship. As Sarji saw the mild rays of the morning sun
cross the threshold she called to her husband, "Say, you'd better get
the kids up." She looked angrily at the children, muttering, "Brats,
they run around all over the place chasing birds, then sleep like the
dead." She raised her voice again, "Did you hear me?"
"I can hear you. What do you want?"
"Get those kids up and wash them. It's full-moon day." Again she
muttered to herself, "Damn kids, look at their hands and feet. You'd
think a dog had peed on them.3
"Why don't you give them a bath? There's a whole jar full of
water."
"Just listen to him! I've got to make a whole payli* of bhakris* and
I've got to get the offerings for the goddess ready. And besides,
these sticks won't stay lit. I'm half dead from blowing on them."
"Take your time, and when you're done with everything else wash
the kids."
"Here I've already got my hands full and you just go on without
even paying attention to what I'm saying. Now take some water in
a pan and wash those kids!"
 Page 12
As the sun grew warm, Sarji's hands worked faster. The bhakris *
were more than half done. Tatya got the boys up and gave them a
bath. He took out their new clothes from the bundle in which they
were tied.
Delighted with their new clothes, the kids frisked about like lambs,
then sat down by the stove watching their mother with avid
interest.
Just then the rooster crowed and began to call ko ko. The wily
youngsters were suddenly alert. They immediately spotted the
basket. They ran toward it and started to lift it up. Sarji raised her
flour-covered hand and shouted, "Why are you looking under that
basket? Are you going to go outside or shall I give you both a good
whack?" The older boy, six years old, answered, "Mother, there's a
chicken under the basket. When did Baba bring it?" At this Sarji
got wild, "Damn you to hell! Why are you getting after that
rooster? Are you going to go outside or shall I call your father?"
At that moment the rooster screamed again and began to cackle.
The youngsters wheeled around from the door and dashed up to the
basket. With their ears to the basket they listened intently. They
began beating on the basket. Out of her mind with their antics, Sarji
picked up a brass pot full of water and poured it on one child's
back. He let out a yell and ran outside. Tatya came in and asked
angrily, "What's going on? Here it's full-moon day and you're
making the kid cry!"
"Let both of them go to hell! They're getting after the rooster!"
"They're just kids, you know."
"I know, I know. But you'd better throw a gunny sack on top of the
basket. That rooster keeps crowing and people are passing by our
house all the time. Can't you imagine what will happen?"
Tatya tried to reassure her, "What is there to worry about? We're
practically ready to go. Once we're on our way we're as good as
there."
Sarji retorted, "Have you forgotten that we still have the cooking
and everything to do?"
 Page 13
"It won't take long," he answered.
Suddenly Sarji thought of something, "Oh, go to the store and bring
a coconut, incense, and camphor. Otherwise we'll forget it in all
this rush."
"Now you're ordering me around. And how am I supposed to pay
the shopkeeperknock out my teeth?"
"Ask him just this once to let us buy it on credit. And don't say
unlucky things!"
"But we still owe him some money."
"So what? Tell him we'll pay him everything at harvest time."
"You mean he's going to take my word for it?"
"Instead of just talking back, why don't you at least go and see?"
"You always bring up something at the last minute!" Tatya
grumbled and got up to go to the store. Just at that moment Pandu
Naik walked in, and hearing Tatya's angry voice said, "Sounds like
a fight going on!"
"You said it! Haft the people in the wada * have already left and
we don't even have the offerings or the camphor, incense, and
coconut yet."
Pandu casually poked his head inside the door and saw Sarji at the
stove. "Vahini,4 you're making a lot of bhakris*," he said. "Looks
like there's chicken or mutton for the fair."
Sarji laughed easily and answered, "No chicken or mutton,
Dajibawe're just getting ready a coconut and food offerings for the
goddess."
"Just thought I'd ask." Hardly had Pandu gotten the words out than
the rooster crowed loudly and began to cackle in fright. Hearing the
crowing Pandu said, "Well, Tatya, so there is a chicken for your
fair. Hope I'm included."
"That's right, o1' friend, it's the rooster we promised the goddess."
"Whatever it may be, don't leave me out."
"Of course not, you know we wouldn't do that!" Tatya answered
and left hurriedly for the store in town. By then Sarji had finished
everything. She sprinkled water on the stove and leaned the griddle
against it. She took a dhoti and
 Page 14
started tying up the food, putting the stack of bhakris * at one end
and the offering at the other. For cooking the chicken she took a big
nickel plated pot. Into it she put two brass plates and a water pot,
and tied them all together in a big cloth. She cleared everything up.
And then, because she was going to the fair, she put on her best
sari, the one with tiny checks. After she put on her new blouse with
an embossed design, she stood at the door looking toward the town
and waiting for Tatya's return. Keyed up with excitement, the kids
kept jumping around, running to the basket to listen to the bird, and
slapping the basket with a stalk of fodder. "Mother, show us the
rooster," they kept begging, while Sarji in her turn kept scolding
them.
Meanwhile Tatya had climbed the bank of the stream and was
hurrying toward the house. When Sarji saw him she went inside.
Tatya handed her the incense, camphor, and coconut. She took
them and tied them in the bundle with the food-offering.
Everything was set. Just then Tatya said, "Sarji, bring the stuff out
to the door. I'll go and say a prayer before our Khandoba and be
right back."
"Don't take too long. We'd better get started before the sun gets too
hot."
"I told you I'd be right back," Tatya answered and hurried off to the
temple at the western side of the Naikwada to take darshan of
Khandoba.
Sarji quickly picked up the bundles one by one and carried them
out to the door.
Meanwhile three men coming from the town left the main path and
headed toward Tatya's house. They walked straight to his door. By
then Tatya had returned from the Khandoba temple. His face fell
when he saw Nana, owner of the big farm down below. He started
to sweat. When Sarji saw the men she hung her head. She
recognized the pati1*5 and the policeman and was scared.
As soon as he saw Tatya, Nana demanded loudly, "Tell us, Tatya,
did you come to my farm last night?"
Nana raised his voice even more, "It's all right to ask for grain, that
we'll give. But that doesn't mean you can steal a rooster right out of
my pen."
 Page 15
At the mention of the rooster Tatya quaked inwardly. His eyes
turned toward the house. Still he answered calmly, ''How would I
know, Nana? After all, it's open land. It only takes a split second
for a fox to run away with a chicken!"
"True enough! But how could he manage to get a chicken in the
pen? Come on now, admit it!"
"Nana, I swear by my child I'm telling you the truth! If you say so,
I'll place my hand on my son's head and swear before the patil *
here."
At that moment the cock crowed loud and long. The cramped and
frightened bird cackled noisily. Tatya was speechless. He sat down
heavily, as if all the strength had drained out of him.
Hearing the crowing, both kids jumped with glee and ran to the
basket, saying, "Mother, show us the chicken!" Meanwhile the
policeman and the patil* had taken custody of Tatya and set off for
the police station. Nana went along, taking his rooster as evidence.
Both kids went dancing behind him.
Watching this whole performance Sarji was struck dumb. She was
at a loss as to what to say or do. Finally she picked up the bundle of
bhakris* and started after her husband. As she set off she made a
silent vow, "Goddess Mariai, get my husband out of this! And next
year I'll give you a cock!" She put the end of her sari to her eyes to
dry her tears.
Editors' Notes
1. Naikwada indicates the section of a village in which Naiks
predominate. The term Naik is usually used for the low but not
Untouchable castes of Ramoshi or Berad, but Kharat does not
make the caste clear.
2. The goddess Mariai is found in every village and usually is
served by Mahars, although as the goddess of pestilence she is
worshipped by all.
3. The author, himself an ex-Untouchable brought up in a village,
delights in the detail of village life, making the harshness of
existence in rural Maharashtra clear through description and dialog.
 Page 16
4. Vahini, lit. brother's wife, is used here in the way that neighbors
would use family terms to indicate a respectful familiarity with
each other.
5. The patil * is the village headman.
 Page 17

3
One Face of God
Maxine Berntsen
In Shankarrao Kharat's story "Navas" (The Vow) the narrator says:
Throughout the area the goddess of Degaon was known as a harsh
and powerful deity. If a man did not keep his vow, they said, the
goddess would raze his house or cast thorny branches in his door. So
on the full moon of Chaitra people would go with fear and devotion
and would try at any cost to keep their vows.
The devi is harsh and powerful. In Marathi these two adjectives are
summed up in a single wordkadak *. The devi of Kharat's story is
by no means unique. The picture of a kadak* deity is common
throughout Maharashtra and, indeed, throughout India. Many of
these deities are goddesses, though some are male gods. Two of the
major deities of Maharashtra, the goddess Bhavani and the god
Khandoba of Jejuri, are known for being kadak*, in contrast to
deities like
 Page 18
Ram and Vithoba who are known as saumyabenign or gentle.
Although the kadak * face of god is only one of the faces of god
seen in Hinduism, it is an important one for understanding the
religion of the ordinary Hindu. To say that a god is kadak* means,
first of all, that he is especially powerful. Power, in fact, is the key
concept underlying the Hindu concept of divinity. The bewildering
range of objects of devotion in Hinduismextending from a stone
uncovered in a field or a gush of water, to rivers, tools, animals,
gurus or divine imagesbecomes comprehensible when we see them
all as manifestations of power. Some of these sources of power are
transient, others are permanent. Of the latter, the traditional shrines
are the most important. Each of them is a center of powera center
with a precise geographic location. This center is the devasthan*, a
word often translated simply as "temple" but meaning literally "the
place of the god." Thus a powerful god is not identified simply by
his name but by his location as wellsuch as Bhavani of Tuljapur or
Khandoba of Jejuri. Worshippers may build temples and install
images of these gods elsewhere, but in most cases these temples
will not become as important sources of power as the original
shrine.
In other words, though all devasthans* are by definition sources of
power, in some the power is particularly alive and active. Such
devasthans* are known as being kadak*, or jagrit* (wakeful), or
jajvalya* (efficacious, powerful). The god of such a place has
under his control, or perhaps himself constitutes, the forces of order
and chaos that control human life. If he is the kuladaivatthe family
deityhis worshippers look to him to ensure the well-being of the
family, to provide sufficient food along with freedom from sickness
and accident. The kuladaivat, generally though not always a
kadak* god, has in his hands not only the family's well-being but
its very continuity. Thus, every major event in the life of the family
requires his blessings. A wedding invitation usually bears the
inscription, "By the grace of the kuladaivat." The first duty of a
new bride on
 Page 19
entering her in-laws' house for the first time is to do puja * to the
kuladaivat. The birth of a son and the undertaking of a new
business are usually occasions for a visit to the devasthan* of the
kuladaivat. Although a family may be spread out geographically, it
retains its unity as long as its members acknowledge the gods of
one household shrine as their own.
If the worshipper looks to a god to preserve the order and
continuity of his own life and that of his family, he is m the greatest
need when a crisis threatens that order. A woman who has not
borne a son, for instance, may be m a desperate position, for from
the family's point of view her chief function is preserving the
continuity of the family by bearing sons. Until she has done so she
has no standing in the family. Thus she feels under intense pressure
and may go to the kuladaivat or to some other powerful god to
make a navas. Along with childless women, people suffering from
diseases or from karni* (black magic) also frequently go to make a
navas. Similarly, a person looking for work or a student about to
take an examination may make a navas that he may be granted
success.
In return for the beneficent use of his power the god demands ritual
worship. This may include daily and special worship m the house
but it primarily means an annual visit to the devasthan*. It is here
that the annual offerings must be given and any navas must be
fulfilled. Depending on the means of the worshipper and the
preference of the god the offerings may range from coconut and
camphor or coconut and a blouse-piece to a chicken or a goat, or a
large sum of money or ornaments for the image. For most deities
known to be kadak* the preferred offering is the sacrifice of a
chicken or a goat. To make such a sacrifice the worshipper takes
the live bird or animal to the temple, slaughters it before the god,
then cooks it and shares it with his family and friends as prasad*, a
gift from the god.
In performing the ritual, the worshipper must take care to avoid
ritual pollution. One of the chief characteristics of a kadak* god is
that he will not tolerate ritual impurity. A
 Page 20
person who has not taken his morning bath, a woman in her
menses, someone who has been in contact with childbirth or death,
a member of an Untouchable casteall are sources of pollution. Even
the accidental touch of a worshipper's feet on the image or the
offering results in defilement. Of course, the strictness with which
these rules are observed varies a great deal from caste to caste and
family to family. The lower castes and the poor generally follow a
less elaborate code of ritual purity, probably simply because they
do not have the leisure or money required for elaborate daily ritual.
But, as Kharat's story illustrates, even the poor take care to bathe
before preparing food offerings and taking darshan of the deity at
the devasthan *.
In looking at the list of what the kadak* god requires, the reader
might well have been struck by the absence of any reference to
ethical behavior. In the traditional view, the god is concerned only
with the individual's worship, not with how that person relates to
his fellow-men. People have explicitly told me that rules regarding
human relations are a part of dharma (right conduct) or a part of
vyavahar* (practical dealings); they are not the concern of the god.
The god is not concerned with sin but with the ritual obligations of
his followers.
If a person fails to fulfill his obligations, either by not making the
required offerings or by defiling the deity, the deity reacts with
anger and punishes the offender. The most common punishment is
sickness, and it usually takes the most dramatic formsfever,
diarrhea, vomiting, cholera, plague. Even an unintentional act can
call forth the wrath of the deity. In talking about the cause of
ringworm, one young man said:
 The devi brings it on. If somebody is a devotee and is on his way to
make an offering to the deviif he is busy talking and his foot happens
to touch the offering, the devi will show her anger with a sign. She
won't stand for pollution.
With such a forbidding picture of the nature of god, one
 Page 21
might imagine that people live in constant fear. Some
commentators, in fact, have felt that this is the case, and indeed it
cannot be denied that an element of fearor perhaps anxiety is the
more accurate wordexists in some peoples' relations to the kadak *
gods. For instance, several years ago in a village in western
Maharashtra the head was knocked off the image of a certain
rajah's family deity. It is said that the rajah was extremely
frightened and hastened to have the image repaired. In Kharat's
story the narrator says that people would try at any cost to keep
their navas to the devi; and Tatya goes to the extent of stealing a
chicken for that purpose.
Along with this anxiety goes secretiveness. I had an experience of
this several years ago. A woman came and sat down beside me on
the bus. In her lap was a basket tied up in a cloth. On top of the
basket were a brass tray and two polished bamboo sticks that she
told me were required for doing puja* to the devi. From inside the
basket came the smell of camphor. The woman had obviously just
returned from fulfilling a navas but she parried my questions on the
subject and clearly did not want to discuss it. Later I inquired and
found out that indeed one does not tell anyone about a navas.
Still, however, the cases cited above are probably not typical. The
average person does not appear to feel a great deal of anxiety about
his relationship to any god, however kadak* he may be. There are
several factors that serve to mitigate his anxiety. To begin with, the
kadak* godwho is usually the kuladaivatis only one of the objects
of a person's worship. Along with the kuladaivat, more benign
gods like Vithoba, and often a god-like person such as a saint,
baba*, or guru claim a portion of the worshipper's time and
attention.
Moreover, the very complexity and sophistication of people's
conception of their relation to a god helps to mitigate anxiety. Even
the uneducated feel that a god is what his worshippers make him.
There is a saying in Marathi bhav* tasa* dev, "as the belief, so the
god." Thus, a god is kadak*
 Page 22
only if his believers think he is. When asked about a god's being
kadak * some people told me, "It depends on how you feel about
it" or "That's just a notion."
Not only does the worshipper determine the nature of the god, but
by his act of worship he makes the image into a god. One illiterate
man made this clear when he said of an image:
It's a stone, a piece of rock, an image.
That image is cast in the shape of a god.
If we believe in the image it is a god, if
we don't believe, how is it considered a god?
This same attitude was expressed by an elderly Untouchable. When
I asked him what it meant for a god to be kadak*, he answered:
People mention various gods and then get scared of
them. They say, "Let's go to such-and-such
a god. Let's give him an offering. Does the god
eat the offering? We do, don't we?"
At first I took this to be an expression of complete disbelief,
especially as he went on to say:
What is Khandoba like? Why, do you think we can
see him? There's just a rock there and people
call it Khandoba. Does it appear before us?
No, the god that's set up there they just call
Khandoba.
At this point I was convinced that he was a complete skeptic. I
asked, "Then you don't believe in Khandoba?" His answer was
swift and rather scornful, "Why, do you think I'd set up a stone
without faith?"
Such an attitude may at first appear self-contradictory, but further
examination reveals that this is not the case. What the man is
saying is that he is perfectly aware that it is his faith which invests
divinity in a stone, but that this does not make the divinity any less
real. This awareness, however, must keep him from being
overwhelmed by any sense of anxiety or fear in relation to the god.
The man quoted here might be a little more reflective than many
others, but his attitude is probably not much
 Page 23
different from that of most average people. Hard-headed and
practical, they are very much aware that they are offering worship
to a stone which somebody has given the name of Khandoba or
some other deity. They know that when they give an offering to the
stone the stone doesn't eat it, they do. Still, the stone is not merely a
symbol; it is somehow related to the power that determines the
well-being of themselves and their families. This power demands
worship and they offer it. Because they believe in the efficacy of
ritual they need not feel anxious. Some people have told me they
are not afraid of a god's anger. Once they have fulfilled their ritual
obligations, they say, what is there to worry about? The god is not
going to punish them. Casual as this attitude seems, it reveals an
important truththat ritualizing a worshipper's obligations to a god
decreases the worshipper's anxiety. If all the god demands are
certain acts of worship, then once these are performed the
worshipper is secure. Even in a situation of crisis the worshipper is
encouraged by the fact that there are active measures he can
takemaking a navas, going on a fast, giving up something. He has,
in other words, tools to aid him in facing his fate.
In the ordinary course of life, the worshipper approaches the kadak
* god perfunctorily or anxiously, according to his temperament and
situation. In either case the encounter tends to be impersonal, since
it is mediated by ritual, and the power of the god is a matter of faith
rather than experience. But at times some people have what they
feel is a direct experience of the beneficent power of a god, and
they ever after approach the deity with personal devotion. The
young man who talked about the devi's causing ringworm later told
of his own experience:
 When I was in the eleventh grade I was very sick and was afraid that I
could not pass my examination. But through the blessing and grace of
the devi of Tuljapur, our kuladaivat, I passed, and since then I have
been going to Tuljapur. Unless a person goes there for two or three
days he has no peace of mind.
It is perhaps in the experience of possession that a person
 Page 24
has the most direct experience of the power of the god. Though it is
generally the kadak * gods who possess people, many of the people
possessed feel that the power entering them is beneficent rather
than fearful. They feel, as John Stanley has reported, that a special
favor has been granted them and has utterly changed them. They
strive to keep themselves in a state of readiness so that the god may
return. This attitude, of course, is poles apart from fear or anxiety.
Within the framework of belief in a kadak* god, then, a great
variety of religious attitudes is possible. The very conception of a
kadak* god is, however, by no means universally accepted. It is
under attack from a number of quarters. First of all, there is a large
number of people who reject polytheism altogether, so for them the
conception of a kadak* deity has no relevance. Others accept
polytheism but vehemently reject the idea that a god can be
kadak*. "A god is kadak*," declared one man. Others said, "My
own feeling is that a god is never kadak*," ''God is not kadak*,
men are," or "I have no experience of this."
Some of these people feel that a god has no power to punish man.
As one said, "If I don't go to a temple, what is the goddess going to
do?" Others, however, reject the idea of a kadak* god out of the
conviction that god is shanta* (calm and peaceful). A horse-cart
driver said emphatically:
It's false to say god is kadak*. God is shanta*. What does god
require? He doesn't ask for anything. What we offer is for ourselves.
We say it's for god and we eat it ourselves.
On the public level too, the kadak* godor perhaps, the kadak*
conception of godis ignored or played down, perhaps because it
smacks of a primitivism that is no longer acceptable. Vithoba, the
focus of bhakti in Maharashtra, is patronized by government
officials and by All-India Radio. The public neglect of some of the
kadak* deities might be explained in terms of caste and class, for
some of these deities are those of the lower castes and classes. But
this is certainly not true of Khandoba or Bhavani. Yet they also do
not have the public prestige of Vithoba, and even when they
 Page 25
are presented in the mass media their kadak * aspects are played
down and their benevolence emphasized.
Thus the kadak* conception of god is being attacked by those
monotheists who reject idol worship, by those polytheists who
believe god is shanta*, not kadak*, and by those public figures
who are embarrassed by the "primitivism" of the kadak*
conception of god. These attacks are not new. They have been part
of the tradition of Hinduism for at least hundreds of years. Yet the
kadak* conception of god persists, undoubtedly because it
expresses man's deepest anxieties about his fate and gives him
tools that offer at least the hope of influencing it.
 Page 26

4
Gods, Ghosts, and Possession
John M. Stanley
There are two phenomena in the popular religion of Maharashtra
that bear close comparative examination. One is known as bhut *
badha*, the possession of a person by a ghost; the other is angat*
yene*, the possession of a person by a deity or a saint.1 On first
examination there seem to be good reasons to assume that the two
phenomena are closely related. Indeed the observable actions of
bhut* badha* (ghost-possessed) victims are strikingly similar to
those of many angat* aleli* (god-possessed)a fact which has not
infrequently led to a confusion of the two phenomena by casual
observers. And the subjective feelings reported by many possessed
people, especially in the early stages of possession, indicate some
ambiguity as to whether it is a god or a ghost that has taken
possession of them. Moreover, several scholars of the same type of
phenomena in other cultures have emphasized their similarity.
Curious about the relationship between these two phe-
 Page 27
nomena, I carried out field work for several months in the cities
and villages of four districts in MaharashtraAhmednagar, Pune,
Satara, and Aurangabad. Aided by a most valuable interpreter and
research assistant, S.V. Patankar of Pune, I made observations at
fifteen different healing centers and interviewed over one hundred
people including pujaris * at healing temples, monks of the
Mahanubhav panth,2 mujavars* of dargas* (tombs of Muslim
saints, many of which are considered powerful healing centers),
bhut* victims, relatives of bhut* victims, and former victims now
cured. I also made observations of seventy instances of angat*
yene* and conducted interviews with twenty angat* aleli*
representing possession by eleven different gods or saints. On the
basis of these observations and interviews I conclude that, though
there are some clear surface similarities, Maharashtrian culture
makes a sharp distinction between the two phenomena. Moreover,
when the phenomena are analyzed as religious experience, they can
clearly be seen as polar opposites.

Bhut* Badha*Possession by a Ghost: Traditional and Present Day

Beliefs
The traditional Maharashtrian beliefs regarding bhuts* and bhut*
badha* have been recorded with exceptional thoroughness by a
variety of nineteenth century ethnographers. Especially helpful are
a series of reports submitted by hospital assistants and assistant
surgeons at hospitals in the Deccan districts of the Bombay
Presidency. These reports have been gathered together in the
appendix to the Poona district volume (1885) of the Gazetteer of
the Bombay Presidency. R.E. Enthoven (1924) has also catalogued
a great deal of folklore about spirit possession that is relevant to
Maharashtra as have William Crooke (1896 and 1968) and Sir
James Campbell (see the Kolhapur volume of the Gazetteer), who
gathered together material based on questionnaires submitted to
school children about belief in ghosts and ghost possession.
According to the beliefs recorded in
 Page 28
these reports, bhuts * come into being either as the result of
inadequate or incomplete funeral rites3 or through the untimely
death of a person who dies with intense unfulfilled desires (e.g., a
pregnant woman, a woman who dies in childbirth, a miser who dies
suddenly without having a chance to spend his money, etc.).
Though they can assume a great variety of forms at will (e.g., a
blaze of fire, a whirlwind, various forms of animals, monsters,
etc.), bhuts* most often take some kind of human or semi-human
form. They cast no shadow, speak with a nasal twang, cannot stand
the odor of burning turmeric, and usually have reversed feet; they
generally inhabit unused or polluted wells, cellars, woods, old
tanks, privies, cemeteries, and generally any defiled or polluted
place. Since, according to traditional beliefs, the earth has the
power to frighten away evil influences, bhuts* never sit on the
ground; rather they perch in trees, on grave stones, or on pegs or
bricks. Bhuts* are not immortal; they continue in existence for
approximately four human generations after which they are reborn
according to the law of karma, the actions done as bhuts* affecting
their lives no less than actions performed during their human lives.
The popular tradition in Maharashtra developed an elaborate
system for identifying and categorizing varieties of bhuts*. The
Gazetteers list over twenty such varieties which are organized into
three categories: bhut* (in the narrow sense), pishaca*, and pret. A
bhut* in the narrow sense is thought of as any ghost resulting from
a violent or sudden death; a pishaca* is a ghost of an immoral
person such as a liar, adulterer, or criminal; a pret (literally corpse)
is thought of as a monstrous or deformed ghost, the result of
incomplete burial rites. Bhuts* are further sub-divided into gharce*
bhut* (house bhuts*) which attack only members of their own
family, and baherce* bhut (outside bhuts*) which can attack and
possess anyone.
When planning to attack a victim, the bhut* assumes a pleasing and
desirable form to attract the attention of a passer-by, changing
suddenly into a monstrous form in which it attacks and enters the
body of the victim. Such
 Page 29
possession by a bhut * results in some form of sicknessoccasionally
physical, more often emotional, and sometimes both. In the reports
of the nineteenth-century eth-nographers most cases of bhut*
badha* are attributed to the volition of the bhut* Bhuts* are
assumed to attack either because they are provoked (e.g., by
someone bumping into their tree or grave stone or peg, or because
they need to possess a body to carry out certain intense desires that
they were not able to fulfill in their lifetime). On certain occasions,
however, according to traditional beliefs, some mantriks*
(practitioners of black magic) or devrishis* (professional shamans)
will use their magical powers to influence a bhut* to possess a
specific person.4 When this is done, the process is referred to as
karni*. Karni* is looked on as a form of "black magic." It is
socially unacceptable, and apparently in the nineteenth century it
was quite rare.
Present day beliefs among Maharashtrians about the existence and
actions of bhuts* correspond in many ways to the beliefs outlined
by the nineteenth-century ethnographers. There are, however, some
interesting and noteworthy differences. One difference is that the
many distinctions between different kinds of
bhuts*are no longer made. Pret is no longer used at all, and no
functional distinction is made between bhut* and pishaca*. Only a
few of the people I talked to recognized any distinction between
gharce* bhut* and baherce* bhut*. Those who did thought the
house/outside distinction unimportant. Moreover, the numerous
different varieties of bhuts* mentioned in the Gazetteer are no
longer even recognized by most informants. When I would ask
someone what kind of bhut* was possessing their friend or relative,
the typical answer would be "some bhut* or karni*how can one
know?"
A second difference between traditional beliefs and present day
beliefs is that bhuts* are no longer thought to be visible. They can,
of course, be heard speaking through the mouths of their victims.
Their actions can be observed in the actions of the possessed
bodies of the victims. But, with two exceptions, none of the people
I talked to claimed ever
 Page 30
to have seen a bhut *. One exception was an angat* alela* who
specialized in exorcising bhuts* and claimed that when he looked
into the eyes of a possessed person, he saw the bhut* that was
possessing him rather than the person. He never, however, saw
bhuts* except in the bodies of possessed people. The other
exception was an old woman who reported she had seen bhuts*
when she was between the ages of twenty and twenty-five (1925-
30). During those years she saw bhuts* on several different
occasions: once at a river at night, once immediately after she had
given birth, once in a woods near a burning ghat, etc. On one
occasion she saw the bhut* very clearly and noticed that its feet
were turned backwards. She has not seen any bhut* since she was a
young woman and thinks that now all bhuts* have become
invisible. She still, however, believes that they exist and she
continues the observance of practices to guard her children against
bhut* badha*.
A third difference between traditional beliefs about bhut* badha*
and current beliefs is that present day beliefs place much stronger
emphasis on karni*. A rather elastic term, karni* literally means
"something done," the connotations of the term being that some
black magic has been done against one. Sometimes the term karni*
can be used to refer simply to a curse or a spell such as love magic.
Most often, however, the term is used to refer to bhut* badha*
which has been magically induced by a devrishi* or mantrik*.
Karni* is mentioned in the Gazetteers only briefly and the reports
clearly imply that it was considered rare. This is still the case in
small villages where people know each other well, and where none
of the devishis* are suspected of practicing black magic. For
example, in the village of Chambli near Saswad and again the
village of Wadi Bolhai near Theur, villagers reported several cases
of bhut* badha* in the past year. They insisted, however, that all
the cases were caused by people carelessly disturbing bhuts* and
that the possessions were the result of the bhut's* own volition.
They were indignant that I should even think that any of the village
devrishis* or mantriks* would do karni* against
 Page 31
anyone in the village. Nor did they think it likely that any evil
influence of this kind could have come from someone outside the
village. Except in these small villages, the people I talked to about
bhut * badha* attributed the majority of the cases to karni*. There
are, to be sure, exceptions. One victim thought that he had
carelessly provoked a bhut* attack by disturbing a bhut* while
going near his tree to urinate. Another informant reported that his
friend had virtually invited a bhut* attack by crossing a river near
midnight while in an unclean state. Another attributed his own
bhut* attack to his having carelessly stepped over an offering at a
three cornered cauk* (a crossroad where three roads meet), which
is considered an excellent place to get rid of a bhut* once you have
successfully exorcised it from the body of a member of your family
by a home cure. The belief is that by carrying an offering of rice
balls, lime, and kunku* to the three cornered cauk* you can lure the
bhut* to accompany you. It is believed that the offering will hold
the bhut* at the cauk* for a short time and then it will "go on its
way." I have observed many such offerings at Baba Jan Chowk in
Pune camp and at other three cornered cauks* throughout Pune.
Most Maharashtrians, however well educated, will avoid stepping
over these rice ball, lime, and kunku* offerings lest the bhut*
lingering by the offering attack and take possession of them.
But these instances of badha*, as the result of the bhut's* own
volition, though not rare, are not nearly as prevalent, especially in
urban areas, as badha* induced by karni*. Moreover badha* that is
initiated by bhut* is generally believed to be much more easily
exorcised because the bhut's* will by itself is usually not as strong
as a person's will. One trip to a healing center normally suffices,
and often even that one trip is not necessary since home cures are
relatively effective against the unaided will of a bhut*. Karni*,
however, is quite a different matter, for in these cases the bhut's*
will is strengthened forcefully either by the power of a devrishi* or
a mantrik* or by a vow (navas) to a god. Badha* induced by
karni* is extremely hard to cure, the average case requiting from
one to two months at most healing centers.
 Page 32
There are two ways that karni * can be done. First, some mantriks*
and devrishis* are willing to use their magical powers for evil or
anti-social ends. One can go to such a person and pay him to
perform karni* against an enemy. The strength of this kind of
karni* depends on three things: the power of the devrishi* over
ghosts, the weakness of the will of the person having the karni*
worked against him, and that person's susceptibility to bhut* entry.
Karni* can, however, also be effected without the assistance of a
devrishi*. Any individual can go to a temple of any god who
receives vows (navas) and make a vow to give the god something
or to go through some ordeal if the god will send a bhut* to possess
his enemy. Most of the people I talked to held that gods would
seldom use their influence over bhuts* in this way. Many, however,
thought that if the bhakti (devotion) of the person was strong
enough or the ordeal the person vowed to go through intense
enough, the god would do as he was requested. Karni* of this
second type is thought to be extremely strong and very difficult to
cure. Its strength depends on four things: the power of the god over
the bhut*, the extent of the bhakti of the person asking the curse
(the severity of the vow taken is usually thought to be an outward
sign of the extent of the bhakti), the weakness of the will of the
victim, and again, his susceptibility to bhut* entry.
The susceptibility of persons to bhut* entry requires some
additional explanation. Answers to my questions about how bhuts*
can enter people provided a wealth of explanations. An
examination of all the answers indicates that the crucial variable
affecting susceptibility to bhut* entry is the purity-pollution status
of the individualespecially as that is affected by the menstrual
cycle, childbirth, sexual intercourse, and urination. Repeatedly it
was explained to me that women are more susceptible to bhut*
entry than men, that women are especially susceptible during their
menstrual period or immediately after childbirth, and that anyone is
especially susceptible immediately after urination because spirits
frequently enter the body through the uri-
 Page 33
nary passages. Some claim that newly-married couples are
especially liable to bhut * attack for as long a time as any halad*
(turmeric powder used at weddings) still clings to their bodies.
Frequently it was mentioned that a married person who takes up his
daily duties without bathing after sexual intercourse is inviting
bhut* badha*. One man, a Muslim, claimed that bhuts* nearly
always enter the body through the urinary passage and that any
uncleanness there, even the smallest drop of urine remaining on the
body after urination, would invite bhuts*. The male is fortunate in
that circumcision can protect him against such uncleanness, and
this is the reason, my informant claimed, that all Muslim men are
circumcised and explains why among men more Hindus are
possessed by bhuts* than Muslims and among both Hindus and
Muslims more women are possessed than men.
How prevalent are these beliefs in present day Maharashtra? In
large villages, even those near cities, active belief in bhut* badha*
and karni* is very high. In all of my interviews I was able to find
only one outright skeptic. This man, a resident of the village of
Kharpudi near Nimgaon, believed unquestionably in the ability of
gods to possess people, but laughed at my question about bhut*
badha*. He said, "Some people in the village think that they are
suffering from badha* when they have a headache or a backache,
but it is not so. I know many people now who go to the cemetery at
night and even sleep there all night without being affected by a
bhut* or a pishaca*." For the most part, however, villagers not only
believe in the existence of bhuts* and the possibility of possession,
they actively use the notion of bhut* badha* to explain many of the
problems and illnesses that they encounter in daily life. In cities
such active belief in bhut* badha* is considerably less prevalent
than in villages; it is, however, more prevalent than I had expected
it to be. The average daily attendance at one healing center in Pune
is two hundred or more. On Fridays it is slightly higher; on
Thursdays (a special day for this healing center) crowds are as
large as nine hundred. In Bombay several hundred come
 Page 34
daily to the Mira Datar healing center near Reay Road Station
while each Thursday between four and five thousand people come
between four-thirty in the morning when the center opens and
midnight when it closes.
While a relatively small percentage of city dwellers seem to be
active believers in bhut * badha*, there are indications that passive
credence in badha* is considerably higher. One Western trained
doctor who does not believe in possession by gods does not doubt
at all the existence of bhuts* and their power to possess people.
Many highly educated Indians, though reluctant to admit active
belief, refuse, when pushed, to say that they do not believe in bhut*
badha*. A typical response to my questions was, ''I would not
usually explain what seems to be for the most part neurotic
problems that way, and I am sure those cures would never work for
my own problem; still, it must be that 'these people' are taken over
by something and that they are cured at the darga* (healing
center)."
In one case I found confirmation about belief in badha* where I
least expected to find it. A highly educated Shankaracharya monk
was in Pune giving a series of lectures on yoga. In an interview I
asked him what he thought about badha*. He answered, "I have
seen a great deal of this socalled badha*. In ninety-eight percent of
the cases it is a psychic disorder. After a few sessions with
breathing exercises and elementary concentration I would cure
them so that they would never have the trouble again." I asked
about the other two percent. He answered, "In two percent of the
cases there is actual possession by a power (we might as well call it
bhut*). It is the psychic substance of a dead person. In rare cases
when one dies with a great unfulfilled longing for another person,
the psychic powers of the deceased do not disperse immediately,
and, if the situation is right, these powers will enter the body of the
desired person." I asked, further, if he had any direct evidence of
this. He answered, "I have seen a possessed person who had
knowledge that was private to the deceased. I have seen another
person who, when possessed, could speak a lan-
 Page 35
guage which he did not know but which the deceased person did."

Bhut * Badha* and Karni*: Discovery, Prognosis, and Cure

The first signs of bhut* badha* or karni* are usually noticed only
by the victims. They will begin to feel "wrong" they may have
headaches or backaches, or just feel "bad" or "not right.''
Frequently there will be specific pains such as sharp pains like pin
pricks in the mouth or throat or, more commonly, in the urinary
passage. At this stage, though they feel "wrong," there is nothing in
their overt behavior to indicate bhut* badha* to others·
At the next stage, the effects of bhut* badha* can be noticed by
others as well as the bhut* victim. Everything the victim does starts
going wrong; his business fails off or he loses his job for no
apparent reason. He may quarrel with close friends or have
frequent or severe arguments with his wife and children. The
"wrongness" seems to come in waves. At times the victim feels
quite all right and begins to think there was nothing to it after all.
Then things go wrong again. Most victims even at this stage will
refuse to believe that they are victims of bhut* badha* unless they
actually experience a cure. A businessman from Bombay put it this
way, "I didn't really think that there was any badha* or karni*. I
had headaches. My business was going wrong. I didn't feel right.
Then my brother convinced me to come here (Mira Wali Darga,
Ahmednagar). What harm could it do? As soon as the arati*
(ceremony of lights) began, I became unconscious. Later people
told me that I was shaking all over and acting just like that
(pointing to another person who was shaking violently). I think
now it must be karni*." For many victims these will be the only
symptoms. Both their pain and illness and their feeling of
"wrongness" will become progressively worse as the bhut* or
"spell" (it will be difficult at this stage to tell which it is) takes hold
of more and more of their personality. Many victims, how-
 Page 36
ever, will experience further symptoms and enter a third stage,
where they will become very depressed and "sit quietly" for long
periods of time. They will not follow orders, frequently fail to
respond when spoken to, and often sit and stare straight ahead. If
you ask them to do a task or errand, they may go to the place you
ask them to go, but they will not complete the errand. They will
just sit down at that place or somewhere along the way and stare at
something. Then, as the bhut * gets a deeper hold on the
personality, the person will lose all control of his emotions and
begin to weep and sob.
In the final stage the symptoms become even more severe. The
entire body shakes and shivers uncontrollably. The shivers become
progressively worse, ending in wild gyrations and thrashing
movements which often result in physical harm. Usually before the
bhut* victim has reached this stage, he has sought medical aid of
some sort, found that it did not help, and has been persuaded by
relatives or friends to go to a healing center.
There are three different kinds of healing centers in Maharashtra:
(1) Dargas* or chillas of Muslim pirs* and samadhis* of Hindu
saints, (2) temples of the Mahanubhav sect, and (3) temples of
certain healing gods such as Kal Bhairav and Dattatreya.5 A
darga* is a burial place of the body of a Muslim pir* (a saint in the
Sufi tradition who, because of the degree of his spiritual
realization, is believed to possess great powers, which continue to
emanate from his burial place). Although all pirs* are believed to
have developed great powers, only a few pirs* developed powers
over bhuts*. Consequently only a few dargas* are centers of
exorcism. A chilla is a memorial to a pir*. The pir* is not buried in
the chilla, but, through some association with the pir* such as an
article of clothing, the chilla holds some of the pir's* powers,
though less of them than the darga* does, and releases them in the
same way as the darga*.
Though each healing center will have its individual characteristics,
the basic pattern of cure and the behavior of spirit victims is
strikingly the same at all healing centers.
 Page 37
The god or pir * at any center is known as "baba*." The baba* is
believed to have a special power over bhuts*a power which both
stimulates the bhut* to greater activity and causes it intense pain.
This power is present at the healing center all of the time and
continually flows forth, disturbing and punishing any nearby bhut*.
Anyone possessed by a bhut* (even if he didn't know he was
possessed) would feel this power merely by walking near a darga*
or a healing temple.
Normally the baba's* power flows forth at a relatively low
intensity, but that power increases at special times. Each healing
center has one day each year when its power is believed to be
greatest. In addition, purnimas* (full moon days) and amavasyas*
(no moon days) are especially powerful healing times at Hindu
temples; every Thursday is a special day at all dargas* as is every
Friday at Mahanubhav maths* and temples. More important than
these weekly, monthly, and annual variations, there are certain
times each day that the baba's* power reaches its highest intensity.
Each of these times (the frequency varies from one center to
another) is marked by certain ceremonies. Atari* is performed,
drums are beaten, gongs are rung, and, at dargas*, incense is
burned in large quantities. It is during these special times, marked
by arati* that the baba's* power reaches an intensity sufficient to
drive out bhut* and cure karni*.
The baba's* power over a bhut* is also increased by the faith of the
bhut* victim. In some cases, when karni* is not involved or
bhut*badha* is exceptionally weak, bhuts* can be driven from
people without their active faith. Indeed it is believed that babas*
drive out many minor bhuts* without the possessed person even
knowing it. In more severe cases, however, faith is required to raise
the intensity of the power to a level sufficient to cure bhut*
badha*.
Spirit victims arrive at healing centers either by themselves or, if
the case is severe, accompanied by Mends. In some of the more
severe cases, they begin to tremble and moan as soon as they come
near the darga* or temple. Most, however, do not manifest this
symptom until the arati* begins. At the first sound of the dram or
gong marking the
 Page 38
beginning of arati *, nearly all bhut* victims begin shaking,
twisting, and moaning. Some hint and fall on the ground where
they remain unconscious. Some writhe on the ground in apparent
pain. Many swing their head and torso in a circular motion. Most
do this while seated, some while standing. I observed one man, feet
placed wide apart, bend from the waist and swing the upper half of
his body in a circle at an incredibly fast rate. At each gyration his
head very nearly touched the ground. Several victims throw their
heads violently up and down letting their long hair fly and snap like
a whip. Some become frozen in a rigid cataleptic trance. Several
roll slowly over and over on the stone paving of the courtyard. It
seems a miracle that they are not trampled. "Baba takes care of
them," I am told; "only the bhuts* are hurt." There is a great deal of
screaming and moaning. Indeed, the impression is that the entire
crowd is experiencing tremendous pain. As soon as the arati*
ceases, most of the screaming and writhing stops and most victims
abruptly regain normal consciousness. They appear puzzled for a
moment, then smile, brush themselves off and begin normal
conversations with people around them.
How can this behavior be explained? It would seem on the surface
that bhut* victims are possessed only during arati* and that the
bhut* abruptly leaves them as soon as the arati* ceases. Indeed this
phenomenon causes some observers to come to the erroneous
conclusion that it is the baba* or god who has possessed the person
during the arati*. But this is not at all how the situation is
perceived by those experiencing it. It is just that the bhut* has
become exceptionally active during the arati*. Normally, a bhut*
possessing a person occupies only a small portion of the person's
personality. Upon nearing a healing center, however, the bhut*
begins to feel the effect of the baba's* power and becomes agitated
and aggressive. Then under the intense pain inflicted on him by the
baba* during atari*, the bhut* becomes very active and takes over
the entire personality of the victim, leaving him totally
unconscious. When the arati* is over the baba* relaxes the
punishment and the bhut*, exhausted,
 Page 39
withdraws into the recesses of his victim's personality, thus
glowing the person to regain consciousness feeling somewhat
better. But it is not thought that the bhut * leaves the victim
altogether when the arati* ceases.
As for the nature of the pain, every spirit victim that I interviewed
insisted that he was totally unconscious during the entire time that
he manifested the symptoms of hyperactivity and pain, that he was
absolutely unaware of anything that he did, and that he would
never know what he did unless people told him afterwards, and
that, when told, he was, at first, quite surprised that he had acted in
that way. The mujavars* and pujaris* of the healing centers told
me that it was absolutely essential that the victim be totally
unconscious during this period because, if he were not
unconscious, he would die, so great is the pain. The more powerful
a baba*, the more extreme the pain. But all of the pain, all of the
writhing and all of the agonies are experienced only by the bhut*.
The person himself, entirely unconscious, feels nothing.
In some cases these agonies are not merely psychic, but quite
palpable. On two occasions I observed cases where there seemed to
be a real danger that what appeared to be the bhut's* actions would
do physical harm to the body the bhut* was apparently filling. In
one case, a girl about twelve years old began to throw herself head
first against a stone pillar. She would take several running steps,
put her head down and butt it into the pillar with a sickeningly loud
crack. At the time, I was interviewing another girl who had been
possessed by a bhut* seven years earlier and had been cured. She
saw my anxiety for the young girl and immediately assured me that
the girl felt nothing and would come to no harm. "Baba* will take
care of her," she assured me, adding that striking one's head against
stone was a very effective punishment for a bhut* and that she
herself used to do that during arati* when she was possessed. She
explained that she would be completely unconscious and would not
feel anything, but later people would tell her that she had pounded
her head many times against the stone.
 Page 40
As soon as the arati * stopped she would feel quite all right and
experience no pain even though her head was occasionally bruised
and lacerated. The bruises and cuts would heal quickly upon the
application of water from the tank at the healing center. Indeed,
twenty minutes later, I observed the same young girl who had been
bashing her head against the pillar. Arati* was over. She seemed
quite normal. She was smiling and talking with a friend.
All healing centers claim a high percentage of cure for bhut*
badha* victims who come regularly to arati* sessions. Most of the
cures are said to require only a few weeks; some, as long as a year.
Although I was not able to test these claims in any rigorous way,
my conversations with spirit victims and friends and relatives of
victims, as well as with people who had been cured, confirmed the
claims without exception. Nearly all who come regularly are, after
a certain period of time, fully restored to feeling their former
selves. Some few do come to sessions regularly for years without
complete recovery, but even in these "incurable" cases the relatives
and friends of the bhut* badha* victim report that the sessions help
the individual a great dealespecially that they feel much better
immediately after an arati* session.
Angat* Yene*: Possession by the Divine
Angat* yene* is ecstatic possession by a god, pir*, or saint. It is a
religious phenomenon that plays an important role in the cults of
several Maharashtrian gods as well as the cults surrounding a
number of Hindu saints, Muslim pirs*, and Hindu-Muslim saints.
Not all Maharashtrian gods possess their devotees. Khandoba,
Mhasoba, Mhaskoba, Vetal, Kal Bhairav, Jyotiba, and Dattatreya
occasionally possess their devotees, but not Ganesh, Ram, Shiva,
Krishna, Vithoba, Hanuman, or Vishnu. The goddess Ekvira does
possess her devotees, as does Bhavani, Janubai, Kalubai, Ambabai,
Jogabai, Banabai, Yamai, Mahalaxmi; but Parvati, Saraswati, Sita,
and Gauri do not.6 Few Muslim pits possess
 Page 41
their followers, but among those who do are the seventy-two Shi'ia
Muslim saint-heroes of the massacre at Karbala. At the time of
Muharram, and, in some cases, frequently throughout the year,
these pirs * possess the bodies of some of their devotees. During
their possession, the devotees carry a panja* (a wooden pole about
five feet high garlanded with flowers and capped with an image of
a large hand cut out of cardboard and covered with silver paper).
The panja* symbolizes the pir*. Interestingly, in spite of the fact
that Muharram is a Shi'ia celebration and that the seventy-two
pirs* are Shi-ia saints, in Pune some of the panja* bearers are
Hindus and most of the others are Sunni Muslims. Very few Shi'ias
cart panjas* in Pune, though some keep them in shrines in their
homes during the six days from the fourth to the tenth of the month
of Muharram.
The observable symptoms of angat* yene* vary somewhat both
from cult to cult and from individual to individual. There is usually
some form of ritual preparation. This may be very simple and brief
such as burning some incense and eating a lime. The incense
purifies the temple or shrine, and the lime purifies the body of the
angat* alela* so that the god can enter. Or the preparation may
involve recitation of mantras and prayers, singing of bhajans, or, in
the case of the pirs*, brushing of the face with peacock feathers
which are also believed to have purifying powers. After this ritual
preparation, possession, for some angat* aleli*; will come very
suddenly. They may shout out the name of their god and
immediately lose consciousness, or they may simply collapse into
unconsciousness. For others possession will come more gradually,
accompanied by a great deal of stretching of the arms and back,
and yawning. Whatever the pattern, once it is established for an
individual, it usually remains the same for future possessions.
The nature of the trance also varies considerably. Some angat*
aleli* will become absolutely rigid, every muscle tensed, head to
one side in a cataleptic trance. Some will sit quietly and stare
straight ahead. Some will shout and scream; some will make no
sound at all except to speak in
 Page 42
a low toneless voice when they are functioning as mediums. Most
angat * aleli*, however, exhibit hyperactivity usually manifest in
some kind of dance, such as jumping up and down in short hops
like a boxer in training jumping rope, or rocking back and forth in a
shuffling motion like a dancer doing a slow samba, or spinning
around in circles, either individually or two at a time, facing each
other and holding hands. In nearly all cases there is a rapid increase
in breathing. In the case of most devi angat* yene* this rapid
breathing is accompanied by a sputtering sound produced by
forcing the breath out between the lips which are held tightly
pressed together. Although the rapid breathing seems to be
involuntary, the sound is (at least sometimes) intentional and can
be used as technique to bring on possession more rapidly. Devi
angat* aleli* also seem to especially enjoy the trance itself. Those
who are semi-conscious speak of it as an experience of great joy.
Some admit that they use the sputtering-breathing technique to try
to sustain the trance when they feel it slipping away. Others say
they use the technique, when they feel the trance coming on, to
reach out to the goddess and hasten her arrival. Devi angat* aleli*
speak of the trance as the "play" of the goddess with them and their
facial expressions are nearly always rapturous and joyous, which is
not at all the case with other angat* aleli*.
The places where possessions occur also vary a great deal
depending both on the individual and on the cult. Some angst aleli*
become possessed only at the temple of their god, some only in
front of their family shrines in their homes; some can be possessed
anywhere. Khandoba possession seems to be especially dependent
on certain locations. Most of the Khandoba angat* aleli*
interviewed said they were possessed only at or near a Khandoba
temple or during a procession while close to the palkhi*
(palanquin).
The ages of the angat* aleli* I interviewed varied from seventeen
to fifty-five years (average thirty-five years); the ages at which they
were first possessed varied from five to forty years (average
seventeen years); the educational level varied from second to
twelfth standard (average seventh);
 Page 43

1.
Murlis (women dedicated to Khandoba) chant Khandoba's one hundred
names to
protect John M. Stanley from ghosts as he studies possession in
Maharashtra. Photo
courtesy of John M. Stanley.

2.
A Khandoba pujari * puts on his ceremonial clothing, preparing to invite
Khandoba to possess him. Photography by John M. Stanley.
 Page 44
the length of possession each time varied from two minutes to four
hours (average forty-five minutes); the frequency varied from twice
a week to once a year (average about once a month). Castes
represented were Maratha, Chitpavan Brahman, Saraswat, Koli,
Dhobi, Vanjari, and Muslim. Nearly all were reasonably well to do
and highly respected members of their community.
About two-thirds of the angat * aleli*I interviewed claimed that
they were completely unconscious during possession. They
claimed they could hear nothing, see nothing, feel nothing, and
remember nothing afterwards. They said that they felt that the god
took over their body completely and that it was as if they had died
for that period of time. One (a panja* bearer) claimed that he had
some sensation of existing and moving about, but could hear
nothing and feel nothing and could see only an image of a panja*
This he could see clearly but it appeared to be some distance off.
About one-third of the angat* aleli* I interviewed claimed that
they remained semi-conscious during their possession. One,
possessed by Khandoba during a procession, claimed he could see
the procession, see where he was going, vaguely see faces of other
pilgrims that he recognized, but that it was as if he were not really
there, but dreaming it. The visions were unreal to him; moreover he
was totally unaware of anything the god said to others through him.
Another claimed that he could see quite clearly and would
recognize faces until someone possessed by a bhut* would come
before him. Then he would see the bhut* instead of the person. My
observations indicate that some, such as the panja* bearers, are
indeed totally unconscious most of the time and must be led to
keep from injuring themselves. Others (including some who
claimed to be totally unconscious) are clearly able to see where
they are going, to shout at people in their way and to focus their
eyes when they need to (e.g., to move people out of their way or to
give a menacing look to a foreign scholar who has become too
curious).
A distinction must be made between angat* yene* and
 Page 45
power infusion. In some cases, especially in the Khandoba cult, a
person will gain sudden extraordinary powers sufficient to run
great distances in front of the god's palkhi * or to break heavy iron
chains. Or, occasionally, one who has never before been possessed
may be suddenly overcome if the god's palkhi* passes near him in
procession. These religious experiences, though closely related to
angat* yene*, are not usually considered angat* yene* by the
people who experience them. They are rather considered a
momentary infusion of the god's power, a gift to them because of
their faith. For example, Vaghyas (men dedicated to life-long
service of Khandoba) in the Khandoba cult become filled with
Khandoba's power and perform feats of chain-breaking at festivals,
but they insist that no Vaghya is ever possessed by Khandoba. The
breaking of the chains is possible for them because, through their
faith, Khandoba fills them momentarily with his power. The god
himself, however, does not enter their bodies.
Nearly all angat* aleli* perform some extraordinary feats or
mighty works as a result of their possession, such as holding
burning camphor in their hands or mouths or performing a material
manifestation, causing kunku* powder to magically appear in their
hands or pan to suddenly appear in their mouths. An extreme
example of this kind of mighty work is walking or dancing on fire.
Though it no longer plays an active role in the Khandoba cults, this
rite is still an important part of the religious experience of several
of the panja* bearers at Muharram. I was able to observe a
performance of the fire walking rite on Kattal ki* rat* (the first
night of Muharram) in March, 1971, and again in December, 1978,
in Pune Camp between Baba Jan Chowk and Mahatma Gandhi
Road. Shortly after becoming possessed, the panja* bearer, holding
his panja* cradled in his arms and swaying forwards and
backwards in a rocking motion, approaches a bed of coals about six
to eight inches deep. The coals are red hot, the ashes having been
fanned away. He steps directly onto the coals and stamps his feet
gently and continues swaying in a rocking motion. Attendants
brush
 Page 46
away the live coals that continue to cling to the top of his feet and
ankles. He experiences no pain. More amazingly, his feet are not
burned at all. The concentration resulting from the possession has
not only rendered the angat *alela* insensitive to pain (not
difficult to understand) but has apparently (and this far more
difficult to understand) altered the kindling point of the flesh on his
feet. Within three weeks after observing this rite I interviewed two
of the panja* bearers I had seen walk on the fire (interestingly one
was a Hindu and the other a Sunni Muslim) I also talked briefly to
four others whom I had not observed, and I examined all of their
feet very thoroughly. There was absolutely no trace of either bum
or scar on any of the feet. All claimed that they had continued to
walk on their ''burned feet" for from two to four hours that night
and from four to six hours the next day. When they emerged from
the trance, their feet, they said, were quite normal; there was no
pain at allonly a slight feeling of tiredness.
The mighty works that I've just described are not to be confused
with tests of possession. Like the tests, they signify possession but
they are informal indicators; in themselves, outside the formal
context of a test of possession, these indicators are considered
neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition of authentic
possession. Most of the angat*aleli* performing these feats have
already passed formal tests. If they haven't, these feats are no
substitute; if they have, these feats are considered further signs of
the power of the possessing god or pir*
In addition to performing the mighty works as signs of possession,
most angat*aleli* also function as mediums and, in that role,
perform mighty works that are socially useful, such as healing
sickness, casting out bhuts*, etc. All of the angat*aleli* I
interviewed regard the power to perform mighty works of this type
as a great gift from their god and the most important aspect of their
possession. During possession the angat*alela*or, more correctly,
as he would see it, the god who has possessed himgives advice
about personal and business matters, finds lost articles and stray
 Page 47
animals, and sometimes cures sickness and casts out bhuts *. In
most cases those persons seeking help must come before the
angat*alela* and put a question to the god or pir*. In some cases,
however, the angat*alela* reads the thoughts of the person even
before he speaks, tells him why he has come for help, and provides
the necessary assistance. Some angat*aleli* specialize in certain
types of mediumship. For example, one Khandoba angat*alela* I
interviewed in Khondapur had become a specialist in finding lost
articles and stray animals. He had developed his powers to the
extent that by going to the Khandoba temple and praying he could
successfully invite the possession of Khandoba whenever his
services were needed to find things.
Those angat*aleli* who become well known for their correct
answers, good advice, and powerful cures develop a large
following. The Khondapur angat* alela* just mentioned, for
example, is highly regarded in his own and nearby villages. Indeed,
according to the villagers, he had just the day before I interviewed
him found a boy and two bullocks who had been lost for some
time. There was great relief throughout the village.
Of all the angat* aleli* I interviewed the most highly regarded for
her powers was the wife of a high court judge in Bombay. She is
possessed from time to time by three different goddesses. Banabai
(one of the wives of Khandoba) and Bhavani possess her when
personal advice and answers to questions are needed. Kali
possesses her if her powers are needed for bhut* exorcism. Her
powers are widely known and people come to her from all over
Maharashtra. Each Friday (interestingly not the usual day for devi
possession) there is a long queue outside her Bombay home.
Angat*aleli* are not professional shamans. They accept no
payment for their services. Indeed, most feel that their powers are a
gift that they must share. Some express the belief that they would
lose their power if they ever accepted payment. Others indicate that
their powers are increased in proportion to their willingness to
share them and their ability to help others.
 Page 48

Comparisons and Analysis of the Two Forms of Possession

Bhut * badha* and angat*yene* can be analyzed and compared on
two levels: as ordinary human experience, and as religious
experience.
On the level of ordinary human experience there seem to be several
good prima facie reasons to stress the similarities between the
experience of bhut*badha* and that of angat*yene*. The physical
actions of angat*aleli*, for example, are similar in many ways to
the actions of bhut* possessed persons who have come under the
influence of a baba's* power. In both cases the body usually shakes
uncontrollably; the person loses consciousness; there is
hyperactivity to the point of incredible physical exertion; the
person in question does not seem to be himself; he performs
actions that he could not or would not perform if he were himself;
indeed he seems to be (and firmly believes that he is) taken over by
another being. Then, too, there are two facts about the experience
of the people I have studied that indicate that there is a possibility
of the two phenomena being subjectively confused: the fact that the
culture provides tests for angat*yene* Cone of the reasons for the
tests being the fear that the possessing agent may be a bhut*) and
the fact that some angat*aleli* testify that when they first
experienced possession, they feared that it might be a bhut*. They
were not subjectively certain that it was not a bhut* until they
passed a test. These cases are, however, relatively rate. Only three
of the twenty angat*aleli* I interviewed spoke of such fears. For
most people angat*yene* is immediately subjectively self-
authenticating. Still, that some angat*aleli* are initially uncertain
and that culture provides a test to distinguish between the two
phenomena indicates that the two experiences are similar enough to
be confused.
Moreover, scholars examining parallel phenomena in other cultures
have pointed to certain similarities of causes and functions. Some
psychologists and psychological anthropologists have found
indications of similarity in the psychodynamics of the two
experiences. Thus Anthony F.C.
 Page 49
Wallace sees both possession by evil spirits and possession by gods
as obsessive-compulsive neuroses. He sees no significant
psychological difference between the two types except that evil
spirit possession might be more dangerous to the psyche because,
and to the extent that, it threatens one's ego-ideal. 7 Also, some
sociologists and social anthropologists studying other cultures and
other areas in India have stressed that the two phenomena seem to
have the same sociological causes. Thus Pressler (1965: 92) in his
study of ecstasy and tona*vidya* (black magic) in Jabalpur finds
that both phenomena are found primarily in the high poverty areas
of the city. And, although Metraux does not comment on the source
of the phenomenon of evil spirit possessions, he writes that one of
the functions of god possession is to give pleasure "to poor souls
ground down by life." "They are able," he adds, "by virtue of such
a mechanism, to become the center of attention and play the part of
a super natural being, feared and respected" (1960:417-20). Simone
de Beauvoir (1968: 530-32) has made a similar observation with
regard to the god and saint possession among the blacks of Bahia in
Brazil.
On the other hand, even on this level of analysis there are strong
reasons to stress the differences between the two experiences as
they are known in Maharashtra. For one thing the correlations
suggested by Pressler's study, and partially confirmed by the
observations of Metraux and de Beauvoir, do not seem to be
applicable to the phenomena of bhut*badha* and angat*yene* in
Maharashtra. To be sure, in the two large cities (Bombay and Pune)
it may be that active belief in bhut*badha* is more prevalent in
high poverty areas. Certainly the Mira Datar Chilla in Bombay,
where hundreds come each day and thousands each week, is
situated in a high poverty area. Other healing centers, however, are
not so located; and, though the average economic level of those
who attend them seems somewhat low, it is not as low as Pressler's
study indicates it should be. Moreover the pattern that Pressler,
Metraux, and de Beauvoir indicate for the explanation of god
possession does
 Page 50
not at all correspond with my observation of angat *yene* in
Maharashtra, where most angat*alert seem to be relatively well-to-
do and highly respected members of their communities. And,
although there is a possibility of occasional subjective confusion,
most angat* aleli* experience possession immediately as
beneficent and have no doubts that it might not be their god who
possesses them, while most spirit victims experience bhut*badha*
immediately as illness or trouble or "wrongness" and have no
hopes that it might be a god who has taken them rather than a
bhut*. Further, and perhaps most important, in Maharashtra a clear
cultural indication of the difference between the two kinds of
possession is provided in the Marathi language. As I have shown,
Marathi employs two different phrases to denote the two different
kinds of possession. One of them, angat*yene*, has only positive
connotations. The phrase carries no connotations at all of attack or
of anything malevolent or inauspicious and could never be used to
refer to possession by a bhut*. On the other hand, the other phrase,
badha*, has only negative connotations. Although there is no
precise English equivalent of badha*, the dominant connotations
are of something "wrong" happening to someone, or something
adversely affecting someone. The term is never used in Marathi
except to refer to something unpropitious and malevolent. One
could never use the term badha* to speak of possession by a god or
pir*.
Thus, although there are some clear surface similarities between
the two phenomena when compared on the level of ordinary human
experience, there are also, even on this level of comparison, some
clear indications of distinct differences. It is when the two
phenomena are analyzed as religious experience, however, that the
true depth of those differences is revealed.
The essential quality of a religious experience is "specialness," or
to use a more precise term, "sacredness." Every religious
experience is an opening up of a person to the sacred and a
revealing of the sacred to the person.8 The religious experience
itself drives a wedge into the continuity
 Page 51
of experiences that a person has come to know as his life, dividing
the ordinary from the special, causing him to see the rest as
ordinary but this as extraordinary, special, or sacred. All of my
interviews and observations in Maharashtra indicate that angat
*yene* is such an experience. Indeed angat*yene* could be
considered a prototype of a religious experience. In most cases the
angat*aleli* I talked with did not consider themselves especially
religious before the experience of their first possession. To be sure,
they participated in the usual family pujas*and some observed
special days for their gods, but they considered themselves no more
religious than the average person in their village or neighborhood.
Some considered themselves less religious than average. Then
something happened to them. Suddenly, unexpectedly, something
occurred that was wholly outside their normal range of experience.
They felt that their body was taken over by a god.
All of the angat*aleli* emphasized that they felt that their power
was a gift from their goda special favor given to them. They did not
originally seek the experience, but once it happened they felt
utterly changed and sensed an obligation, even a desire, to keep
themselves "ready" for it to happen again. The key to the
"readiness," they believe, is "devotion" (bhakti), or better,
"continued diligence in devotion." As they put it, they must
"always remember" their god. If they fail to do this, the god ceases
to come. I talked with one middle-aged man who had lost his
power to be possessed and who regretted the loss deeply. I asked
him why he had lost his powers. He answered, "I didn't remember
Khandoba and he stopped coming." Will he come back? "Only if
my faith becomes so strong. If we have complete faith, if we are
always remembering him, he comes; if we don't have faith he stops
coming." Another angat*aleli* tells what she does to "always
remember" her goddess: "I don't eat anything. I keep a strict fast.
At the time of arati* I take only one spoonful of tirtha*. I stand on
one leg for hours concentrating on Janabai, singing her songs,
praying, doing arati*. I celebrate Navratra by holding a clay pot on
my head
 Page 52
for twelve hours; during that time I continue my worship without
any break. I don't even stop for the call of nature. There is no break
in my bhakti."
In the course of my interviews I asked each angat *alela* to
describe what happened when he became possessed. What did he
feel like? All had some difficulty answering. They seemed
surprised that the question had been asked and even more surprised
that they were having trouble answering. One response was as
follows: "How can I describe it?" (long pause; then very slowly), "I
feel that the god Khandoba comes into my body. That is why I take
a limeto keep my body pure so that he can come in." This response
provides a direct insight into angat*yene* as religious experience if
we interpret it in light of Eliade's treatment of the body-temple-
cosmos homology.9 The body of the angat*alela* is the temple of
the god; it is also the cosmos in microcosm. The god enters the
body just as he would enter a temple; or, again, he comes into the
body as he came into the world. The angat*alela* is the vessel
purified, being filled; the temple, purified, which the god enters; or,
on the appropriate special day, the cosmos which the god creates,
saves from disaster, or frees from demons. Thus, just as Khandoba
on Champashashthi enters the world to restore order by destroying
the demons Mani and Malla, so also Khandoba enters his
angat*aleli* and through them restores some order to a little piece
of the cosmos by solving a neighbor's problem or by finding a lost
bullock or by driving a bhut* out of the body of an old woman
from the next village.
The religious dimensions of the ritual of the panja* bearers who
walk in the fire also becomes clear when seen in this light. I asked
all four of the panja* bearers I interviewed why they walked on
fire. The answer was slow in coming. I waited patiently. Then
eventually, "It is our duty," (long pause) then finally, "It is to
remember what happened to the saints of Karbala. They were made
to walk on fire there and so conquered evil and made Islam great. It
is our duty to do it each year." Does it matter to them that their
historical account is not quite accurate? Does it matter that
 Page 53
they don't even belong to the same community as the saints of
Karbala, that they are Sunnis and not Shi'ias? Not at all. For they
are not telling me history. They are telling me a mytha myth that
has become the basis of their annual ritual. They are the vessels,
purified, for the pir * to enter and do again each year what he did
once long ago (in illo tempore). They are vessels who by the pir's*
favor are filled. Thus they become the pir* triumphing over evil,
making Islam great. They are, in Eliade's words, "living close to
the center"; they are "communicating with the gods" (Eliade 1957:
72).
Angat*yene* is clearly an experience of the sacred par excellence.
The angat*alela's* body becomes for the god either a momentary
temple for him to enter, or, more often, a cosmos for a momentary
incarnation.

Bhut* Badha* as Religious Experience

In the case of bhut*badha* it is much more difficult to get at the
religious dimension of the experience through interviews and
observations. There are two reasons for this. First, it is a more
complex experience and it is never so unequivocally related to the
subject's religious life as is angat*yene*. In the second place, when
badha* itself perceived as a religious experience, it is an
experience of defilement, wrongness, and disorder, and it requires
considerable time and patience to reach a point of intimacy with
informants sufficient for them to speak with frankness of these
feelings. On the basis of my interviews and observations thus far,
two things are clear: first, there are many for whom the experience
seems to be other than a religious experience, tangential to their
religious life, ordinary. There are some, for instance, whose attitude
toward the baba* and the healing center is quite casual. Some say
something like, "I was persuaded by my brother to come and try it.
I thought I had nothing to lose." Others seemed more serious in
their attitude toward the healing center but are clearly forming only
a temporary association. They will become vegetarians
 Page 54
only while they are at the Mahanubhav temple. They will make an
initial indication of their faith in the baba *, after they are cured
they will not come back. Moreover, for some, the faith expressed is
more like confidence in a doctor than faith in a god. Indeed, for
some, the whole experience from bhut* attack to cure is more
closely analogous to a physical illness or a wound, the subsequent
diagnosis, and convalescence than it is to defilement and cleansing.
In these cases the baba* is seen primarily as a healer. People in this
category would speak easily of one healing center in comparison to
another as if they were comparing hospitals or doctors. They would
speak of the reputation of this baba* or the power of that one
compared to another. Several had visited many healing centers but
"preferred" this one to others or found this one "more convenient."
For many, however, indeed for the majority, the experience of
bhut*badha* is primarily perceived as a religious experience, as an
opening up of the person to the realm of the sacred. In these cases
there are two phenomena to consider: bhut*badha* itself as a
religious experience, and the cure of bhut*badha* as a religious
experience.
There is evidence that bhut*badha* itself is perceived by some
victims as a religious experience. In the same way that an
angat*alela* feels himself to be a vessel filled and exalted, the
bhut*badha* victim feels himself to be a vessel defiled; he feels as
if evil, defilement, chaos, wrongness, disorder have entered him
and taken him over. Moreover, he identifies himself with the world
and feels his "wrongness," chaos, and defilement as part of the
wrongness, chaos, and defilement of the world. This can be seen
both from the observed actions and speech of the victims while
unconscious, i.e., while (from their point of view) their body is
taken over by the bhut*, and form the testimonies of those
interviewed when they are conscious. Many of the unconscious
actions of bhut* victims are confined to certain violent motions of
the body and crying and moaning under the punishment of the
baba*. Most of the phrases recorded are something like "Baba,
don't hit me; don't burn me; Baba,
 Page 55
please leave me, etc." Frequently, however, the victims will
become quite articulate or perform more complex actions, such as
acting out the role of a rebellious agent of chaos or of a polluted or
defiled being. Frequently they will grovel in dirt or filth or some
particularly defiled place or they will walk or crawl in an abnormal
manner, assuming the posture of a deformed monster. One dramatic
example of this kind of behavior is the attitude assumed by the bhut
* victims who come before a well-known Bhavani angat*aleli* in
Bombay. As a bhut* victim approaches her, he immediately falls on
the ground and puts his neck against her right foot (i.e., against the
foot of Bhavani). She then puts her foot on the neck of the bhut*
victim in the classical position of Bhavani conquering a demon.
Thus, unconsciously, the spirit victim has identified with the
traditional agents of disorder and chaos and, in the presence of
Bhavani, has submitted to being conquered, thus restoring order to
the personality.
In some cases evidence is verbal as well as visual. Occasionally a
bhut* victim becomes quite articulate and carries on a long
dialogue with the baba*. In these cases nearly always the victim
plays the role of a rebellious agent, rebelling against the baba's*
power and determined to continue to cause what chaos he can. The
twelve-year-old girl (possessed by the bhut* who strikes her head
against the stone wall) addresses the baba* thus: "Who are you?
Who do you think you are that you are so strong? Are you a dada*
(slum boss)? Are you going to fight with me now? If you are a
dada*, I have seen so many dadas* like you. (Pause) Please stop!
Please don't hurt me! I will leave her! (Short pause) Why are you
laughing? If you laugh I will stay and disturb her. I won't leave her!
(Several screams.) I will leave now, but I will come again to disturb
her."
Interviews with spirit victims when they are conscious and with
previous victims after they are healed provided another source of
evidence that badha* is sometimes experienced as being taken over
by wrongness and chaos. They speak of being overcome by a
general feeling of wrongness. They can't seem to do anything right.
Even things they
 Page 56
know how to do well (e.g., cooking) are frequently spoiled. They
fight with friends for no reason. They can't understand what has
come over them, or what has gotten into them, but something
extraordinary has radically changed their life, making it all wrong.
One former victim put it this way, ''I don't know how to say it.
Then everything was wrong not only with me but my sister, and all
the family was sick. It was all wrong. Now I am fine and my sister
is happy and everything is all right."
As I have shown, some spirit victims seem to experience their cure
(as they did their treatment) largely as a profane or secular
experience. They were sick; they went to a healing center; now
they are well. They are pleased; they return to their normal life. For
many, however, the experience of "becoming right" results in a
lasting bond of loyalty and devotion between the victim and his
baba *loyalty and devotion that can only be understood in religious
terms. In all of my interviews I would ask informants their opinion
of other healing centers. As I have shown above, some would
readily make comparisons and give reasons for preferences. From
many, however, I would get nothing but more praise of their baba*
A typical response is this one of a man at Mira Wali Darga,
Ahmednagar: "I have absolute faith in this baba*. There may be
others. I don't know about that. Through this baba* I became all
right. I have faith only in him." The man is a Hindu. He was cured
several years ago after having a bhut* for several months. Since
then he has come at least once a week and climbed the long hill to
take darshan of his baba*. This pattern is repeated again and again.
Several former victims come daily to the Mira Datar Chillas in
Pune and Bombay to take darshan of the baba*, and many more
come at least once a week. One of my most helpful informants, a
young woman nineteen years old, had been cured of bhut*badha*
seven years ago and has come to the chilla to take darshan without
fail at least once a week for the last seven years.
In some cases the experience of taking darshan or being present for
arati* can still be, years after their cure, a very
 Page 57
moving religious experience. On a Thursday night at the Mira
Datar Chilla I was interviewing the young woman mentioned
above. We had retreated to the sitting room of the Mujavar's house
to escape some of the noise. I had just asked a question and I
looked up when she didn't respond. Unheard by me, the first few
beats of the arati * drum had sounded a block away. My friend, a
Roman Catholic, held up a small hand signaling me to wait for a
moment. She had heard the very first beat of the drum, which for
so long had signaled for her the beginning of the punishment of her
bhut* by her baba*. Her eyes half closed, her lips forming the one
silent word, "Baba," she crossed herself. Then she smiled and said:
"It begins, arati*!." For these people the pattern of loyalty and
devotion established by their cure has, in effect, formed a new
religion. Without leaving their former faith, without ceasing to be a
Hindu or a Roman Catholic, the former spirit victim has become
initiated into a new faithhis treatment, cleansing, and cure form an
informal rite de passage.10
Thus, both bhut*badha* itself and the cure of bhut*badha* are
often perceived as religious experience. When bhut*badha* itself
is so perceived, the experience is the polar opposite of the
experience of angat*yene*. It is an experience of wrongness,
chaos, disorder. The body as temple or vessel is entered and taken
over by a defiling agent, or the body as microcosm is entered and
attacked by agents of chaos and disorder. When the cure of
bhut*badha* is perceived as religious experience it is experienced
as "coming right," as cleansing of defilement or a restoring of
order, and it frequently results in informal initiation into a new
faith.
Notes
1. Bhut* means ghost; badha* means harmful effect. Angat*yene*,
literally "to come into the body," refers to the phenomenon of
possession itself. One who is possessed is called an angat* alela*
(f. angat*aleli*,n. pl.
 Page 58
angat *aleli*). The author has preferred, m the case of this
usage, to use the indicated Marathi plural form rather than the
English "s."
2. See Anne Feldhaus' article in this volume.
3. This is also the view that is stressed in the Agni Purana* and the
Garuda*Purana*. For a summary of the Puranic material see
Thomas (1966:11-13; 48-49).
4. Devrishis* derive their power from angat*yene*; mantriks*
derive theirs from the chanting of incantations (mantras).
5. Kal Bhairav is a form of Shiva; see also Sontheimer's article in
this volume. For Dattatreya, see the article by Charles Pain with
Eleanor Zelliot.
6. It would seem that the list of Hindu gods who do possess people
corresponds closely to those ancient non-Aryan Maharashtrian
gods who are gradually being assimilated into the great tradition as
avatars of Shiva and Parvati [see Kosambi 1962: 139-43 and 121-
22).
7. Wallace 1966: 141-49; cf 209. Though Wallace may be
overstating the case, Metraux's findings in Haiti (1959: 419-20)
give some support to the notion that the psychodynamics of the two
phenomena are sometimes similar. Metraux's study shows that in
the culture of Haiti god possession (or loa possession) sometimes
seems to satisfy obscure cravings which have a masochistic
tendency. He cites as examples the hurling of the self to the ground,
the banging of the head against the wall, etc. Metraux's findings in
this regard are confined to loa possession which parallels
angat*yene*. He does not make a similar observation about
possession by evil spirits, which would parallel the Maharashtrian
phenomenon of bhut*badha*. It should be noted that Metraux
discounts the claim that ritual possession in Haiti can be entirely
explained as compulsive neuroses or hysteria (421-22), pointing
out the stylized and controlled nature of the phenomena as well as
its frequency. It should also be noted that other scholars emphasize
a distinction between the two phenomena. Thus de Waal Malefijt
(1968: 251) labels the one (analogous to angat*yene*) "spirit
intrusion" and the other "spirit possession." She suggests
distinguishing between the two on the basis of whether they are
voluntary or involuntary. Cf. Lewis (1971: 46-47; 64) who prefers
the terminology of controlled and uncontrolled to denote this
distinction.
8. See Eliade (1957) for the development of this concept.
9. See Eliade (1957: 1-72).
10. The concept of informal initiation has been developed by
Pressler (1965) to denote initiation into a new religion which is
unexpected and unintended and accomplished without leaving any
of one's former religious affiliations.

References
Beattie, J.H.M. 1967. "Consulting a Nyoro Diviner: the Ethnologist
as Client." Ethnology 6:57-65.
 Page 59
Crooke, W. 1896. The Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern
India, second edition. Westminster: Archibald Constable & Co.
Third reprint in 2 vols: Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1968.
Das Gupta, S. 1969. Obscure Religious Cults. Calcutta: K.L.
Mukhopadhyay.
de Beauvoir, S. 1968. Forces of Circumstances. Translated by
Richard Howard. Middlesex: Penguin. First published in 1963.
de Wall Malefijt, A. 1968. Religion and Culture. New York:
Macmillan.
Dowson, John. 1926. A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology.
London: K. Paul, Trench, Trubner.
Dube, S.C. 1955. Indian Village. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University
Press.
Dubois, J.A. 1906. Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies.
Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Eliade, Mircea. 1937. "Cosmical Homology and Yoga." Journal of
the Indian Society of Oriental Art 5:188-203.
. 1958. Patterns in Comparative Religion. Cleveland: Meridian.
. 1957. The Sacred and the Profane. New York: Harper.
Enthoven, R.E. 1924. The Folklore of Bombay. Oxford: Clarendon
Press.
Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency. 1885 (Vol. 18, part 1, Poona)
and 1886 (Vol. 24, Kolhapur). Compiled by James M. Campbell.
Bombay: Government Central Press.
Ghurye, G.S. 1962. Gods and Men. Bombay: Popular Book Depot.
. 1953. Indian Sadhus. 2nd ed. Bombay: Popular Prakashan.
Reprinted in 1964.
Kosambi, D.D. 1962. Myth and Reality. Bombay: Popular
Prakashan.
Lewis, I.M. 1971. Ecstatic Religion: An Anthropological Study of
Spirit Possession and Shamanism. Middlesex: Penguin Books.
Metraux, A. 1959. "A Selection from Voodoo in Haiti."
Anthropology of Folk Religion. Edited by Charles Leslie. New
York: Vintage. Reprinted in 1960.
Pressler, H.H. 1965. "Informal Initiation Among Hindus and
Moslems." Initiation. Edited by C.J. Bleeker. Leiden: Brill.
Thomas, P. 1966. Incredible India. Bombay: Taraporevala.
Underhill, M.M. 1921. The Hindu Religious Year. Calcutta:
Association Press.
Wallace, A.F.C. 1966. Religion: An Anthropological Approach.
New York: Random House.
Whitehead, Henry. 1921. The Village Gods of South India. London:
Oxford University Press.
 Page 60

5
Scattered Voices: The Nature of God
Editors' Introduction
Studies of Hinduism tend to fall into either of two categories, those
dealing with philosophical Hinduism and those dealing with
popular Hinduismthe latter usually on the village or tribal level.
The casual student often gets the impression that the "great"
philosophic tradition is uncompromisingly monistic and sees the
Absolute only in impersonal, negative terms, while the "little
tradition" of the Hindu populace involves primitive faith and
practices untouched by "higher" speculation. The reality, as always,
is more complicated. The traditions are not rigidly
compartmentalized but are constantly interpenetrating.
The "scattered voices" presented here show a striking convergence.
In the excerpt from his article "The Role of Man in Hinduism,"
Professor Dandekar shows how in Hinduism "absolute monistic
idealism and passionate devotionalism . . . abide side by side
without any conflict."
The next two selections, brief comments by people of
 Page 61
little or no education, show the ease with which ordinary people
handle the difficult concept of the nature of God. These comments,
taken from interviews conducted by Maxine Berntsen, come out as
spontaneous poetry.
The last voice is that of the dalit poet Narayan Surve. In his poem
he juxtaposes his identification with Brahma, Marathi for brahman,
the absolute, with the reality of his homeless conditiona
juxtaposition raising social irony to a cosmic level. (E. Z. and M.
B.)

The God-Consciousness of Hinduism*

The consideration of the role of man in relation to god is relevant
to our discussion of the Hindu concept of man. Just as the
philosophical approach to the problem of the role of man gives rise
to the dualism between the essential self and the empirical self, so
the religious or theistic approach presupposes the dualism between
man and god. Philosophically, this dualism between man and god is
inadmissible for essentially man is god. The very concepts of man
and god cannot be said to possess absolute reality; they belong to
the realm of the world of experience. That is why many
philosophical systems in India are essentially non-theistic or
supertheistic. They are not required to posit the existence of a
personal god in order to answer the various cosmological,
psychological, metaphysical, and even ethical questions which they
have raised in the course of their spiritual quest. This does not,
however, mean that Hin-duism has nothing to do with god. On the
contrary, Hinduism, particularly popular Hinduism, is crowded
with gods. Hinduism is certainly god-conscious, indeed very much
so.
It redounds to the glory of Hinduism that in it absolute
* From "The Role of Man in Hinduism," in The Religion of the
Hindus, edited by Kenneth A. Morgan (New York: Ronald Press,
1953) 131-33.
 Page 62
monistic idealism and passionate devotionalism should abide side
by side and without any conflict. What is still more creditable is
that Hinduism has achieved this marvelous feat in a more or less
rational manner through the assumption of the possibility of two
points of view in philosophical matters: the absolute point of view
and the relative point of viewthe one not spurning the other, each
possessing reality in its own way, and each independently leading
to the final goal. The proverbial catholicity of the Hindu mind is
also, in no small measure, responsible for what would appear to a
casual observer to be the paradoxes of Hinduism. Indeed, one of
the most beautiful of such paradoxes is to be seen in the fact that a
staunch monistic idealist like Sankara has composed some of the
sweetest and most stirring hymns in praise of personal divinities.
To put it in broad but philosophically not quite precise terms, god
stands in the same relation to the Supreme Being as an individual
does to the essential self. Thus the relation between god and man is
in many ways influenced by the relation between the Supreme
Being and the essential self. Theistically, the goal sought by man is
either to live in the same world as god, or to be nearest to god, or to
assume the same form as god, or, finally, to achieve intimate union
with god. It will be seen that, while the first three goals more or
less represent the stages leading to the last goal, the last goal is but
a reflection of the philosophical goal of the mystic union of the
essential self with the Supreme Being. The philosophically
accepted identity between the Supreme Being and the essential self
is sometimes qualified in theism by suggesting that god and man
are identical in essence but different in form. What sparks are in
relation to fire, men are in relation to god. A further development
of this partial separateness of man from god is that god is described
as being not really external to man, but as being the inner controller
in man. Theism describes god as the efficient directive cause in
man's life.
This theistic approach conceives of god as the creator and moral
governor of man and the universe, the dispenser
 Page 63
of the law of karma. It is interesting to note, in this connection, that
even though he accepts the complete separateness and the awe-
inspiring distance between man and god, the Hindu seeks to
achieve a direct personal communion with god through a complete
surrender of his whole being to god. This is the ideal of a Hindu
devotee. Devotion, bhakti, according to the Hindu view, implies
dedicating all one's actions to god, rendering service to him, and
meditating on him in single-pointed concentration; devotion
requires that man rid himself of all consciousness of "I" and "my,"
and develop an attitude of being the same to all god's beings,
whether friend or foe; and, paradoxical as it may seem, devotion
requires that the devotee create in himself a peculiar mystic power
through surrender, humility, and faith. Prayer, worship, ritual, and
religious observances have places in the Hindu religious practice,
but the doctrine of true devotion must be regarded as the most
potent factor which governs the role of the Hindu in relation to
god.
R.N. Dandekar

What is God Like**

The saints have said, "I am weary from thinking about the nature of
God." Why? Because the truth about God is that He is like the
covering of the sky, without form, quality, or color. . . . God has no
name, no form, no color. He is unseeable and unknowable, fixed,
unmoving, without form. Then what can we say about Him? Can
we describe the shape of happiness? If I went out of this room and
found a hundred-rupee note I would be happy. And if someone
asked me what this happiness is likeis it green, yellow, turquoise,
blue? I'd say no. "Well, is it ten feet long, five feet deep, and three
feet wide?" "No, not that either." "Well, blue,
** This and the anonymous statement that follows were collected in
taped interviews by Maxine Berntsen.
 Page 64
yellow, purple?" "No, not that either." "Salty, hot, sour?" "No, not
that." "Then what is it like?" ''It's just happiness," I answer.
Happiness has no length or width. No one can say what God is like.
Anonymous

Can the Wind be Seen?

Parmeshwar is One,
He is called by different names,
He is in everything.
What is Parmeshwar like?
Why, have we gone to see?
He cannot be seen.
Can the wind be seen?
We can feel it, that much is sure.
Anonymous

For I Am Brahma***
I will protect all that belongs to Brahma,
all that is Brahma.
I'll undo the knot of time.
I'll bring the world to my door,
where it will frolic like a child.
I'll play lagori * with the sun.
I'll tie up big clouds like cows outside my house.
I'll milk them to fill pots with ambrosia.
I'll hold the wind in my yard,
where it will spin like a top.
I'll raise the rooftops of heaven.
*** "Aisa* ga* mi* Brahma (For I am Brahma)," from the book of
the same title (1962; Bombay: Popular Prakashan, 1971). In this
direct translation we have kept the Marathi Brahma for the Sanskrit
brahman.
 Page 65
I'll straighten out the bending sky,
single-handed,
and punish whoever bent it in the first place!
The mole's mountain, the mountain's mole
they're both inside of me.
For I am Brahma. I hold the world together
I, the helpless one,
without even a room to call my own.
Narayan Surve
Translated By Jayant Karve And
Eleanor Zelliot With The Assistance
Of Pam Espeland
 Page 67

II.
THE PRACTICE OF FAITH
 Page 69

6
"A Town without a Temple": An Essay*
Irwati Karve Translated by Jai Nimbkar
We had been walking down that road every day for some time.
There was a new colony being built, and we saw small new houses
gradually taking shape. Finally the colony was finished. Many of
the houses were now occupied. On one side of the colony an empty
lot was left. One day a foundation was dug on it which looked
different from the foundations of the houses. In a very short time a
small temple was erected there. One day we saw a crowd in the
temple yard. An image of Maruti was being installed. By the time
we came back, the Maruti was standing in the temple facing us!
"Another new temple! As though Pune doesn't have enough
temples."
* "Devalavina * gao*," from Gangajal* [Ganga Water] (1972; Pune:
Desh-mukh and Company, 1977).
 Page 70
"But you see, this new colony did not have a temple. Now these
people have a place to come for darshan, to come and sit in the
evenings."
"Nonsense! What's the need for a temple in every little new colony
that comes up? The bhajan in the early mornings and evenings will
only drive people out of their minds."
I smiled and said something softly to myself.
"What are you mumbling?"
"Nothing. I was thinking of an old Tamil saying." I said it again,
and translated it literally, "One should not have a house in a town
without a temple." I went on, "Who knows who the ancient man
was, but he felt that he couldn't live in a town where there was no
temple. It doesn't seem as though there could have been a town
without a temple in the old days when this proverb came into
being. That time is past now, but the old habits of thinking have
taken root in the mind. The people who are building this new
colony in Pune probably don't know the Tamil proverb but their
pattern of thinking is the same."
"What is this pattern? What sort of form does it take?"
I thought for a minute. I realized that this was a good opportunity
to show off my learning. I said, "Last year I was reading an old
book, probably from the thirteenth or fourteenth century. It was
written in Sanskrit and was all about town planning and the
planning of a house. I couldn't quite understand all of it, but some
things in it were clear. In planning a town you first determined the
directions and drew a quadrangle. Then you divided each side of
the quadrangle into eight equal parts and drew sixty-four
quadrangles inside and named each of these after a deity. The
biggest building was the temple and its yard was in the center.
Then came the palace or the residence of the royal family. Then the
street with big houses belonging to the noblemen. Then, starting
from very wealthy merchants, merchants who dealt in diamonds
and precious stones, the plan went on to indicate the placement of
the greengrocers' shops, shops selling salt and spices, shops of the
middleclass traders, then outside the quadrangle of the city, the
houses of the Un-
 Page 71
touchables, and even further away, the houses of the engineers and
the carpenters.
"The temple in its quadrangle was always the reference point to
indicate the location of any place in the town. Making use of gods
and temples in this way, to assign locations in a town, was a new
idea to me. However, I realized that the science of engineering had
not created these gods. The writer of this book had merely made a
very clever use of already existing gods. The book not only
specified where each person's house should be, it also decreed that
all houses on one street should have the same height, and specified
how tall, that is, how many stories, the houses on each street should
be. It said that the temple at the center of the town should be its
tallest building.
"There was a rule that the palace should be lower than the temple
and the Brahmans' houses lower than the palace. However
important the Brahmans considered themselves, the king, who was
the representative of Vishnu, was naturally more important than
they. And God himself was more important than his representative.
A traveller coming from afar should know by a glimpse of the
temple spire that a town is near. The temple spire was symbol of
the existence of the town, of its wealth and pride. In Maharashtra,
if you discount the hill temples, the temples built in towns on level
ground are not very grand. But in the South we still see such very
tall and grand temples. The gopuras of the temple of
Meenakshisundaram at Madura can be seen from anywhere within
a radius of five to ten miles. Christian churches are also built on the
same lines. The book I mentioned has used temples to fix the
location of places. Formerly, temples were used in the same way in
Pune too. There were Bhangya Maruti (Hashish Maruti) and
Pasodya Vithoba (Vithoba of the quilts). In the prostitutes' colony
there was even a Chhinal Maruti (Whoring Maruti)."
"Was that all the temples were for?" came the sarcastic question in
response to my lecture. "So that one can give the accurate address
for one's house by a reference to a temple?"
 Page 72
"No, a temple is the focus of a community's faith, a symbol of its
hopes and aspirations. A town which does not have a temple is a
place without faith, a place where people have no collective
aspirations. That is why one shouldn't live there. This is how you
have to interpret the proverb."
"What exactly do you mean by a temple? It's a building constructed
in the name of something that doesn't exist, isn't it? What can it
symbolize?"
"In a way what you say is true. A temple gives form to the
formless. It is where that which has no beginning is installed, and
on occasion that which has no end is destroyed. There is something
called 'sat' which we are not, although we are aware of its
existence. We give this 'sat' various forms. That is God. We ask
from God what we cannot ask from man. We ask for a permanent
haven, justice, security, peaceor ask for help for the need of the
moment. If nothing else, we go to a temple to get a moment's
respite from the turmoil of daily life. Some people don't approve of
the idea of such refuge; some feel the need of it. They feel that
there is something which is unquestionably superior to them and
that the temple is a symbol of it."
"You were describing the height and grandeur of a temple. But
aren't palaces, and the Taj Mahal, also grand? Aren't they also
symbols of some kind of grandeur?"
"They are not only grand, they are also beautiful. But they cannot
become places of worship. Some people had nursed the silly hope
that educational institutions could become the symbols of this kind
of noble and divine feeling, but they couldn't. There are religions
which destroy the temples of others, there are people who shatter
their own temples and sever their own association with the past. In
such times a man who says one shouldn't live in a town without a
temple will undoubtedly be judged as foolish. Even so there are
many people who feel the way he does. As far as they are
concerned, the grandeur or beauty of a temple has secondary
importance. It is the idol inside which has been for centuries the
repository of people's pain, com-
 Page 73
passion, peace, and sanctity. Our feelings are quite different when
we see the Taj Mahal or the Jaipur palace, and when we see the
image of Vitthal at Pandharpur. This Tamil man seems to say that
there are no feelings where there isn't a temple, and that is why one
shouldn't live there."
"Things like drainage, shops, clean residential areas, roads, a
hospital are necessary to a town. Parks and means of entertainment
are also needed along with these, and schools, colleges, and
libraries. But what's the point of a temple? These other things make
life pleasanter. What does a temple do?"
"When you have all the good things in the world, do you wish for
nothing more? Even when you have everything you still feel a
longing for something. You are aware that there is something
beyond physical comfort. Even if everybody were happy, some
problems would still remain. This is not a facetious question, like
asking, if there are no poor what would happen to the people who
are trying to better their lot, or, if there are no ignorant people,
what will happen to those who are trying to educate them. I am also
not claiming that God has kept the world imperfect just so man can
have something to aspire to. Even if the world were perfect, we
would still continue to feel that there is something lacking. And a
temple is the symbol of our desire to rectify the lack."
I thought of a new idea. I said, "Our saints have called the body
'bodytown.' They maintained that there should be a temple in this
town too. They felt that there must be a god inside you even if
there wasn't one in the town outside. Even when you have attained
everything that is attainable in life, your mind still strives for
something. A kind of restlessness eats at you. There is something
that makes you feel insecure."
She stopped me and asked, "Isn't all this due to an awareness of
death? Even when you are very happy, the thought that there is an
end to this happiness torments you. However many close friends
you have, the feeling that you are alone, that you are going to
remain alone and die alone, overwhelms you. The mental struggle,
restlessness, help-
 Page 74
lessness, all of it may be because of this. It may not represent the
thirst, the struggle, to find the god in your heart at all."
"That may be true. There are both kinds of people. Some are
looking for God within themselves, for some meaning in existence.
And some believe that life is totally meaningless, but that they
should nevertheless make it as happy as possible, live and let others
live with dignity. In a way these idealists have found some kind of
god. Some don't have even this idealism. They live only for
themselves. They go on taking whatever they can from the world,
and one dayone momentthey perceive their own loneliness,
helplessness, and uselessness with such intensity that it becomes
impossible for them to continue living and they commit suicide.
"You know about my young friends, Bal and Lahani. What fine
children they were! They had everything. On the surface both
seemed enviable. Both lived completely and enjoyed life. One of
them committed suicide in a foreign country, far away from his
family, alone. All that remained was a letter he had written to
father.
"The other committed suicide one day in a house full of people.
The helplessness and loneliness in her last letter was heartrending.
She had everythingmother, brothers and sisters, husband, children,
wealth, education, looks, friends. Then why this loneliness? These
two made those left behind forever guilty. Why? Why?
"I have been asking this question for many years. Now I think that
in their town there was neither God nor temple. In the midst of a
full life they must have suddenly had this overwhelming sense of
aloneness."
Without a moment's delay came the question, "But why then did
Dnyaneshwar die? He certainly was not without God, was he?"
I replied just as quickly, "His God and his temple had become so
large that his small body could no longer contain them. The bonds
of the body became impossible to bear. It was not possible to exist
within the body and become as great as God. That is why he died."
 Page 75
The thread of the conversation was broken. Each was engrossed in
her own thoughts. I was trying to find an answer to a puzzle.
Bal, Lahani, and Dnyaneshwar had been brought together, even if
only in the course of the conversation. They had all committed
suicide before the age of twenty-five.* Was this the only similarity
among them? Behind the similarity, didn't they also have in
common the intensity of awareness and the impatience to translate
the awareness into action? All three had run to embrace death.
And the rest of us? Have we ever wondered whether there are gods
in our town? Have we ever asked ourselves whether we are empty
or full? We have been alive since birth, slowly walking the road
without giving it any conscious thought, until we collide with
death.
She heard my sigh and asked anxiously, "What is the matter?"
The answer came out of my bottomless emptiness, "Nothing,
nothing at all."
* Editors' note: Dnyaneshwar, the thirteenth century saint-poet,
entered samadhi * at the site of the temple in Alandi after completing
his commentary on the Bhagavad Gita*. Samadhi*? is almost
untranslatable. At times, scholars have used "religious suicide" to
indicate that the saint has deliberately ended his earthly duties.
Devotees, however, believe the saint still lives, and samadhi* is never
synonymous with suicide or death. Irawati Karve here deliberately
uses the word suicide, we feel, to startle her readers into reflection.
 Page 76

7
The Ganesh Festival in Maharashtra: Some
Observations
Paul B. Courtright
The tradition of devotion to the god Ganesh or Ganpati among
Maharashtrian Hindus can be divided into two component parts:
the sectarian and the general or universal. Sectarian Ganesh
devotees (Ganpatyas or the Ganesh sampraday *) can be traced
back as early as the sixth or seventh centuries.1 As a sectarian
movement, the Ganpatyas were small in number and confined, for
the most part, to Brahmans who worshipped Ganesh as their family
deity (kuladaivat), or devoted themselves to Ganesh for reasons of
personal choice (ishtadaivat*). To Ganesh sectarians, Ganesh was
the symbol for the transcendental monistic principle, brahman, and
devotion to him was reputed to yield the fulfillment of one's desires
and protection against obstacles. The Ganesh cult in Maharashtra
fully bloomed during the rule of the Brahman Peshwas, rulers of
the Maratha Kingdom in the eighteenth century. They themselves
worshipped Ganesh as kuladaivat and supported the major cult
centers at Morgaon, Theur, and Chinchwad, all of which
 Page 77
are located in Pune District. In addition they sponsored Ganesh
festivals, principally the festival during the Hindu month of
Bhadrapad (August/September) in a quasi-public manner to
demonstrate their religious sentiments and to invoke Ganesh to
protect them from obstacles.
Today the Ganesh cult remains, as it always has been, small and
principally confined to Deshastha and Konkanastha Brahmans and
oriented around eight cult and pilgrimage centers, the
Ashtavinayaks *, located mainly in Pune and Thana Districts. The
cult center at Chinchwad, near Pune, is not one of these eight but
remains an important Ganpatya center. In addition to these sites,
there are approximately eighty Ganesh temples in Maharashtra.2
While they are scattered over the state, the greatest concentration
of them is in Thana, Kolaba, Ratnagiri, Pune, and Satara Districts.
The general or universal devotion to Ganesh is expressed by
Hindus of all castes and sects on a more intermittent basis. Ganesh
is worshipped along with other deities and is exhorted on numerous
occasions for protection from misfortune. Hindus regard him as
Lord of Obstacles or Over-comer of Obstacles. Exclusive worship
of Ganesh occurs during the Bhadrapad festival which lasts for ten
days. This festival, originally confined more to sectarian
Ganpatyas, was brought into public and general observance
through the efforts of Bal Gangadhar Tilak in Pune in 1893 and
after (Barnouw 1954; Cashman 1970, 1975) and given an explicit
political role as a means of mobilizing large numbers of Hindus
behind the objectives of religious revival and political
independence. The festival continued to increase in size and
importance both as a religious and political event during the years
of struggle for independence. Since 1947 it has shifted its emphasis
away from the political to the more religious and social. The
Ganesh festival today is the largest Hindu public religious
performance in Maharashtra and is regarded by Maharashtrian
Hindus as particularly expressing their regional religious ethos.
How is the vitality of the festival to be accounted for? What sorts
of religious values and emotions find expression
 Page 78
through it? What can an examination of the festival tell us about
specifically Maharashtrian Hindu sensitivities? In an attempt to
suggest some possible answers to these questions, we shall look at
the operative mythology of Ganesh from a structural perspective, 3
and then turn to the patterns of social organization which are
employed to carry out the festival's celebration. We shall try to
show that the mythological and ritual structures are homologous
and represent a consistent and coherent religious pattern. In the
discussion of the festival's social organization, the author will draw
upon his own field research carried on principally in Ahmednagar
District.
The Mythology of Ganesh
Ganesh, ''Lord of Divine Hosts," "Son" of Shiva and Parvati, is the
improbable deity who is portrayed as having a corpulent human
body and an elephant's head. He is usually represented
iconographically seated or standing, having four arms and carrying
in his two left hands a tray of modak, a sweet preparation used in
his worship, and a noose of rope used in binding an adversary's
hands. On his right side, one hand holds either an elephant's goad
or a parashu (a battle-axe); the other hand is in the varadahasta
mudra or "boon conferring" posture.
Ganesh is known by a number of names in Maharashtra. The most
frequently used are Ganpati, "Leader of the Divine Hosts";
Gajanan, "Elephant-faced"; Vighneshwar, "Lord of Obstacles";
Vinayak, "Remover of Hindrances"; Mangalmurti, "Auspicious
Image"; and Moreshwar, "Lord of Moraya" or the "Lord of the
Shrine at Morgaon." Of these names, only the last two,
Mangalmurti and Moreshwar, are regional and particular to
Maharashtra. The others are Sanskritic and recognized throughout
India. All of these names relate to Ganesh's mythological functions,
to his physical description, or to his cult.
Most of the Puranic myths about Ganesh tell about his birth, how
he acquired his elephant head, and how he took
 Page 79
on his divine role. An examination of the structure of these myths
in terms of how their themes are related will give us a clearer idea
of Ganesh's role. The first two myths we shall consider are from
the Sivapurana *. and the Skandapurana* respectively, and they
have been confirmed by this author to be currently known, with
minor variations, in Maharashtra.
Once upon a time, Jaya and Vijaya, the two companions of Parvati*,
suggested to her that, though she had Nandi and Bhringi* and the
others among Siva's* attendants as his servants, still it would be
better for him if she had a person as her own servant. Parvati* took
the advice in good part and it so happened subsequently that, on the
occasion when she was bathing in the inner compartments of her
mansion, Siva*, not knowing where she was at that moment, went
into the place where she was bathing. Parvati* realized the value of
the advice of her friends fully and then resolved upon creating a
person who would be her faithful servant. She took a little dirt from
her skin and created out of it a lovely being and ordered him to keep
strict guard at her gate so as not to allow anyone inside without her
permission. Once, Siva* himself happened to go to meet his consort,
but could not get access to her apartments as the new gate keeper
would not allow him in. Siva* tried entreaties and threats, none of
which proved effective. Then he resolved upon forcing his way in
somehow. On noticing this, the new gate keeper administered a few
cuts to Siva* with his cane and drove him out. Incensed at the
behavior of this insignificant servant of his consort, he ordered his
host of demons to kill him at once. In the fight that ensued, Siva's*
host of demons were completely defeated and driven away. Then
Visnu*, Subramanya and the others tried on behalf of Siva*, but their
strength with Vighnesvara* did not meet with better result. Then
Parvati*, upon seeing that her son Vignesvara* was fighting single-
handedly against powerful opponents, sent two minor goddesses to
his help. By their mysterious power they drew toward themselves all
the missiles aimed against Vighnesvara* and protected him from
injury. Finding that direct methods of attack did not succeed, Visnu*,
 Page 80
through his maya * (divine power), caused confusion. Thereupon, the
two minor goddesses, finding their presence no longer of use there,
returned to Parvati*. Then it became easy for Siva* to cut off and
remove the head of Vighnesvara*.
The news of the destruction of her son was conveyed to Parvati* by
the sage Narada*; and on hearing it she became so angry that she
created a thousand fighting goddesses to bring trouble on all those
who took part in the destruction of Vighnesvara*. These goddesses
attacked the gods and made them feel very miserable. To rescue gods
from this pitiable condition, Narada* and the other sages prayed to
Parvati*, who promised to restore peace as soon as her son was
brought back to life. Siva*, on hearing this, ordered the gods to
proceed to the north at once and bring back the head of the first living
being they met and fix it on the neck of the beheaded son of Parvati*.
The gods immediately proceeded and came across an elephant; they
cut off its head and brought it and attached it as directed to the trunk
of Vighnesvara*. When Parvati*saw her son brought back to life in
this manner, she felt pleased and took him into the presence of Siva*.
Vighnesvara* apologized to Siva* and the other gods for his past
remisses in conduct and bowed in deep reverence to his divine,
adopted father. Siva* was thereby highly gratified and conferred upon
Vighnesvara* the commandership over his own demon hosts and
anointed him as Ganapati*. (Gopinatha Rao 1968:37-39)
The second myth contains all the same structural elements but in
reverse order.
The immortals and holy sages, observing that, whatever the action
which they or others commenced, whether good or bad, no difficulty
occurred in accomplishing it. Consulting together respecting the
means by which the obstacles might be opposed to the commission of
bad actions, they determined to have recourse to Rudra (Siva*). They
accordingly proceeded to Kailasa* and thus with reverence addressed
him: "O Mahadeva*, God of gods, three-eyed one, bearer of the
trident, it is thou who canst create a being capable of opposing
obstacles to the commission
 Page 81
of improper acts." Upon hearing these words, Siva * looked at
Parvati* and began to consider in what manner he could effect the
wishes of the gods; and as he was immersed in thought, from the
splendor of his countenance (which represents the akasa* portion of
his divine form) sprang into existence a youth shedding radiance
around, endowed with the qualities of Siva*, and evidently another
Rudra, and captivating by his beauty the female inhabitants of
heaven. Uma* (Parvati*) regarded him, and when she saw him thus
lovely, her natural disposition was excited, and incensed with anger
uttered this curse: "Thou shalt not offend my sight with the form of a
beautiful youth, therefore assume an elephant's head and large belly,
and thus shall all thy beauties vanish!" Siva* thus spoke to his son,
"Thou shalt be the chief of the Vinayakas*, Vighnaraja*, the son of
Siva*; thou shalt be the chief of the Vinayakas* and the Ganas*;
success and disappointment shall proceed from thee; and great shall
be thy influence amongst the gods, and in sacrifices and all affairs.
Therefore shalt thou be worshipped and invoked the first on all
occasions or otherwise the object and prayers of him who omits to do
so shall fail. (Gopinatha Rao 1968:40-41)
The first myth may be condensed into the following themes:
Ganesh born in unnatural manner from Parvati's impurities;
assigned the function of guarding her bathing place, Ganesh blocks
Shiva's attempt to reunite with Parvati; quarrel ensues; Shiva
mutilates Ganesh by depriving him of his head; Parvati becomes
incensed with Shiva's action; she creates chaos in the universe, the
immortals approach Shiva for a solution, Shiva replaces Ganesh's
head with that of an elephant; Parvati is reconciled, the universe is
returned to order; Shiva confers on Ganesh his mediatory function
as lord of the divine hosts.
The second myth may be similarly condensed into the following
themes: threat of chaos due to lack of distinction between good and
evil actions; immortals approach Shiva for a solution; Shiva creates
Ganesh in an unnatural manner from his thought; Parvati incensed
at Ganesh's sexuality because he was regarded as a duplicate of
Shiva himself;
 Page 82
Parvati mutilates Ganesh and gives him an elephant's head; Shiva
confers mediatory functions upon Ganesh as lord of the divine
hosts.
We can see the similar structural elements in both these myths if
we set up a diagram in the manner illustrated on page 83. Even
though these two myths are opposite in many respects (in the first
myth Parvati creates Ganesh and Shiva mutilates and restores him
with the elephant's head, while in the second myth it is Shiva who
creates Ganesh and Parvati mutilates him and restores him with the
elephant's head), the overall structure of the two is the same.
Oppositions are set in conflict, they are mediated by a "mutilated"
third category which remains ambiguous and unnatural, but
nevertheless remains the necessary link between the oppositions.
The creation of Ganesh and his mutilation is necessary to restore
the balance in the universe. In the first myth Ganesh is created to
prevent Shiva from uniting with Parvati, and in the second he is
obliged to create obstacles such that the polarities of good and evil
will remain in opposition and not become united thus causing
confusion. In both these myths Ganesh's mutilation is necessary for
the two polar principles of the universe to remain oppositional. His
mutilation may be interpreted as a sexual one if we consider that
his subsequent appearance and role is an asexual one. Although he
is recognized as the "son" of Shiva and Parvati, his sonship is
unnatural and asexual. The paradoxical oppositions (in the first
myth, male-female and the second, good-evil) can be tolerated only
through the mediation of a third element which is neither of the two
but in some sense both. For his pains Ganesh is assigned a
mediating position as the "son" of Shiva and Parvati and as the one
who mediates between success and failure by means of creating or
overcoming obstacles. His visual form as a man-elephant illustrates
his ambiguity. He is neither man nor animal but something else, a
category unto itself. Because he is a mediating figure, neither male
nor female, his character is ambiguous and unpredictable. Related
to this essential ambiguity in Ganesh's character
Page 83
 Page 84
and sexuality as a result of his mediatory role is the theme of
Ganesh-as-trickster. This motif has been pointed out particularly by
Leach (1962:91). In order to illustrate this theme, we can cite two
additional myths:
Ganesa * and Skanda were both courting the same two girls, Siddhi*
and Buddhi*. It was agreed that the brother who could first
circumnavigate the world would win the two girls. Skanda made the
journey, but Ganesa* stayed home and proved through his logical
talents and aptness for quotation that he had already completed the
journey. (Wilkins 1913:334)
Women, barbarians, and Sudras* and other workers of sin obtained
entrance into heaven by visiting the celebrated temple of Somnath*.
Sacrifices, ascetic practices, charitable gifts and all other prescribed
ordinances ceased, and men thronged only to the temple of Siva*.
Hence old and young, those skilled in the Vedas and those ignorant of
them ascended to heaven. At length it became crowded to excess.
Indra and the gods sought Siva's* help in alleviating this situation.
Siva* could not help because he had promised that all who visit this
temple at Somnath* would reach heaven. The gods approached
Parvati* with the same request. She created Ganesa* by rubbing her
body, and said to the gods, "Desirous of your advantage have I
created this being who will occasion men with obstacles, and
deluding them will deprive them of their wish to visit Somnath*, and
thus they shall fall into hell. (Getty 1936:5-6)
Ganesh's ambiguous behavior is consistent with his ambiguous
appearance as a man-elephant and his ambiguous sexuality. This
ambiguity is expressed in terms of his cunning and quick-
wittedness. Because he behaves in unpredictable ways, he must be
propitiated before the devotee can have any hope of achieving his
religious aims. Ganesh's trickster tendencies must be brought under
control through the devotee's ritual actions.
From what we have seen so far, Ganesh functions as the Lord of
Obstacles, the god of the threshold, the keeper of the gate leading
to the divine worlds. He mediates between
 Page 85
human and divine realms. He must be approached with reverence
and respect for his unpredictable disposition. He must be placated
and persuaded not to place obstacles in the devotee's path. One
dare not to presume his behavior, for if it is the deity who can
overcome obstacles, he is also the one who can create them. The
Lord of success is also the Lord of failure.
Ganesh's ambiguous mediator role is brought into clearer relief
when we examine the occasions upon which he is invoked or the
situations in which his help is sought. He is invoked at the
beginning of all rituals, samskaric * or otherwise, before all other
deities (with the exception of funeral rituals). His image is placed
at entrances and doorways to symbolize his role as gate keeper and
mediator between one order of space and another. His blessing is
sought at the beginnings of any new undertakings, such as building
a house, writing or publishing a book, opening a new business,
beginning a journey. Students frequently invoke Ganesh or write
his mantra at the beginning of an examination.4 From this partial
list of occasions when Ganesh is called upon, it will become clear
that his primary role is that of mediator, bringer of good fortune,
expeller of bad fortune. In addition, Ganesh is sometimes referred
to as a god of wisdom, a role usually assigned to Saraswati. This
role can be accounted for either by Ganesh's association with the
writing of books or by his more general mediator function if one
seeks the aid of Ganesh to prevent obstacles and failure in
achieving wisdom.
From this examination of the structure of the Ganesh mythology
and the role he plays in the Hindu devotional system, we can see
that Ganesh is fundamentally a mediating figure between the divine
realm and the domain of human concerns and aspirations. Through
devotion to Ganesh, who is at once the Lord of Obstacles and the
Remover of Obstacles, the devotee hopes to pass beyond such
incumbrances to an experience of temporary religious fulfillment,
or minimally to achieve success in a specific undertaking.
 Page 86

Social Organization and the Celebration of the Festival

It must be pointed out initially that the Ganesh festival is
predominantly an urban phenomenon. Most Maharashtrians regard
Pune as the center of the festival for historical reasons as well as
the fact that in Pune the most lavish decorations can be seen.
However, the festival is also observed on a large scale in all other
Maharashtrian cities and is increasingly filtering into the rural
areas, principally as a festival introduced through the village
schools where it tends to be observed as a "cultural program."
Before discussing the forms of social organization which are
pertinent to the festival itself, we should briefly look at the various
subevents which together make up the festival. For reasons of
space, we shall not take up the private or domestic ritual which are
part of the total festival but which need not be included in order to
understand the overall pattern of the public festival.
A few weeks before the beginning of the festival, the various
voluntary associations (mandals *) collect subscription
contributions, from their own membership or from the
neighborhoods in which their members live, to pay for a clay image
(murti*) of Ganpati, the decorations and materials for the image's
exhibition, and any entertainment and ritual expenses. On the
fourth day of the bright half of the month of Bhadrapad each
mandal*, usually as a group, collects the Ganpati image from the
artist who shaped it or from a merchant and carries it, frequently in
a musician-led procession, to the place where it will remain in
exhibition for the duration of the ten days of the festival. During
this period the exhibition is made increasingly elaborate by
decorations placed around the image itself, such as cloth
background, flowers, other clay-carved figures, loudspeaker
systems for playing recorded devotional and cinema music. The
exhibits are usually adjacent to the public street or in a heavily
traveled area where they will have maximum exposure to the
public. In the evenings during this ten-day period, the mandals*
sponsor "cultural programs" which might include:
 Page 87
singing devotional songs (bhajans); sponsoring elocution contests,
lectures, films, or Marathi dramas (which might be either
legitimate Marathi plays or tamasha *, the traditional folk theatre);
or the putting on of lavish religious rituals (satyanarayan* puja*),
after which consecrated food (prasad*) is distributed to the
assembled crowd. The extravagance of the programs any mandal*
can sponsor depends on the funds it is able to raise from members
or patrons. There is a good deal of competition for public attention
among the various mandals*. The Marathi press devotes an
enormous amount of coverage to the festival and the various
mandals'* exhibitions. The ten-day period of public festivity
culminates on the ninth night with all the mandals* having fully
decorated their exhibitions. The streets become filled with crowds
circulating around to see the mandals'* decorations and to attend
the various programs. Because of the large crowds, a heavy police
contingent is visible to prevent disorder. On the ninth evening, two
hours are specifically set aside for women to circulate around, and
men are prohibited from being in the streets during that time. (In
1970, Ahmednager police officials estimated the total crowd on the
ninth evening at between 50,000 and 75,000, which was nearly
three-fourths of the population of the city.)
The tenth and final day of the festival begins mid-to-late morning
with a procession of the mandals'* images through the length of
the city to a river at the city's edge where the images are
worshipped for a final time and ceremoniously immersed in the
water. The procession, like the events of the previous evening,
draws enormous crowds. The women remain off the streets during
the procession and watch from the balconies. The mandals* mount
the images atop profusely decorated carts and trucks and march
before them dancing, throwing red powder (gulal*), singing,
playing instruments (drums, horns) and lejim* (a folk dance with
sticks), and performing different types of acrobatics. All the forms
of entertainment involve a high degree of cooperation and group
solidarity. The order in which the mandals* appear in the
procession is set, to a certain degree, by tradition,
 Page 88
the rest by a first-come-first-served arrangement. In the 1970
festival procession in Ahmednagar, there were 167 mandals * who
participated, and the procession lasted over eighteen hours. In Pune
over 600 mandals* participated.
Participation in the voluntary festival associations is restricted to
males. The mandals* involved conform to the instrumental-
expressive typology.5 Some mandals* are drawn exclusively from
other types of voluntary associations which are purely
instrumental: i.e., labor unions, employees of private companies,
government workers associations, etc. Most of the mandals* are
either permanently constituted neighborhood organizations, which
carry on other activities during the year such as bhajan singing,
travel-pilgrimage, or social service projects; or they are
neighborhood associations which are brought together expressly
for the purpose of celebrating the festival. In both these cases the
associations are expressive in character. In the case of instrumental
organizations, they take on an expressive function when they are
celebrating the festival. The great majority of the neighborhood
associations are made up of males between the ages of twelve and
thirty. Many of these mandals* call themselves ''youth
associations" (tarun* mandal*). Festival participation is a great
favorite of school boys. Caste does not play a visible part in the
festival, and the mandal* organization reflects caste organization
only to the degree that the neighborhood from which the mandal*
membership is drawn reflects caste exclusiveness. Of twelve
mandals* surveyed in a predominantly Maratha-Mali
neighborhood, all of them had a majority of members from those
castes, but were not exclusively caste organizations. Many
informants emphasized that they were not conscious of caste as a
factor in membership and some indicated that they explicitly
encouraged intercaste membership. Some also expressed the view
that the festival is particularly a time when caste loyalties should
not play a role. The festival is conceived of as a time of unity
among people of all stations in the society.
Members of the mandals* believe the chief values of the
 Page 89

3.
A contemporary Ganesh image in a Pune temple.
Photography by Eleanor Zelliot.
 Page 90

4.
A woman puts the finishing touches on a clay image of Ganesh which will
be painted
and sold for the Ganpati Festival in Pune. Photography by Eleanor Zelliot.
 Page 91
festival are (1) the worship of Ganpati, (2) achieving and
expressing unity of society, and (3) providing a context for
exhibiting "culture." On the second point, several informants
interpreted Ganpati to mean Lord (pati) of the People (gana *) and
saw the festival as a demonstration of India's democratic ideology
and commitment to social progress. On the third point, participants
felt the festival was an opportunity for artists, playwrights, and
musicians to express their creativity. Many of the mandals*
depicted themes from Maharashtrian religious traditions, such as
representations of incidents from the lives of Marathi poet saints or
scenes showing holy sites in Maharashtra. Some political themes
continue to be expressed and tend to focus on obstacle or conflict
situations, such as the "Indicate-Syndicate" split in the Congress
Party, the Maharashtra-Karnataka border controversy, or the
achievement of a manned landing on the moon. These themes are
artistically depicted in the mandal* exhibitions and the image of
Ganesh is always to be found somewhere in the background.
Because of the enormous degree of enthusiasm generated by the
festival and the young age of the majority of participants, the social
fabric of the urban areas is placed under unusual stress. The festive
context relaxes the normal social interaction. Police authorities are
apprehensive about the potential exploitation of this "liminal"
situation by "antisocial elements" who might take this opportunity
to stir up communal grievances, but usually the festival remains a
time of untroubled gaiety.
If we apply the structural model observed in the Ganesh mythology
to the festival itself, we can see the following pattern emerge. The
voluntary associations are structurally in between the involuntary
family-caste set of relationships on the one hand and total
individuality and isolation on the other. The mandals* provide a
mode of association which is particularly supported by males in a
transitional stage between the dependence of childhood and the
independence of adulthood. We can further illustrate this with the
following diagram.
 Page 92
Mediation
More Structured Less
Situation Structured
Situation

On the festival level the fragility of order and less inhibited modes
of behavior such as throwing gulal * and ecstatic dancing would
correspond on the mythological level to Ganesh's ambiguous and
"trickster" role. In addition, the modes of relationships among
members within a given mandal* are characterized by a high
degree of informality and comradeship, or in other words, by a
relative suspension of structures and status-recognizing modes of
interaction. This comradeship is seen by its members as highly
desirable and one of the values of celebrating the festival.
To return to the question of why the festival has caught on in
Maharashtra particularly, we can perhaps suggest some tentative
answers. Clearly, the factors of Tilak's charismatic leadership at the
initiation of the public festival and the association the festival has
had with the independence struggle are important in accounting for
the festival's continued popularity. But an additional explanation
might be suggested in terms of the structural observations we have
made so far. We have observed that the pattern of
opposition/mediation has been characteristic on the level of myth
as well as ritual. If we consider that Maharashtra is a geographical
and cultural unit which lies in between an "Aryanized" north Indian
cultural unit and a "Dravidianized" south Indian one and contains
many aspects of both yet not all of either, we might see how a
myth-ritual complex which articulates a mediation structure at a
number of levels would have a particular appeal to a cultural unit
which itself plays a mediating role in the larger all-Indian cultural
situation. This may also help to explain why so many
Maharashtrian cultural themes are believed to be most
appropriately expressed through the festival. Of course, this
mediating structural pattern is not a conscious aspect of the festival
so far as the participants are concerned. But it
 Page 93
does seem to emerge as a pattern visible from the outside and may
help us to understand one reason why the festival continues in
vitality and increasing numbers of participants.
Notes
1. See Yoroi 1968:8; Ghurye 1962:99-113; Bhandarkar 1965:147-
50.
2. See Gadgil 1967.
3. For a structural analysis of the Pilliyar (Ganesh) mythology of
South India and Ceylon, see Leach 1962) for a more theoretical
discussion of a structuralist approach to the interpretation of myth,
see Levi-Strauss 1955.
4. Personal communication from Professor Norvin J. Hein, Yale
University.
5. See Jacoby and Babchuk 1963:461-71; Sharma 1969:579-94;
Owens and Nandy 1971.

References
Barnouw, Victor. 1954. "The Changing Character of a Hindu
Festival." American Anthropologist 56 (Feb.):74-86.
Bhandarkar, R.G. 1965. Vaisnavism *, Saivism* and Minor
Systems. Varanasi: Indological Book House. First published in
1913.
Cashman, Richard. 1970. "The Political Recruitment of God
Ganapati." Indian Economic and Social History Review 7
(Sept.):347-73.
. 1975. The Myth of the Lokamanya. Berkeley: University of
California.
Courtright, Paul B. 1985. Ganesa*: Lord of Obstacles. New York:
Oxford University Press.
Gadgil, Amerindra. 1967. Sri* Ganes* Kos* [Encyclopedia of
Ganesh]. Vol. 2. Pune: Shriganesh Kosh Mandal.
Getty, Alice. 1936. Ganesa*: A Monograph on the Elephant Faced
God. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ghurye, G.S. 1962. Gods and Men. Bombay: Popular Book Depot.
Gopinatha Rao, T.A. 1968. Elements of Hindu Iconography. Vol.
1,1. 2nd ed. New York: Paragon. Originally published in 1914.
Jacoby, Arthur and Nicholas Babchuk. 1963. "Instrumental and
Expressive Voluntary Associations." Sociology and Social
Research 47:461-71.
 Page 94
Leach, Edmund. 1962. "Pulliyar and the Lord Buddha: An Aspect
of Religious Syncretism in Ceylon." Psychoanalysis and the
Psychoanalytic Review 49:80-102.
Levi-Strauss, Claude. 1955. "The Structural Study of Myth."
Journal of American Folklore 68:428-44.
Owens, Raymond and Ashis Nandy. 1971. "Voluntary Associations
in an Industrial Ward of Howrah, West Bengal, India." Paper
presented to the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian
Studies, Washington, D.C., March 29-31, 1971.
Sarma, Jyotirmoyee. 1969. "Puja Associations of West Bengal."
Journal of Asian Studies 28:579-94.
Wilkins, W.J. 1913. Hindu Mythology: Vedic and Puranic.
Calcutta: Thacker. Originally published in 1882.
Yoroi, Kiyoshi. 1968. Ganesagita *. The Hague: Mouton.
 Page 95

8
The God Dattatreya and the Datta Temples of Pune
Charles Pain with Eleanor Zelliot

The God Datta

The god Dattatreya or Datta has been described as "enigmatic and
fascinating," 1 his legends as "profound and shadowy."2 But in
Maharashtra, he is not only exceptionally popular, he is clearly the
ultimate syncretistic god, an avatar* (incarnation) of Brahma,
Vishnu, and Shiva. The image of Datta usually seen in pictures and
temple images in Maharashtra shows not only the three heads of
the three gods attached to one figure, but also six hands which hold
the emblems of all three gods: the trident and drum of Shiva, the
water pot and lotus (or rosary) of Brahma, the conch and wheel of
Vishnu. Datta is dressed as a Shaiva ascetic, accompanied by a cow
which represents Mother Earth, and by four dogs, which are said to
represent the four Vedas.
This image of Datta has been familiar at least since the seventeenth
century and has been described by Tukaram, the Varkari saint-poet:
 Page 96
I fall prostrate before the one with three heads and six hands
A bag of alms hanging from his shoulder
Dogs in front of him.
He bathes in the Ganga daily.
A staff and water-pot are in his hands;
On his feet are clanking wooden sandals;
On his head a splendrous coil of hair;
On his body beautiful ashes.
Tuka says, I bow to him who is clad in space. 3
The vision of Datta as wandering ascetic is a reflection of the
popular belief that he travels to various holy places in the course of
a day. Thus he takes his morning bath at Hardwar on the Ganga
River or at Panchaleshwar on the Godavari River, which represents
the Ganga for Maharashtrians. He meditates at Girnar in Gujarat;
he begs for alms at midday in the courtyard of the great
Mahalakshmi temple at Kolhapur in Maharashtra; he sleeps at
Mahur, center of the goddess Renuka in eastern Maharashtra. Most
of these places are centers for Goddess worship; Hardwar is a place
frequented by Shaiva ascetics. Connected to the idea of his daily
wandering is the belief that he is an eternal avatar*; unlike other
avatars* whose stay on earth is limited to a period of time, Datta
remains on earth in an invisible form, appearing only to a few.
This popular image of Datta, however, represents only a portion of
the complexities which surround him. Ian Raeside has indicated
something of the difficulty of comprehending the totality of Datta:
Dattatreya, like so many of the gods of Hinduism, swims up into our
awareness from mysterious depths, makes and breaks connections of
which we scarcely know the hundredth part, acquires and discards
legends and philosophical attachments of which only a small fraction
have reached us and still today he is gaining and losing attributes,
shrines, doctrines, swamis and devotees at a rate which an outsider
can only hope to follow by persistent anthropological fieldwork and a
devoted attachment to the hagiographic ephemera of the Deccan cult
centers.4
 Page 97
While much has been written on the Datta cult in Marathi, very
little has been published in English, aside from translations and
discussions of philosophical texts. 5 However, the general history
of the development of the Datta image and legend in Maharashtra
can be broadly sketched. The first references to Datta in Marathi
literature are in the very earliest literature in Marathi, that of the
Mahanubhavs. Here Dattatreya appears as one of the five
incarnations of the Supreme Being, Parmeshwar, along with
Krishna and three sect figures. Current popular worship of Datta in
Maharashtra, however, is not due to the Mahanubhav source. The
Mahanubhav accounts of Datta as well as references to him in
Sanskrit Puranas point to a tradition of Datta worship existing in
northern Maharashtra (or, to be more specific, in the Sahyadri and
Godavari region) well before the thirteenth century.6 At some point
Datta became connected with the traditions of the Nath yogis and
Dasnamis, both pan-Indian Shaiva ascetic orders. Datta has only
minor importance in the Nath tradition of northern India, and his
connection with the Maharashtrian Nath tradition appears to come
rather late. However, he attains prominence in the eighteenth-
century Marathi Nath work Navanathabhaktisara*, where he is
regarded as the founder of the Nath sampraday* (tradition) and
guru of Gorakhnath and Matsyendranath. The connection between
the Datta cult and Nath tradition continues to be very strong.
Datta is also connected with the Varkari cult of Pandharpur through
Janardan Swami, the guru of Eknath (a pivotal figure in the
development of the Varkari tradition and a devotee of Datta).
According to legend, Janardan brought the young Eknath into
spiritual realization by calling up an appearance of Datta, who
came in the form of a Muslim fakir. Only when Eknath recognized
God in the fakir could he achieve spiritual maturity.7
The connections between Datta and the Varkari tradition continue
after Eknath; for example, Tukaram's guru, Sri Raghava Chaitanya,
received initiation by Datta in a vision at Girnar. However, Datta's
importance in the tradition has remained secondary to that of its
main deity, Vithoba.
 Page 98
In the sixteenth century, several streams of the Datta tradition
emerge, each inspired or centered around the idea that Datta,
himself an avatar *, incarnated as a particular saint. Thus the
sixteenth century Datta bhakta, Dasopant, believed in sixteen
avatars of Datta.8 Another stream, which has become the dominant
stream nowadays, is represented by the highly revered Marathi text
Gurucaritra (Life of the Gum). According to this work, Datta
incarnated as two holy men, Shripad Shrivallabha (1320-1350),
who was born in Pithapur in (present-day) Andhra Pradesh, and
Narasimha Saraswati (1378-1458) who was born to a Brahman
family in Karanjangar (Akola District). At the age of ten, Saraswati
was initiated into the Dasnami order in Varanasi, and spent the next
thirty years at various tirthas* in the North. He then returned to the
Deccan, spent some time at Narsobaci Wadi and Audumbar on the
banks of the Krishna, and spent his last twenty-three years at
Gangapur in northern Karnataka, now the most important
pilgrimage place of the Maharashtrian cult. It should be noted that
these saints are considered to be avatars* of Datta; they were not
devotees of Datta.
This seems to be the key to the popularity of Datta today. Not only
is he three gods in one, he is the divine archetypal gum,
reincarnating himself as guru time after time. He also combines
three figures highly revered in Hinduism: the sannyasi*, the guru,
and the avatar*. In addition to Shripad Shrivallabha and Narasimha
Saraswati, many other saints are regarded as avatars* of Datta by
their own particular group of followers; however none of them has
gained the same degree of recognition as these two saints. Many of
the Datta avatars* lived during the past one hundred and fifty
years. The most prominent are Manikaprabhu (1817-65) and the
Swami of Akkalkot (d. 1878). Some of the Datta avatars* belong
to other traditions or sects; for example, Shridhar Swami
(1908-)belongs to the Ramdasi tradition but is considered a Datta
avatar* by some of his followers. The Datta avatars* include
several Muslin saints, such as Noori Maharaj and Alamprabhu, as
well as saints with no definite
 Page 99
Hindu or Muslim affiliation, like Sai Baba of Shirdi. Most of the
Datta avatars * represent the advanced type of ascetic known as
avadhuta* or paramahamsa, typified by Datta.
In his introduction to Avadhoota Gita, a text which bears the
signature line of the Guru-God Dattatreya, Shankar Mokashi-
Punekar summarizes the diverse meanings of Datta:
A study of the profound and shadowy legend of Dattatreya shows him
. . . as the patron of many Indian religious cults. For the Natha sects . .
. he has been the fountain-head of asceticism and siddhis
(supernatural powers), besides being the initiating and interceding
deity. He often leads the ascetics to Shiva or leads Shiva to the
ascetic. He often grants them initiation himself. In Western India, he
has been all of this, and more. He has inspired a number of domestic
virtues and disciplines, arts, poetry and music. . . . Dattatreya means
many things to many people. There are local redactions of his image.
These seem to be capable of bringing about personal transformation.9
The following essay on the Datta temples of Pune10 indicates some
of the meanings of Datta and illustrates the contemporary growth
of the sect. True, the temples are probably less important than the
places of Datta pilgrimage in Maharashtra and Karnataka, and
certainly less ubiquitous than the presence of the Dattatreya name
or picture. But they are the places where the various associations of
Datta meet, where the continuing guru tradition can be seen by all,
and where song and story herald the significance of Datta to his
worshippers.
The Datta Temples of Pune
For many Hindus, including Datta worshippers, the local temple
plays a subordinate role in their religious life in comparison with
the household shrine and the pilgrimage places. This is especially
true in Pune, where there are no imposing, ancient temples. It
seems that many Datta de-
 Page 100

5.
(L)An image of Datta as in carnation of Shiva,
Vishnu, and Brahma in a Pune temple.
Photography by Eleanor Zelliot.
 6.
(R)Gods and gurus in the god-house of a Pune
Brahman family. The top-most image is that
of Datta. Photography by Eleanor Zelliot.
 Page 101
votees rarely visit a temple, and when they do it is only to take
darshan, or view the deity briefly.
The Datta temples of Pune are characteristically small, and many
are inconspicuously hidden behind storefronts. Some are merely
roadside shrines which can be viewed only from the outside. The
larger temples consist of a small meeting hall or sabhamandap *, in
front of an inner shrine or garbhagriha*, generally a small cubicle
which contains the central image of the deity and the utensils used
in worship. From the ceiling of the hall hangs a bell which is rung
by visitors to announce their arrival to the god. As is characteristic
of Shiva temples, there is usually a well-defined corridor
surrounding the inner shrine, with small shrines and pictures along
the way, built for circumambulation (pradakshina*) of the god,
which is a popular act of Datta worship.
The daily program of worship at Pune temples follows a general
pattern observed at other temples. M.S. Mate told me that in
Maharashtra many differences in temple puja*, which once existed
among various cults, have been diminished due to Maharashtra's
peculiar tendency toward religious syncretism. The daily ritual, or
puja*, at Datta temples consists of an early morning session of
bathing, dressing, and anointing the image and offerings of food,
incense, and flowers, and in the evening a brief waving of lights
(arati*) performed by one or two householder priests or pujaris*.
With some exceptions, the pujaris* at Datta temples in Pune are
Deshastha Brahmans, some working part-time and salaried by the
temple management to perform morning and evening worship. On
Thursday, Datta's auspicious day, a more elaborate puja* is
performed.
During my time in Pune in 1969, I was able to locate seven Datta
temples, plus one dedicated to the nineteenth-century Datta
incarnation, the Swami of Akkalkot. Ghurye reported in 1956 that
there were eleven Datta temples in Pune, nineteen Rama temples,
twenty-six Ganpati, fifty-two (of at least fourteen forms of) Devi,
and fifty-four for Vithoba. At the beginning of the nineteenth
century, how-
 Page 102
ever, there was only one Datta shrine, which was inside the private
house of a merchant. 11 Most of the Datta temples in Pune were
built shortly after the turn of the century, the most popular one, the
Dagadu Halwai Datta Mandir, being consecrated in 1904. New
temples continue to be built. One Datta temple in the Cantonment
area of Pune was built as recently as 1960; and a new ashram*
center near Karve Road is dedicated to Julavani Maharaj, an art
teacher in Pune who became a renowned Datta bhakta. If one
observes the pictures of the god in homes, tea shops, storefronts,
and motor rickshaws, it would seem that in this city Datta is a deity
almost more important than any other, except for the ubiquitous
Ganpati.
The three-headed image of Datta is found in most of the Datta
temples in Pune, though one-headed (ekmukhi*) images are found
at the Math of Ganganath Maharaj and the Kala Datta (Black
Datta) Mandir in Kasba Peth, which seems to be a particularly old
temple. The six-armed ekmukhi* image of Datta is found at several
important Datta temples in Maharashtra. Usually in Datta temples,
in front of the main image, are found representations of Datta's
wooden sandals, or footprints, called padukas*. These are the main
object of worship. I have been told by several devotees that the
importance of the padukas* is connected with the idea that Datta is
constantly moving and never in one place for very long.
By the use of various symbols and images, Datta's Vishnu or Shiva
aspect may be emphasized. For example, in the inner shrine of one
temple, a large metal image of Vishnu is situated below the
standing Datta image and there are wall paintings of Vishnu on
both sides of the entrance hall, indicating a strong emphasis on
Datta's Vaishnava aspect. The inner shrine of the Datta mandir on
Parnakuti Hill houses an image (murti*) of Datta with three heads
and padukas* but is significantly connected to a Shiva temple built
into a rock cave, with a small shrine of Shiva's wife, Parvati,
nearby. There is a full-time pujari* in residence here, but as far as I
can tell there is no special worship on either Thursday, Datta's day,
or Monday, Shiva's day.
 Page 103
In the courtyard of Rasta Wada in Pune's Rasta Peth is another
Datta temple which is part of a Vaishnava complex that includes
Ram and Hanuman. However, each temple has its own pujaris *
and there seems to be little interaction between them. In fact, the
Ram temple seems to be nearly out of use. An interesting feature of
this temple is its bearded and mustached three-headed bust of
Datta. Though Datta is usually clean-shaven in iconographic
representation, in many older pictures he has a long, matted beard.
There is a story that a noted classical singer and Datta devotee,
Hirabai Barodekar, had a dream in which Dattatreya appeared as a
bearded man. She searched for a temple with this image and,
finding it, returned once a year to sing a concert to Dattatreya.12
The Datta temple in the courtyard of a Someshwar (Shiva) temple
in Ravivar Peth has a connection with the Nath ascetic order.
Across from the temple is a Nath ashram and nearby are shrines of
Ram, Ganpati, and Parvati. In this temple, Datta is depicted as the
guru of the nine legendary Naths (in Marathi called nao-nath*) and
their pictures are hung along the walls of the sabhamandap*.
Inside the ashram is a sacred fire (called a dhuni*) and pictures of
Shiva, Dattatreya, Hanuman, and Gorakhnath. The wandering Nath
ascetics that I met there were Hindi-speakers and appear to have
come from the North. Once I met an English-speaking Nath ascetic
from the center at Nasik (Maharashtra) who performed some magic
and offered me ganja* (marijuana).13
Halfway between Pune's City Post and the central market, behind
an arcade of shops, is a temple dedicated to the Swami of Akkalkot
(d. 1878), considered by his followers to be the third historical
Datta avatar* (after Shripad Shrivallabha, and Narasimha
Saraswati). Judging from the rich interior of the temple and the
large number of visitors at the place, it seems that the Swami of
Akkalkot has attracted a particularly large following and
widespread recognition in Pune. Inside the main shrine is an image
of the Swami marked by a frowning expression and a prominent
Vaish-
 Page 104
nava tilak mark on his forehead. A large metal naga * (serpent)
hood, a Shaiva emblem, rises behind his head. In front of the image
are several large elliptical stones which the pujari* said were
banalingas, stones naturally shaped by the abrasion of river water
into the phallic symbol of Shiva.
As is typical of Datta temples, there are large brass padukas* of the
Swami, placed during the morning and evening in front of the inner
shrine as the chief object of worship. On the walls of the front hall
are pictures of Dattatreya, Narasimha Saraswati, the Swami of
Akkalkot, and his successor Gajanan Maharaj, as well as a picture
of Dnyaneshwar, the Vaishnava Varkari saint. Outside in the
courtyard is a small shrine of Datta's padukas* and image at the
base of an audumbar tree, which is particularly sacred to Datta.
Many devotees circumambulate the tree as a devotional act. Two
full-time pujaris* are in residence at the temple to attend to the
morning and evening puja* as well as to the influx of visitors who
come to take darshan. Usually, on late Thursday afternoons and
evenings, a group of women assemble here to sing devotional
songs to Datta and Akkalkot Swami.
The most popular Datta temple in Pune is the Dagadu Halwai Datta
Mandir, named after the famous Pune sweet merchant who built
this temple. Datta at this temple is believed to be particularly
jagrit* (awake); his presence is particularly felt here. The facade of
the temple is ornately carved and painted, and the temple is open to
the street. (A site very near the temple is used for a Ganpati booth
during the Ganpati festival; the Dagadu Halwai Ganpati is probably
the most popular in all Pune.) The three-headed image of Datta
inside is easily visible from the street, and in the evening there is
usually a crowd of people pausing outside to take darshan.
The front of the inner shrine is plated with silver and carved with
images of Datta and the sun-god Surya. On the wall in back of the
garbhagriha* linnet shrine) are pictures of Ganpati, the
incarnations of Narasimha Saraswati and Shridhar Swami, and
Shiva.14 Many people who come here
 Page 105
are middle-class Brahmans, though other groups and castes come
too. Occasionally sannyasis * visit and often, particularly on
Guruvar (Thursday, Datta's day), there is a group of beggars sitting
outside in front.
It is a curious feature of the god Dattatreya that he is also the
patron god of prostitutes in Maharashtra. It is said that Dagadu
Halwai, who was something of a social reformer, had this temple
built on the edge of Pune's red light district so that the prostitutes
would have a place to worship. That Datta can be both a god of
Brahmans and ascetics and a god of prostitutes is explained by the
fact that he is an avadhuta*, an advanced type of ascetic, who is
untouched by purity or impurity and who looks upon all beings
impartially.
The puja* at the Dagadu Halwai Datta temple is performed in turn
by five Deshastha Brahman householders from three families. The
temple opens at five-thirty in the morning and unlike the other
Datta temples in Pune has a complete mahapuja* consisting of
sixteen acts of service to the deity. A short arati* is performed at
noon to the accompaniment of drums and flutes. The inner shrine is
then closed until five-thirty, when it is open again for darshan. A
daily evening program of arati* and devotional songs (bhajan)
begins at nine-thirty.15 This bhajan program is attended chiefly by
Brahmans who live near the temple. Clearly, for these people the
temple plays an important role in their religious lives. The program
begins with several short songs and then, to the accompaniment of
drums and cymbals, a small procession of devotees led by the
pujaris* circumambulates the inner shrine three times, pausing in
front of the deity and the sacred pictures, performing arati* and
singing songs. The drums sound loudly, and holy water is thrown
by the pujari* over the group of devotees. Prasad* of
panchamrit*, a mixture of milk, ghee, honey, sugar, and the water
with which Datta's padukas* have been washed, is distributed to
the devotees. A second session of bhajans follows. One of these
songs, a mercy-invoking song by Vasudevananda Saraswati,16
indicates more than others the
 Page 106
Brahmanness of Datta (who is the son of the Brahman sage Atri
and his wife Anasuya):
Hail glorious Shri Guru Datta
Do not be hard-hearted now.
Let the mind that grieved when thieves beat the Brahman grieve now.
Let the mind that grieved when the Brahman suffered pain grieve
now.
Let the mind that showed compassion when the Brahman's son died
not be aloof now.
Let the mind that showed compassion when the widow grieved turn
to me now.
O Shri Guru Datta, leave aside this callousness and turn your tender
heart toward me now.
The evening worship draws to a close around ten-thirty; the deity is
put to sleep and the doors of the inner shrine are closed.
On Thursday evenings, the service begins later and is more
elaborate. A palanquin containing Datta's padukas * and pictures of
Datta and Narasimha Saraswati is brought out by the pujaris*, and
carried in a procession around the inner shrine three times, to the
accompaniment of bhajans, arati*, incense, and drums. The
atmosphere is charged with the spirit of the devotees and a strong
sense of power.
At the time of Datta's birth anniversary, the Datta jayanti* (in mid-
December), this temple and others observe a seven day celebration.
Special bhajans are held, and at Ananda Ashram in Budhwar Peth
a continuous twenty-four hour a day reading of the Gurucaritra is
performed by about two hundred devotees. Other sacred texts are
read by devotees on this occasionthe Datta Prabodh, composed in
1860 by Kavadi Bova, and the Datta Mahatmya* by
Vasudevananda Sarasvati. Both works are in Marathi and describe
the deeds (lila*) of the avatar* Datta, as drawn from the Puranas
and other sources. Both works are relatively late, attesting to the
continuing development of the cult in modern times.
 Page 107

Notes
1. Shankar Mokashi-Punekar, ''An Introduction to Shri Purohit
Swami and the Avadhoota Gita," in Avadhoota Gita (New Delhi:
Munshiram Manoharlal, 1979), p. 7. Mokashi-Punekar's long
introduction to the text is one of the best sources in English on the
Datta cult.
2. I.M.P. Raeside, "Dattatreya." Bulletin of the School of Oriental
and African Studies 45:3 (1982):489.
3. Translated by Charles Pain. This abhanga of Tukaram's is found
in most Marathi pamphlets on Datta worship and in the
Sridattatreya-jnankos * by P.N. Joshi (Bombay: Surekha
Prakashan, 1974), p. 15.
4. Raeside, "Dattatreya*," p. 500.
5. On the Datta cult and philosophy, see Jaya Chamarajendra
Bahadur Wadiyar, Dattatreya, the Way and the Goal (London:
George Allen and Unwin, 1957); Hariprasad S. Joshi, The Origin
and Development of Dattatreya Worship in India (Baroda:
Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, 1965). For a description
of a major pilgrimage place, Gangapur, see M.S. Mate, Temples
and Legends of Maharashtra (Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan,
1962). For Marathi sources, see C. Kulkami, Gangapur*
Mahatmya* ani* Sri* Datta Upasana* (Belgaum: Saraswati Book
Collection, 1969); R.C. Dhere, Dattasampradayaca* Itihas*, 2nd
ed. (Pune: Nilkanth Prakashan, 1964); and the encyclopedic
Sridattatreya-jnankos* by P.N. Joshi.
6. See Raeside, "Dattatreya*," p. 496.
7. See Eknath: a Translation from the Bhaktalilamrita, trans. Justin
E. Abbott (Pune: Scottish Mission Industries Co., 1927): verses
149-208. The author is Mahipati, although this information is not
given in the volume until the introduction of the translator.
8. The biography of Dasopant, the Dasopanta* Caritra, has been
translated by Justin Abbott as Dasopant Digambar, The Poet-Saints
of Maharashtra, no. 4 (Poona: Scottish Mission Industries'
Orphanage Press, 1928).
9. Shankar Mokashi-Punekar, "An Introduction to Shri Purohit
Swami," p.7.
10. Charles Pam's essay on the Datta temples of Pune was written
during his first visit to India as an undergraduate in 1969.
Footnotes indicate changes he noticed subsequently, but we have
left his essay substantially in its original form as a fresh and
unusual observation. Eds.
11. G.S. Ghurye, Gods and Men (Bombay: Popular Book Depot,
1962), p. 125-26, 218.
12. The importance of music in the Datta cult has been mentioned
by many writers including Dhere and Mokashi-Punekar; music is
said to be very pleasing to Datta. Ghurye (Gods and Men, p. 112)
notes that one chapter of the Gurucaritra is devoted to a
classification of ragas* and their deities. The importance of music
in the cult points to the influence of both the Nath and Sufi
traditions.
 Page 108
13. On a subsequent visit in 1986, I found that the ashram had been
converted to a storeroom.
14. Since my visit in 1969, the large picture of Narasimha Sarasvati
has been replaced by one of Adbanginath ("Lord of Idiots"), who is
included among the nine Nathas according to one tradition. There
is a samadhi * (tomb) of Adbanginath in the form of a Muslim
tomb at Dudulgav near Alandi, which in recent years has become a
popular place of pilgrimage.
15. I was told in 1986 that the evening procession and bhajans had
been discontinued some years back, probably because of the
street's greatly increased motor traffic.
16. Vasudevananda Saraswati (1854-1914) was a Datta devotee.
The translation of this song, heard at both the Dagadu Halwai
Mandir and at Gangapur, was made by G.V. Ketkar and Charles
Pain.
 Page 109

9
The Religion of the Dhangar Nomads
Gunther-Dietz Sontheimer
In western Maharashtra, in the districts of Pune, Ahmednagar, and
Satara, well inside the Deccan Plateau and in a region traversed by
the west-east flowing Bhima, Karha, and Nira rivers, we come
across the scattered monsoon camps of the nomadic, pastoral
Hatkar Dhangars. The region is broken up by spurs emanating from
the western mountains, which separate the plateau from the coastal
area of Maharashtra. These spurs slowly descend from west to east
until they are lost in the vast plateau. Today the monsoon camps
are well within these hill ranges or close to them, where the
agricultural expansion of the last one hundred fifty years or so
could not dislodge them. Here the Hatkar Dhangars, with their
typical red turbans, heavy sandals, black woolen blankets, staff
often held horizontally behind the neck on the shoulders to provide
a rest for the arms, and their women folkwith a more generous
amount of ornaments than found amongst the agricultural castesare
still very conspicuous.
 Page 110
In places here the annual rainfall does not exceed two inches.
Agriculture in the river valleys is nowadays well secured by dams,
canals, or wells, but the rocky hills and stony heaths are only fit for
grazing sheep and goats, and the cultivation of millet crops during
the rainy season. Some hardy farmers have made a dent in this
rocky area wherever there is a suitable depression, allowing for
local village dams and wells. But farming remains hazardous. The
whole region was traditionally given to pastoral activities rather
than to regular plough cultivation. Spreading agriculture has
naturally pushed pastoralism back and has led to overgrazing of the
remaining pastures.
The seasonal monsoon camps are mostly inhabited by members of
one patrilineal clan, who live separately in nuclear families, each
having a flock of fifty to a hundred fifty sheep. Present day
campsites are fixed. A symbiotic relationship exists between the
farmers, some of whom also own sheep, and the Dhangars: the
Dhangars help the farmers to shear the sheep (a poor Dhangar may
even find employment as a shepherd), and the farmers buy the
heaps of sheep manure at the end of the Dhangars' stay. The
farmers also ask the Dhangars to pen their sheep in the fields and
sometimes even entrust them with the sale of their sheep in the
coastal area. Dhangars and farmers have an equal status in the
hierarchy within the area of their monsoon camps.
The pastures around the campsites are owned by the Dhangars.
Sometimes a meager millet crop may be grown and harvested on a
sharecropping basis by members of the agricultural castes. The
camps have huge sheep pens and the loosely piled-up stone walls
are crowned by the dried thorny branches of the babhul *. tree to
protect the sheep against the rare wolves and, hopefully, against the
more common thieves. Some Dhangars have small tents of canvas,
but more and more huts and houses are being built. There is no
dearth of stones and boulders around the camp as building material.
The roofs consist of corrugated tin sheets which somehow do not
manage to convey the dismal
 Page 111
look of slums in the big cities. If the roofs are not fixed to the huts
they are deposited with farmers in a nearby village as long as the
Hatkar Dhangars are on migration.
The length of stay in the seasonal monsoon camps or settlements is
determined by the southwestern monsoon and the marginal
influence of the northeastern monsoon. The rainy season lasts from
the beginning of June up to the beginning of October. During this
period the Hatkar Dhangars normally remain in their monsoon
camps. But if the monsoon is insufficient and the stay in the camp
is seriously disturbed, the Dhangars are forced to migrate into an
area with more rainfall. But too much rain there drives them away
again. They may also turn to areas protected by canal irrigation;
here they pen their sheep in the fields of the farmers. If the rain is
goodwhich means not so much as to create diseases among the
sheep but enough to somewhat regenerate the pasturesthe four
months' stay follows. It is devoted to a leisurely grazing of sheep
and to a comparatively easier life, full of social and religious
activities.
After the monsoon the annual migration begins towards the west on
a traditional route with fixed camping sites. This becomes
increasingly more difficult as the spreading industrialization
encroaches on camping sites, and the bottlenecks of towns and
cities get narrower and narrower. Moreover, heavy truck traffic is
not favorable to the little caravans of pack horses and the huge
flocks of sheep. The horses, or rather ponies, are packed to capacity
with household utensils, little children, chickens with baskets to
house them during the night, lambs unable to walk, nets for
penning sheep, long sticks for pitching the tent, and so on. The
women go ahead while the men drive the flocks with considerable
skill along the road or on some shortcut over a hill, taking a
diversion ever in search for a chance to graze their sheep. But this
also becomes difficult as grazing is foiled more and more by the
ubiquitous ragweed, 1 which is shunned by the sheep and is a cause
of allergies to people. By the time the men arrive at the camping
site the women have pitched the small tents, if the weather makes
this
 Page 112

7.
A Dhangar herds his sheep through the streets of Pune.
Photography by Frances Bressman.

8.
Dhangar men dance on the festival of Krishnamai during the month of
Shravan. Photography by S. Y. Waghmare.
 Page 113
necessary, and prepared the simple evening meal consisting mainly
of millet bread. The next morning at about ten the camp will set out
for the next halting place. Thus the Dhangars migrate one hundred
to two hundred miles until they reach the rice area and their patron
villages in the west. Here they will break up into smaller groups,
which shift from field to field and village to village in order to pen
the sheep. Sheep manure is very much in demand amongst the
farmers, and the Dhangars are paid in kind (rice) or cash. Generally
vegetation is much richer in the west and one can graze the sheep
on harvest fieldsif no second crop is introduced with the help of
new irrigation facilities as in parts of the Konkanor take them to
nearby forests, if this is permitted. As soon as the monsoon
approaches, the Hatkar Dhangars are on their return journey to the
drier east, hoping intensely that sufficient rains have revived their
pastures and filled the water places.
The traditional difficulties and anxieties may be decreasing with
the new age. There are fewer wild animals and fewer dangerous
rivers to cross and some of the human and animal diseases are
checked by modem medicine, which is, however, made use of
somewhat sluggishly. Modem times do bring some material
advantages as well. For instance, with industrialization in the big
cities and thriving agriculture around them, the sale of mutton
increases.

The Influence of Shaivism

The religious beliefs of the Hatkar Dhangars are very much their
own and also at the same time shared by many other pastoral
groups in the Deccan. The compartmentalization of traditional
Indian social life does not mean that religious beliefs and rituals are
the exclusive property of a particular group, but rather that certain
aspects are predominant and emphasized in each group. Variations
in the emphasis of the religious outlook may depend on, for
instance, whether a group is settled or nomadic. Generally the
religious beliefs of the pastoral groups have been enriched by
 Page 114
the contact with Shaivites, e.g., the saints of the Nath 2 sect
(siddhas) with their supernatural powers (siddhis) from the North
of India and the Shaivite Lingayat3 saints from the South. There is
little direct influence of Brahmanical outlook. Vishnu and Krishna,
the shepherd god par excellence of the Vaishnava bhakti
movement, better known to the settled Dhangars,4 are hardly
known to the nomadic Hatkar Dhangars. If one goes, for instance,
on the birthday of Krishna to their camps, one will find that the day
passes without notice. One of the major cults of Maharashtra is
devoted to the god Vithoba of Pandharpur. This cult developed first
in a Shaivite context before it was taken over by Maharashtrian
Vaishnava bhakti. In the traditions of the Dhangars, Vithoba is a
brother of their god Biroba and their attitudes towards him remain
rather "Shaivite" than "Vaishnava."

The Ancestors
The ancestors, though "deceased," are not just remembered, but are
very much part of the life of the Hatkar Dhangars. They do not
interfere obtrusively and at all times, but they are there,
contributing towards the unity of their descendants and rewarded
with the respect shown to them at every religious function. They
live on the border of the monsoon camp where little shrines are
built to house them. Important ancestors, especially the eldest
known, are installed here in the form of stone tablets which often
show the ancestor riding a horse with his wife or wives astride and
accompanied by his dog.
The Dhangars normally bum their dead. When a corpse is taken to
the funeral place, the son of the deceased carries with him an
earthen pot filled with water. A stone nearby is selected,
worshipped, and then used to break the waterpot. After the body is
burned the bones are collected and thrown into the river. The stone
is again worshipped and kept at the border of a field or in the
ancestor shrine.
The dead man (manus* "man" or jiv* "soul") ascends to
 Page 115
heaven or to Shiva's abode, the Kailas mountain, or
"somewhere"there is generally no pronounced view about where he
goes. But he may return by god's order to the living and appear in a
dream demanding a shrine, a murti * (image), and a feast. Then a
date has to be fixed and on the appointed day he possesses or
"enters the body" of one of his descendants and speaks: "Install me,
I have come." A shrine is made and a murti* is installed in it beside
the original stone. After this a communal dinner follows which
includes non-vegetarian food. First an offering (nived) is given or
"shown'' and some morsels are placed before the murti*. After the
dinner a dance (khel*) follows during which the ancestor enters the
body of one of the Dhangars who is asked whether his, i.e., the
ancestor's "soul," is satisfied. Thereafter the deceased is elevated to
the position of a deity; that is, he has become a deified ancestor and
has some obligation to favor his living descendants. Along with
other ancestors he watches the doings of the living from the border
of the camp. The Dhangars are under a special obligation to honor
the ancestors in a ceremony which takes place once a year after the
full moon day in the month of Kartik (October/November). During
other festivals, if the Dhangars are not forced to migrate because of
failing rains, the ancestors also partake of the food, a little of which
is placed before the ancestor stones. These stones are washed at
least once a week, usually on Sundays.
Some would make a distinction between the "soul" (jiv*), which
ascends to Kailas, and the "mind," "desire," or "unfulfilled wish"
(man)a kind of shadowy soul. The jiv* which goes to Kailas will be
judged by the god of death, Yamaraja, simply called Yam, who
weighs merits and sins. Accordingly, the jiv* will be reborn as a
human being or in an animal form. But this view plays a marginal
role. The others who do not distinguish between jiv* and man also
have the idea of retribution, though here the emphasis is on the
return of the ancestors, who become deified after proper worship
and form a cluster near the monsoon camp. This points to a
tendency also common among tribals in
 Page 116
Middle India to worship the ancestors of a clan clustering not far
from the living on the border of the settlement. The notion of the
ancestors' living in Kailas or in some heaven is rarely in the
foreground of Dhangar thought. Likewise the notion of retribution
and incarnationwhich Max Weber called one of the few real
dogmas in Hinduism 5is rather casual and does not preoccupy the
minds of the Hatkar Dhangars.

The Devrishi*: Medium of the Ancestors and the Gods

An important link between the dead, or the gods, and the living is
the devrishi*. A Dhangar god may be directly approached by the
worshippers and may even indicate answers to questions by
appropriate sign like a flower or a betelnut falling to the right or the
left from the murti*, but normally gods, goddesses, and ancestors
communicate through the devrishi*. The devrishi* of a monsoon
camp does not look different from the other Dhangars, nor can we
affirm that he is mentally predisposed to be the medium of gods
and ancestors. He may be a young lad and a great-grandson of the
camp's original ancestor, who possesses him, initially indicating his
presence by some illness. A sonless ancestor may possess a
brother's son, which amounts to a kind of post mortem adoption.
The devrishi* has to be confirmed in a ritual test. A person may
also be a special devotee of the god Biroba or another Dhangar
god. He gets possessed during the festival or on some other
occasions demanding communication with gods and ancestors, e.g.,
in cases of illness caused by a ghost or if any other inexplicable
untoward event takes place.
There is little fear of ghosts. If the ghost is a dissatisfied ancestor,
he can be set at rest by installing him in an ancestor shrine and
giving him a feast. Really malignant spirits usually come from
outside the community. One Dhangar, for example, was caught by
the ghost of a deceased Muslim while he was on migration in the
Konkan and had gone to defecate in the morninga typical moment
of impurity and
 Page 117
danger likely to attract ghosts. After prolonged illness he was
healed when during the khel * (dance) the drams attracted the
family god. A virtual fight between the god and the ghost took
place in the body of the Dhangar and the ghost was driven out at
last. Ever since, the family god has taken possession of the
Dhangar, and he has become an acknowledged devrishi*.
The special devotion and the powers of the devrishi* will attract
members of other castes who come and consult him in eases of an
unusual illness and persistent mishaps. His powers are remembered
and live on even after his death, and he is specially worshipped in a
shrine beside his god. The devrishi* himself has, in fact, tumed into
a god, who possesses more prestige and power than a simple
ancestral dev. His son would normally assume the functions of a
devrishi* if he has the capacity of getting possessed. If not the son,
some other male descendant may inherit the powers. Eventually an
annual festival, called jatra*, will develop and at the height of the
festival the god enters the body of the son or other relative, who
now also tends to become a pujari* (temple priest) and will
permanently attend the god. The power of the god established by
the deceased devrishi* will attract other devotees not belonging to
the patrilineal clan, and the jatra* may grow, attracting people
from other castes as well. There may be more reasons for the origin
and growth of a cult and a jatra*, but the deep devotion of a
devrishi* or a siddha attracting a powerful god is often said to be
the root.
Biroba and Mhaskoba: The Jatra* in Honor of the Gods
The desire to meet a powerful god, the joy of taking part in the
festival and its ceremonies, the religious merit deriving from them,
the sacrifice of a sheep for the god (perhaps in the fulfillment of a
vow) and the ensuing feast in which he partakes, the appreciation
of his help, the feeling of having reassured the continuing bond
between god and man and his group, and the fun involved in a
fairall these motives mix inextricably. Thus the famous Biroba of
Arevadi in
 Page 118
Sangli District attracts twenty thousand Dhangars to annual jatra *.
Another god, the Mhaskoba of Vir in Pune District, originally a
simple pastoral god who had been brought there by a Hatkar
Dhangar, has gathered more and more devotees from other castes,
especially agriculturists. Some may even doubt that the god has a
special connection with the Dhangars. But since a religious belief
hardly ever gets lost in India we find that the story of the origin of
the god is preserved in the oral tradition of the villagers and the
Dhangars. There are many accretions and interpretations of the
cult, especially by Shaivite Gosavis who have turned Mhaskoba
into an incarnation of Shiva, namely Kal Bhairav. But the
descendants of the original Dhangar devotee who brought the god
to Vir still get "hereditarily" possessed by the god.
The fourteen-day jatra* at Vir in the month of February culminates
in one or two Dhangars getting possessed by Mhaskoba. They first
"play" with a long sword as if with a threat to kill themselves lest
the god not come and enter them. This reminds us of the siddhis,
the supernatural powers acquired by the Naths or Siddhas, who
could slash their bodies without causing any injury. And, in fact,
these Dhangars are called shids (from Skt. siddha). In the middle of
a huge crowd the god then makes his appearance in the form of the
Dhangar. He (the Dhangar) ascends a horse, that is, he rides on the
shoulder of a man, and a royal parasol is held over him while he
makes his forecasts about rain and crops to the gasping devotees.
Naturally most of the festivals in honor of Biroba are held during
the four months' stay in the monsoon camps. The temples of Biroba
are always well outside the villages in some stony pasture. They
are whitewashed and crowned by a spire which makes them look
somewhat like Muslim tombs. The "images" of Biroba are rough
boulders coated with red lead and fashioned somewhat into a face,
with inset eyes. The god is said to have manifested himself in the
boulder or stone when he came to the particular spot.
If one attends a jatra* of a Biroba belonging to the nomadic Hatkar
Dhangars, one will first see Dhangars with their red
 Page 119
turbans flocking in, along with their women, who lead the ponies.
For once the ponies are not overburdened with household goods as
during the migration, but carry the few utensils and provisions
which are needed for the jatra *, which lasts one and a half days.
Each family brings, if possible, one or two sheep for the feast,
sacrificing it in honor of Biroba. One of the main ceremonies
consists of circumambulating the temple in a procession. During
this procession the shrines of other deities attached to the temple
are also visited, e.g., that of Biroba's wife (if the particular Biroba
is married) and of the founder of the cult. The sounds of drums,
cymbals, and flutes make the air vibrate. When the procession
reaches the front of the temple, the Dhangars break into a dance.
The rhythm of the drums starts slowly and grows faster and faster,
determining the speed of the dance until the rhythm reaches a peak
and suddenly drops to a halt. That is the moment when the special
devotee and priest may get possessed by the god. The Dhangars
may occasionally smoke hemp (ganja*)so does the god
Mhaskobabut not to get possessed. As in all rites of possession, not
only in shamanistic seances, the drums are important they are the
dangerous, magical instrument for the achievement of possession.
(We hear in a story from a settled Dhangar group that a devotee,
possessed by the god, was killed when his enemy suddenly
changed into the wrong rhythm.) Dense clouds of turmeric thrown
by the Dhangars descend on the special devotee/priest, covering
him with a thick layer of yellow powder. The god is present in the
substance of the turmeric powder and slowly but steadily the
devotee/ priest (bhakta/pujari*) and the other participants assume a
yellow-golden colorthe god and his devotees merge.
Meanwhile the sheep have been sacrificed by the individual
families and the meal has been cooked by the women. The
patrilineal descendants of the original ancestor who set up the cult,
sacrifice near their ancestor stones, which are in front of the temple
and either face Biroba or, like him, face the East. A share in the
meal, consisting of liver, millet bread, and rice, is "shown" to the
god, whereas the ancestors
 Page 120
are actually fed. Sometimes one may see that some morsels of food
are placed near the mouth of an ancestor stone as if he is to eat ita
visible expression of the fact that we have to think of the ancestors'
stones as more than just "symbols." As the god very much resides
in the murti * so the ancestors are present in the stones.
In some places, among settled Dhangars, the god tends not to
partake of the non-vegetarian offerings; here he may have been
joined by Vithoba as his brother and we have, for once, the
influence of Vaishnava or Lingayat vegetarianism.
Another typical Dhangar religious institution which should be
mentioned in this context is the davan*, literally a "rope" to which
five rams are tied. Each year for five years a ram is set aside for the
family god. In the fifth year the rams are freed and the first which
reaches the herd has a lease of mercy. The others are brought to the
temple and one is given to the priest. In the case of Khandoba, the
non-Brahman priest (Gurav) will sell the ram, because he is
vegetarian. The other three sheep are sacrificed in the name of the
family god, who is shown the nived. The relatives by blood and
marriage as well as friends are invited for the dinner. After a few
days the remaining fifth ram is sacrificed in the camp in the name
of Biroba. A little closer to the fervent, unconditional devotion to
Shiva, Shiva-bhakti, is the tradition of identifying oneself with
sacrificial animals. The traditions of the god Mhaskoba remind us
vaguely of this type of davan*. In this story, the five sons of the
Hatkar Dhangar who brought the god to Vir are demanded by the
god as a sacrifice in order to test their true devotion. One of them
hides himself and is saved. The other sons are sacrificed. But, as a
true Shaivite god, Mhaskoba brings death and lifeone conditioning
the otherand revives the children or rather replaces them by lambs.

The Ovis*: The Oral Traditions and Their Performance

The dance at the jatra* may last deep into the night. Some
Dhangars may join together to sing their ovis*ballads
 Page 121
which are intoned in the memory of their family god and all other
gods and goddesses worthy of being remembered. One singer leads
together with another and they sing two lines. The same are
repeated by two other Dhangars, who in this way learn to sing the
ovi *. Such ovis* may not only be sung at the jatra*, but also late
into the night in the camp or in the open field while penning the
sheep, without a glimmer of light except perhaps the stars and the
moon. The Dhangars are seated on felts and woolen blankets. The
singing of the ovis* assures wakefulness in two ways: it keeps the
man awake to watch the sheep and keeps alive the awareness of the
presence of God. The melody is simple, based on five tones, and
reminds us of Gregorian chorals. It seems much more in
consonance with the pastoral surrounding and the perpetual rustling
of the wind during the monsoon period than the ovi* among settled
Dhangars elsewhere. There the ovi* is performed with the
accompaniment of all kinds of instruments and measured dance
steps to underline what is a kind of dramatical show.
Though very much in touch with the routine of rituals and the
religion of the group, the ovis* are almost unmarked by ritual and
religious obsession. They transcend these as the reflections of a
religiously-inclined, sensitive composer, who also has the talents of
an entertaining poet. The ovis* thus act as a leaven to the routine of
rituals and make daily life more meaningful. There are few modem,
"progressive" strains in them. Dhangars of settled groups, on the
other hand, are literate and some of them highly educated.
Amongst the settled Dhangars' texts of the "Great Tradition" are
the Ramayana* and Mahabharata* in Marathi, turned into ovis*.
One even hears of Mahatma Gandhi.
The contents of the ovis* of the Hatkar Dhangars often relate to the
Satyayugathe Golden Age of Truthwhich seems at times still
present in out-of-the-way camps not touched by the influence of
the cities of Pune and Bombay. Many of the ovis* tell the
adventures of Dhangars, sometimes funny, sometimes serious: the
taming of a tiger, the crossing of rivers and the encounters with
river goddesses
 Page 122
(an incident as old as the Rigveda), drought, and the search for
pastures. But religious and ethical teachings are also present in an
unobtrusive way. For instance, Shiva comes as an old haggard
mendicant afflicted with leprosy and the Dhangar offers him
hospitality, though the Dhangar has not yet recognized him: God is
ubiquitous.
A typical ovi *which actually comes from a settled Dhangar but
could be translated into a nomadic Hatkar Dhangar
contextdescribes a Dhangar watching the morning prayers of a
Brahman standing in the river. He questions the Brahman, who
explains the significance of the ritual in the Dhangar's terms: if I
take this dip in the water the god shows himself. The simple
Dhangar threatens to drown himself unless the god shows himself.
The god appears, the Dhangar is not sure whether it is the god or
not. He binds the god with his red turban to a tree lest he disappear
and runs to the Brahman who has to identify the god. The Brahman
is a little worried that the god should yield to the simple devotion
of the Dhangar rather than to his kind of worship. Ultimately the
god grants a boon, but the Dhangar does not wish for anything.
Hasn't he got everything? Four brothers, mother, father, wife,
children, a hundred sheep (in that order)what more could the god
possibly give him? But he has one wish, namely, that the god
should come every evening to the sheep pen to drink an offering of
milk. Hospitality and self-negationnot exaggerated asceticismare
two of the subtle points which emerge, plus a touch of identificatio
Brahmanica otherwise less conspicuous among the Hatkar
Dhangars.
Ovis* also give the origin of cults. Take, for instance, the famous
god Babir in the Indapur Taluka of Pune District. A big jatra* in
honor of this god is attended by ten thousand Dhangarsnot all of
them Hatkars. The god Babir was said to have been a cowherd of
the Gavli caste. (The Gavlis were the predecessors of the Hatkars
in this particular area when pastures still sufficed for big cattle
herds.) Babir was killed by Ramoshis, but the cult that emerged is
more than a simple cult for a cowherd boy who died a violent death
and
 Page 123
is set to rest in a simple stone. The ovis * connect Babir with Shiva
as Mahadev (the Great God) of Shingnapur not far away. The ovis*
tell this story: a Gavli woman assiduously worshipped this Shiva,
and he had to concede her wish for a son. But he confronted her
with a choice: either she could have a son who would be wise, but
who would live only up to the age of twelve, or she could have a
son who would be stupid but live a normal life. The Gavli woman
chose the wise, short-lived son. Mahadev tried in vain to substitute
the child of another woman for himself but ultimately had to
incarnate himself to keep his promise. The woman gave birth to a
son. When he had grown up enough he grazed his cows and let
them stray into the fields guarded by Ramoshis, who tried to steal
his cows. But they couldn't steal his cows. He had a flute, and
when he played a happy tune the cows came running and gathered
around him. After twelve years his life as a human being came to
an end. The Ramoshis killed him and stuffed him into the den of a
porcupine. On that spot a neem tree grew and Babir appeared in his
mother's dreams pointing out the spot. And the ovi* ends:
In the month of Kartik
On the festival of lights
The boy Babir was killed.
A great light descended,
He became a god,
He would help poor people.
It was given to him
To fulfill wishes.
In the previous ovi* about the Dhangar and the Brahman the
message is that the god comes to the simple and guilelesshe is
Bholanath, the lord of the simple and truthful. And in this ovi* it is
the poor to whom he attends.
The ovi-singer* is mostly, as we have said, one of the more
religiously-inclined members of the camp. In some cases, however,
it is a priest who makes his round in different camps to visit the
devotees of a particular clan or god. He may initiate an ovi*. He is
probably closer than others to the "Great Tradition" of regional and
general
 Page 124
Shaivite beliefs, and the ovi * transmitted through him pronounces
religious attitudes and ethical notions. The terms "karma" and
"dharma" may appear, and instances of devotees' fearless and
sincere bhakti are narrated. But the god himself is sometimes not
above reproof and also has to prove his sattva, which may be
translated "clarity, sincerity, reliability, and straightforwardness."

Khandoba and Banai

One of the most famous gods of Maharashtra is Khandoba. He is
traditionally a warrior god, an "incarnation" of Shiva, and a version
of a proto-Indian god of whom the Rudra of the Vedas, the Shiva of
the Puranas, and the Murukan of the old Tamil literature are the
best known. Khandoba's first wife, Mhalsa, comes from the
Shaivite Lingayats, once a dominant agricultural and trading
community in southern Maharashtra and one still to be found in
Karnataka. His second wife is from the tribes and the
pasture/forest. Some say she is from the fishermen caste, some say
that she is a Gavli, but the overwhelming viewand that of the
Hatkar Dhangarsis that she comes from the Dhangars. Through his
two wives the god not only combines two basic communities, the
pastoral and/or hunting and fishing communities, but also two
ecological areas, the settled area under the plough and the
pastoral/forest area. According to the ovis*, Khandoba
appropriately meets Banai during a hunt and takes her to Jejuri, the
main center of Khandoba worship in Maharashtra. Another version
of the myth says that he came as a haggard old man in tatters to
Banai's camp. She was a tremendously rich shepherdess.
Unrecognized, he was employed by her, and when the vanity of the
shepherds and Banai grew too great, he killed all her sheep. When
she implored him for forgiveness, he revived the sheep on the
condition that she would become his wife. In a simple,
unbrahmanical rite they were married: sheep droppings were
thrown on the couple instead of rice. Other versions stress the
erotic component in the union of Khandoba and
 Page 125
Banai. Since then, the goddess Banai has resided in Jejuri much to
the chagrin of Mhalsaand the Dhangars have been worshippers of
Khandoba. Banal looks after their well-being and the increase of
their herds; non-vegetarian offerings for Khandoba are actually
shown to her.
The rites of the Hatkar Dhangars for Khandoba are many. For
instance the Hatkars accompany Khandoba for a ritual hunt on the
day of the conjunction of the sun and the moon (Somavati-
Amavasya). On the jatra * days, e.g., on full moon days, and on
Somavati-Amavasya, the breaking of chains is a special rite
practiced by the Dhangars.6 The heavy chains with joints
somewhat thinned are kept in the ancestor shrines in the camp
along with the spear which is said to be Khandoba. The spear,
which has a small woolen wreath just underneath the blade
representing Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, and the chain are
brought to the jatra*. The chains are to be broken with powerful
jerks. The god empowers the Dhangars to break the chain, and,
indeed, the breaking is accompanied with sighs of relief and
expressions of joy by the onlookers. The breaking indicates the
presence of the god. This folk rite reminds us of the temporal
fetters in Shaivite belief and philosophy which have to be broken to
enable the soul to be near to or join Shiva.
The Stay in the Monsoon Camp and the Khel*
During the stay in the camp the sheep are washed and shorn in the
sheep pens. After the sheep are washed in a pond or river, the seven
water goddesses or water nymphs are worshipped in the form of
seven chalcedony flints on the bank. They receive offerings of
turmeric powder and gulal*. Then the herd is taken to the sheep
pen. The Dhangars remove their heavy sandals in order not to
offend Lakshmi, who resides invisibly in the sheep pen. The wool
of one sheep is set aside as an offering to one or the other god. All
these rites are done not so much in apprehension of the wrath of the
deities as in respect, giving everybody what is
 Page 126
due. The desire to ensure the enduring help of the gods and nature
is the guiding motive.
During the stay, weddings are also performed. These are
solemnized by a Brahman, but also contain features of fertility rites
not practiced anywhere else. For instance, one Dhangar family
buries the womb of a sheep with an unborn lamb under the seat of
the couple.
After the Dasara festival, in the month of October, the khel *, the
dance before the ancestors and gods, is held on a traditionally fixed
date which varies from camp to camp and thus allows relatives and
guests to participate. The khel* foreshadows the departure for the
migration. It can be seen as a miniature jatra*. In the khel*,
however, the emphasis is more on honoring the ancestor.
The khel* is primarily an internal affair of the members of a camp.
It strengthens the relations between the living and the dead and
between the living. A successful khel* adds to the prestige of the
camp in the eyes of the members of the surrounding camps and
honored guests who participate in it. Failing to participate in a
khel* would be unthinkable. Each member has a role or, if he is too
young, a potential role to play while sharing the labor involved in
the preparation and performance of the festival. The jatra* for a
family god or any other god is, on the other hand, an act of
voluntary faith, though at least a few members of the camp would
try to participate, because the jatra* is also an appeal to a higher
and more powerful authority than the ancestor could possibly be.
The jatra* is an affair which transcends the involvement of one
clan. It has many more elaborate rituals of various origins. In the
jatra* privileges and duties of many groups are involved and
orchestrated in a well-ordered whole so that the god may be
pleased.
On the evening before the khel*, the waving of five lights on a
platter is performed before gods and ancestors. The rites are more
or less the same in each camp. We shall describe the khel* in one
particular camp. First, Mariai, the goddess living in an unhewn
stone and housed in a shrine, is bathed and clad in a new sari; then
Biroba, housed in a
 Page 127
miniature shrine in the camp, is visited. He is ''junior" to the family
god Biroba who has his center somewhere else, but is of the same
substance. He is also bathed and receives a new turban. Every god
receives a bit of turmeric powder and gulal *. Our particular camp
has a curious "ancestor" to worship. He was a religious Dhangar,
without a son, belonging to a different clan. After his death he
came into a dream of the eldest sonless clan member and promised
that a son would be born to his wife. He asked this man to assume
his name, i.e., to function as some kind of "son." After the intruder
is worshipped in the form of a stone set up ad hoc at the border of
the camp, the eldest ancestor receives his bath and new clothes.
One of the descendants shapes a small turban, skillfully winding it
around his bent knee, and then places it on the head of the ancestor,
i.e., on the ancestor stone.
The next day a fixed number of sheep are sacrificed in honor of the
ancestors and for the communal dinner of the ancestors, their living
descendants, and the guests. Biroba, as we have seen, receives his
sacrifice at the place of his chief temple during the jatra*. A dance
of the men and boys takes place before the ancestor shrine, and
then the whole camp including the women moves to Mariai, who
possesses the devrishi*. Then the procession visits the "junior"
Biroba and moves in front of those houses where the gods are
displayed in the form of silver plaques on a blanket. These godsall
of whom one knows and finds important enough to worshipare
shaded by another blanket which has been formed into a small tent.
They are worshipped with turmeric powder, gulal*, coconut, water,
and pieces of coconuts broken in front of them. The devrishi* a
young man, gets possessed by Biroba, and he locates another
possessed Dhangat who behaves like a horse. The "horse" (from
another camp) is caught by "Biroba" by the neck with a horse-whip
which he has formed into a sling. He then mounts the "horse" and
is carried in circles in front of the gods, accompanied by the sound
of the drum. He normally makes some utterances about the future
migration, especially about the
 Page 128
rains. Then the horse with his rider suddenly rushes away to the
shrine of the eldest ancestor where "Biroba" changes his form, now
personifying that ancestor. He holds his spear like a lance and
carries his chain over the shoulder; the eldest known ancestor of
the camp was a special devotee of Khandoba, and these are his
signs.
When the day of the departure comes, the spear, the chain, and the
silver-plaque gods wrapped in a cloth are loaded on the ponies.
They accompany the Dhangars but the ancestors remain at home in
their shrines. If somebody dies on the route, a shrine is set up for
him and will be worshipped whenever the Dhangars pass by. This
ancestor may also be "called" to the monsoon camp and his shrine
installed there. When some feast is celebrated during the migration,
an offering is made in the direction of the ancestors far away in the
monsoon camp.
This short account cannot reflect in detail the richness of religious
beliefs and wealth of oral literature of the Hatkar Dhangars. What
may seem remarkable to the observer is the absence of fear or
undue obsession in their rites and attitudes. Sincerity in belief and
proper worship yields a life in harmony with nature and its dangers,
with ancestors and gods. The communion with ancestors and gods
in the khel * or the jatra* is a matter of joy, if not fun, as well as an
act of faith, devotion, expiation, and merit for the group and
individual.7

Acknowledgments
Field research among various groups of Dhangars in Maharashtra
was carried out in the years 1967-68 and intermittently between
1969-79. I am grateful to the German Research Association
(Deutsche Forschungs Gemeinschaft) for financial help. I am also
grateful to the late Professor Irawati Karve who had discussions
with me on the Dhangars, to Mr. R. P. Nene, Dr. S. N. Bhavsar, who
helped me in the first stages of my research,
 Page 129
and to Mr. R. S. Atkar and Mr. R. B. Zagade. I owe special thanks
to many Dhangar friends and informants.
Editors' Notes
1. The ragweed seems to have been brought into Maharashtra from
the United States during the days of the wheat export to India.
2. The Nath cult was important in Maharashtra until, it seems
likely, the eighteenth century, and is still remembered in folk ritual
for the nine Naths (nao nath *) who are pictured as Shaiva ascetics
and through tombs or samadhis* of those nine Naths.
3. The Lingayat or Virashaiva cult began as a bhakti movement in
the twelfth century in Karnataka, becoming a somewhat heterodox
Shaiva cult with its own priests and caste-like identity. For the
saints' literature, see A. K. Ramanujan, Speaking of Shiva
(Baltimore: Penguin, 1973).
4. There is little literature on the settled Dhangars or on the
problems involved in moving from a nomadic to a settled lifestyle.
There is, however, a novel by Vyankatesh Madgulkar which deals
with a village that is almost completely composed of settled
Dhangars. See The Village Had No Walls, trans. Ram Deshmukh
(New York: Asia Publishing House, 1958).
5. See Max Weber, The Religion of India, trans. and ed. by Hans H.
Gerth and Don Martindale (New York: The Free Press, 1958).
6. See John M. Stanley, "Special Time, Special Power: The Fluidity
of Power in a Popular Hindu Festival." Journal of Asian Studies
37:1 (1977): 27-43.
7. For a discussion of Dhangar practice and the origins of
contemporary Hindu belief and ritual, see D. D. Kosambi, "The
Living Prehistory of India." Scientific American 216:2 (1967): 104-
14.
References
Leshnik, Lawrence Saadia and G. D. Sontheimer, eds. Pastoralists
and Nomads in South Asia. Wiesbaden: O. Harrassowitz, 1975.
Murty, M. L. K. and G. D. Sontheimer. "Prehistoric Background to
Pastoralism in the Southern Deccan in the Light of Oral Traditions
and Cults of Some Pastoral Communities." In Anthropos 75 (1980):
163-184.
Sontheimer, G. D. "The Dhangars: A Nomadic Pastoral
Community in a Developing Agricultural Environment." In
Leshnik, Lawrence Saa-
 Page 130
dia and Gunther-Dietz Sontheimer, eds. Pastoralists and
Nomads in South Asia. Wiesbaden: O. Harrassowitz, 1975: 139-
70.
. Biroba, Mhaskoba und Khandoba. Ursprung, Geschichte und
Umwelt yon pastoralen Gottheiten in Maharashtra. Weisbaden:
Franz Steiner Verlag, 1976. (Contains a German translation of the
traditions of the Mhaskoba Cult, Srinath * Mhaskoba* Devace*
Caritra. 4th ed. Vir, 1972.)
. "King Vikram and Kamatu Sinde, the Shepherd. Bhakti Episodes
from an Oracle Epic of the Dhangars of Maharashtra." In South
Asian Digest of Regional Writing 6 (1977): 97-128.
. "Popular and Scriptural Religion in India: The Case of Rudra,
Siva and Khandoba." Paper submitted to the International Seminar
on Folk Culture, Cuttack, December 1978.
. "Some Incidents in the History of the God Khandoba." In Asie du
Sud. Traditions et changements. European Conference on Modem
South Asian Studies 6. Paris, 1978.
. "Some Notes on Biroba, the Dhangar God of Mahrashtra." In
Prof. D. D. Kosambi Commemoration Volume, Science and
Progress. Bombay: Popular Prakashan, 1974.
 Page 131

10
The Birth of a God: Ram Mama of the NandiwaIas
K. C. Malhorta

Editors' Introduction
The question of origins for most of the gods of the Hindu pantheon
at its sophisticated level becomes very complicated. Any one deity
is likely to be the result of a long history of splitting or coalescence
of a large number of deities over hundreds of years. In some cases
it is possible to guess the existence of a historical figure behind the
gods, but because of the overlay of myth the human figure is
difficult to perceive. Occasionally, however, we can actually
document the transformation of a historic figure into a god at the
folk level. Malhotra's paper gives an account of such a
transformation among the nomadic Nandiwalas.
Of course, the connection between death and deification is
common to many facets of religion everywhere. But this paper is
especially significant in light of the current work being done on the
oral folk tradition in South India where much evidence points to
the deification of those who have undeservedly died a violent
death. 1 Malhotra's article adds a curious twist to this universal
theme, since the death of
 Page 132
Ram Mama was a result of his evil nature, not of a heroic stance.
(E. Z. and M. B.)
The Nandiwalas of Maharashtra
Among the Nandiwalas of Maharashtra one of the most important
religious events is the celebration of the yatra * of Ram Mama. A
study of the origins of this yatra* and its socio-religious
significance can shed light on the process by which a historical
personage takes on the attributes of deity.
The Nandiwalas, numbering about eight thousand, are found
chiefly in western Maharashtra. They have migrated from Andhra
Pradesh and are bilingual, speaking Telugu among themselves and
Marathi with others. They are divided into two groups. One group,
all of them true nomads, assembles once every three years near
Wadapuri, a village in Indapur Taluka of Pune District. The
remaining five thousand are scattered in thirty-eight villages in the
Districts of Ahmednagar, Aurangabad, Bhir, and Nasik. While
most of these are true nomads, some are semi-nomads. In the past
there were some marriages between the Nandiwalas who assemble
at Wadapuri and the others, but in the last fifty years or so they
have stopped. In recent years the Nandiwalas have started
contracting marriages with the Devwalas, a distinct but similar
caste who have also migrated from Andhra Pradesh.
The Nandiwalas traditionally move in small bands throughout a set
of villages which are their territory by heriditary right. They move
with their sacred bull, the nandi*, the vehicle of Lord Shiva,
performing tricks with the trained nandi* and in turn getting grain,
bhakri* (unleavened bread of sorghum or millet), cash, and other
articles. In addition they trade in bulls and frequently act as
moneylenders to the local farmers. Their womenfolk sell or barter
trinkets and indigenous medicines. The Nandiwalas are excellent
hunters; with the help of their trained dogs they hunt hare, iguana,
porcupine, mongoose, pig, deer, and other
 Page 133
animals. They also trap partridge and other birds and catch fresh-
water fish.
Though their wanderings are limited to Maharashtra, the bands
encounter a wide variety of socio-cultural and ecological settings.
Since each band has a different set of villages, it is exposed to
somewhat different settings than the other bands.
Despite their wandering in small bands the Nandiwalas do maintain
contact with each other. Often a number of them meet in weekly
markets, where they exchange news. During the rainy season the
whole group assembles in one place. The people of Wadapuri
assemble once in three years, while the other Nandiwalas assemble
yearly. It is during this period that they perform all their socio-
religious ceremonies, worship their gods and their ancestors,
perform marriages, and settle the disputes that have arisen since
they last met (Hayden and Malhotra 1976), Disputes are settled by
the panchayat *, the caste council.2 As far as possible, the
Nandiwalas avoid the government courts.
The Wadapuri Nandiwalas are comprised of four strictly
endogamous hierarchical groups: Patils, Chougules, Komtis, and
Daundiwalas.
The family among these people is nuclear, patrilineal, and
patrilocal. It consists of parents and their own children, but married
daughters are not regarded as members of the family. Children are
married young, and it is common for a man to marry more than one
wife. The preferred type of marriage is of a man to his mother's
brother's daughter, his father's sister's daughter, or his sister's
daughter. While a widow can remarry, divorce is not permitted.
Religious Beliefs and Practices
Though more information on the Nandiwalas' religious beliefs and
practices is needed, the main outlines are fairly clear. Most of their
worship falls into either one of two categoriesworship of ancestors
or of deities. The worship of Ram Mama, which is the subject of
this paper, does not
 Page 134
fall unambiguously into either of these two categories. We will
consider later the question of whether Ram Mama is worshipped as
an ancestor or a god.
The Nandiwalas' ancestor worship is based on a belief in life after
death and the immortality of the soul. Apparently the Nandiwalas
also believe in reincarnation though this is not entirely clear. Most
of them believe that the ancestral spirits return as members of the
kinship system. The spirits of the dead contact only those among
the living who are related to them. These spirits may be either
benevolent or malevolent. A malevolent ancestor can visit sickness,
poverty, or distress on his descendants.
Sacrifices are made to the dead on two occasions. On the thirteenth
day of the death rites a pig is sacrificed, and once a year each
family sacrifices a pig to their ancestors. The ceremony is rather
simple and there are no symbolic objects representing ancestors.
The Nandiwalas worship a large number of deities. All of these
deities, interestingly enough, have their main shrine in
Maharashtra, not in Andhra Pradesh. These deities include Ambaji-
Limbaji (Bapu Saheb), Navnath, Shivnath Maharaj, Mumbadevi,
Nana Saheb, Firisti Mariba, Ranabai, Satwai, Mhasoba, Gumasta
dev, Sahebrao dev and Maruti. Some of these gods, like Ambaji-
Limbaji, are worshipped by all Nandiwalas. There are others which
are specific to certain clans; many families or lineages have their
own deities. There is, however, no deity which is associated with a
particular endogamous group. All of these deities are propitiated at
least once a year.
Most of the deities are connected with disease and malevolent
spirits (ghosts, witches, etc.). Belief in evil spirits fits in very well
with the kind of life the Nandiwalas lead camping in remote,
isolated places, passing through hilly and jungle tracts, going out
on hunting expeditions during the night.
Before the advent of the Ram Mama yatra *, the Nandi-walas
invoked Ambaji-Limbaji for the protection of the family, for aid in
sickness and adversity, and for the granting
 Page 135
of children, especially sons. To repay a navas (vow) to Ambaji-
Limbaji they offered a goat or a fowl. For success in hunting
expeditions and protection from evil spirits they worshipped Firisti
Mariba.

Possession by a God
In addition to the regular worship of gods and ancestors, an
important part of the religious life of the Nandiwalas is the
phenomenon of possession by a deity, the same phenomenon that
has been described by John Stanley and G.-D. Sontheimer
elsewhere in this volume. Among the Nan-diwalas a person who is
in distress and wants to know what to do goes to an angat * alela*,
a person who is known to get possessed by a certain deity. He
explains why he has come and offers liquor to the angat* alela*
The other drinks a bit, sits down, and closes his eyes. He begins to
murmur, swaying his body from side to side. Though most of his
utterances are audible, their meanings are unclear. Within fifteen to
twenty minutes the person is in a state of trance. This is the
indication that the god has entered his body. The consulting person
then tells his difficulties to the deity and asks for his blessings:
"Please be kind to us, if you take us out of this difficulty we will do
what you want us to do" (or "we will sacrifice a pig/goat/fowl" as
the case may be). The deity then reveals why the person is in
distress, the usual reason being that the consulting person has failed
to fulfill a vow. The person is told to first fulfill the missed vow
and then to make another sacrifice. With folded hands he promises
to fulfill the missed vow. Then he touches the feet of the angat*
alela*. After a little while the angat* alela* opens his eyes and
returns to normal.
These consultations are carried out in the open and the vows are
made aloud. The possessed person does not use any props in
divination, in the sense that no guidance is taken from flowers,
grains, or other objects as is done by many other groups. For the
services provided by the person possessed nothing other than the
liquor is given.
 Page 136
It is also worth noting that there exists a hierarchy among those
who get possessed. Some people are known to experience more
genuine possession than others. Consequently there is a rivalry
between the possessed persons, and they will often say privately
that so-and-so only pretends to be possessed. A person's status as
an angat * alela* is liable to fluctuation, depending on how often
he has given correct advice.

The Story of Ram Mama

Although Ambaji-Limbaji and other gods are still worshipped, they
have in the last seventy years been overshadowed by Ram Mama.
The status of Ram Mama, as we have already indicated, is
somewhat ambiguous. The Nandiwalas assert that he is a god,
while some features of his worship indicate that he is worshipped
as an ancestor rather than a deity. Before attempting to answer the
question of whether he is regarded as an ancestor or a deity we
must look at the history of Ram Mama and the development of his
worship.
Ram Mama, who was originally known as Ramu, was a member of
the Chougule caste of Nandiwalas. He was still alive some seventy
years ago and is recalled by a few of the elderly Nandiwalas. Adept
in black magic, which he had learned from a non-Nandiwala, he
had extra-ordinary powers: he could kill someone's nandi*, stop
running water, make people ill, and even kill them. Because he
often used his malevolent powers people feared and hated him.
Finally one night during a hunting expedition in the hills near Bhor
in Pune district, the people of Ramu's own clan cut off his head
with an axe. His departure brought peace to the group.
But the peace did not last long. Some of the murderers fell sick, the
nandi* of others died. The people propitated Ambaji-Limbaji but to
no avail.
Then a Chougule woman of the clan of Ramu had a dream in
which Ramu appeared and told her that he had been killed by his
own people. He warned her that he would take revenge and destroy
the entire community. She nar-
 Page 137
rated the dream to the people. The atmosphere became tense and
the people approached Ambaji-Limbaji, asking what they should
do, but they received no guidance.
A few days later the woman who had had the dream was possessed
by Ramu. People knew how to respond to a possessed person; they
gathered around her and some of the elderly people said to her,
''Please do not get angry, we are prepared to do all that you want us
to do." The woman spoke, "I am Ramu. Some of you have
murdered me, but I am alive and I will not rest in peace until I
punish you all." The people begged, "Please forgive us; we shall do
all you say, Ram Mama." The woman answered, "All right, I will
pardon you on condition that every year each family offers me a
pig, liquor, and ganja *, (hemp)." Then the possessed woman
gradually returned to normal.
Since then all four castes of the Nandiwalas refer to Ramu as Ram
Mama, or simply Mama, and perform a yatra* to him at least once
a year.

The Yatra*
To begin with, the people performed the yatra* once a year during
their assembly at Wadapuri. But now many people perform it
twice. The yatra* is very systematic and well-organized. First the
caste council fixes the day for the sacrifice. This may be any day
except Sunday or Tuesday, Sunday being market day and Tuesday
sacred to Hanuman, to whom only vegetarian offerings are given.
Then arrangements are made to get pigs. Sometimes traders bring
the pigs, but usually people go and get them themselves. As many
as five hundred pigs may be sacrificed. Generally each nuclear
family sacrifices its own pig; sometimes, however, the sacrifice is
done by the extended family. The ceremony is collective in the
sense that all sacrifice on the same day and in the same place.
On the specified day, the Nandiwalas load the pigs on their
shoulders and go to an open field, generally a bit away from their
own settlement and from the village. Although
 Page 138
there is no fixed time, the yatra * usually starts about nine in the
morning. First the pigs are killed by hitting their jaws with iron or
wooden rods or with stones. Occasionally they are suffocated by
holding their snouts in a small pit. The pigs are then put on a fire.
After half an hour they are removed from the fire and the hair is
scraped off with stones or a scythe. Then they are washed.
In the meantime a small place is cleared and plastered with cow
dung. Several small stones representing Mama and his family are
placed on it, and kunku* (red-dyed turmeric powder) and gulal*
(red powder) is applied to all the stones. In front of the stone
representing Mama are placed two lemons, five betel leaves, betel
nut, liquor, incense sticks, cigarettes (in place of ganja*), and
bhakri*.
The pig is then laid face down, the snout facing Mama. The legs,
tail, and head are chopped off and put aside. The fat is sliced off,
the viscera removed, and the blood collected in a vessel. The pig is
then cut into small pieces with an axe. The liver and blood are
cooked on the spot, and the head, feet, and cooked liver are placed
before Mama as a nivedya (food offered to an idol). Then, after
folding their hands and bowing down to Mama, the members of the
family partake of the prasad* (food received from a god): first a
little of the liquor, then the liver cooked in blood. The remaining
meat and fat are taken to the tent where part of it is cooked and the
rest boiled, sun-dried, and stored. The fat is converted into oil to be
used later in cooking.
The Status of Ram Mama
In the details of the Ram Mama yatra* just described, we find a
mixture of the elements of deity and ancestor worship. First of all,
as for ancestor worship, a pig is sacrificed to Ram Mama. The
sacrifice of a pig is not associated with the worship of any of the
deities of the Nandiwalas. Unlike ancestor worship, however, the
Ram Mama yatra* is very elaborate and Mama is symbolically
represented. Moreover,
 Page 139
he is worshipped by the whole group rather than just by his
kinsmen.
On the other hand, the yatra * lacks a number of features common
to the Nandiwalas' deity worshipa priest, flags, and a shrine.
(However, at Jat-Deole in Ahmednagar district a small shrine for
Mama has recently been built alongside the shrine for Ambaji-
Limbaji.)
Despite the lack of these features, the evidence we have indicates
that indeed Ram Mama is regarded not only as a deity but has
become the major deity of the Nandiwalas. It was mentioned
earlier that the Nandiwalas formerly invoked Ambaji-Limbaji for
family welfare and Firisti Mariba for success in hunting and
protection from evil spirits. The situation has radically changed
now. In all these situations most people prefer to make a navas to
Mama. Mama, in their opinion, cures, brings prosperity, and
protects against evil spirits. Mama, they say, is very powerful and
looks after them better than any other deity. One can affort to fail to
fulfill a navas to any other deityeven Ambaji-Limbajibut not to
Mama; the consequences are invariably bad.
Another indication of the popularity of Ram Mama is the number
of people who are possessed by him. The number of persons, both
men and women, who are possessed by Mama is far greater than
the number possessed by all other deities combined.
The popularity of Ram Mama is not confined to the Wadapuri
Nandiwalas. The Nandiwalas of Ahmednagar, Bhir, and Nasik, and
even the Devwalas worship him. However, the worship of Ram
Mama has not spread to a single indigenous Marathi-speaking
group.
It is clear from the preceding discussion that while Ram Mama is
not completely established as a deity, he is in the process of
becoming one. Unlike the Nandiwalas' other ancestors, he exerted
during his lifetime a malevolent power over the whole group. By
murdering him and then worshipping his spirit, the Nandiwalas
transformed him into a beneficient deity. As the Nandiwalas
experienced the power of Ram Mama they spread the news of him
to the other
 Page 140
groups to which they were allied. But the worship of Ram Mama
has remained confined to those who share a common way of life
and Telugu as a mother tongue.
Author's Note
This paper is based on research originally conceived and partly
carried out by Irawati Karve. The study of the Nandiwalas was a
multi-disciplinary project of the Deccan College, Pune. The field
work in July-August 1969 was carried out under the direction of
Dr. Karve. After her death further field work, under the direction of
K. C. Malhotra, was carried out among the Wadapuri Nandiwalas
in 1972 and 1975, and among the other Nandiwalas in 1976. Only
participant-observation methods were used; no questionnaire was
administered. In 1975 the research team sacrificed two pigs along
with the Nandiwalas.

Editors' Notes
1. See Stuart Blackburn, "Death and Deification: Folk Cults in
Hinduism," in History of Religions 24 (1985): 255-74, for an
analysis of the deifying of the dead, with special emphasis on
Tamil culture.
2. The Nandiwala's colorful tradition may be seen in the
documentary film Court and Councils: Dispute Settlement in India
(produced by Ron Hess of Worldview Productions and the
University of Wisconsin's South Asia Center). A segment of the
film shows the caste council in its triennial meeting at Wadapuri in
Maharashtra debating in traditional style various cases of violation
of caste rules.
Author's References
Hayden, R. M., and K. C. Malhotra. 1976. "Dispute-processing
among a group of non-pastoral nomads: the Nandiwallas." Indian
Statistical Institute Tech. Report No. Anthrop/5/76 (June 28): 1-32.
 Page 141
Malhotra, K. C. 1974. "Socio-biological Investigations among the
Nandiwallasa nomadic caste-cluster in Maharashtra." Bulletin of
the International Committee on Urgent Anthropological and
Ethnological Research 16: 63-102.
, S. K. Hulbe, S. B. Kolte, and S. B. Khomne. 1976. A preliminary
report on the socio-biological survey among the semi-nomadic
Nandiwalas and Devwalas of Maharashtra." Mimeographed: 1-9.
Misra, P. K. and K. C. Malhotra, eds. 1982. Nomads of India:
proceedings of the national seminar. Calcutta: Anthropological
Survey of India. (Proceedings of National Seminar at Mysore,
1978.)
Thambi-Dorai, K. and K. C. Malhotra. "The Nandiwalas, an
account of their native customs and beliefs." In preparation.
 Page 142

11
"On the Road": A Maharashtrian Pilgrimage*
Irawati Karve Translated by D. D. Karve and Franklin Southworth
People impatient to get out were pushing me from behind; people
anxious to get in pulled me out. Somehow I landed on my feet on
the dusty platform. I gathered my few packages and made my way
out of the railway station through a crowd. The reasons for the
crowds became clear: today was the day of the weekly market, and
the "god" on his journey had reached this town to make a day's
halt. My guide and I picked our way through heaps of millet and
wheat and rice, through pots and pans, through bales of cloth and
saris, toys and hand-mirrors, vegetables and
* Originally published in English in the Journal of Asian Studies 22:1
(1962): 13-29; reprinted in South and Southeast Asia, Association of
Asian Studies 30th Anniversary Commemoration Series Vol. 3
(Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1972). Originally published in
Marathi as "Watcal *" in Paripurti* [Fulfillment] (Pune: Deshmukh
and Company, 1951). The translation used here is slightly changed
from that used earlier.
 Page 143
sweetseverything displayed on both sides of the road. Farther on,
there were amusementsthe revolving cradles and merry-go-rounds,
gramophones shrilling loudly, a snakecharmer, a troupe of tight-
rope dancers.
Today, as once every year, the image of Saint Dnyaneshwar rested
for one day here on its fifteen-days' march from Alandi in Pune
District to Pandharpur in Sholapur District. People from far and
near had flocked to pay respect to the great saint. Whole families
had come. They would "visit" the god," then buy in the market,
amuse themselves, and go back. Thousands walked from Alandi to
Pandharpur with the image of the saint, some joined later on the
way, some hiked the twenty miles from Pune over the hills, then
joined the others at this station and walked for twelve days over the
plains. We cut through the crowds. My companion pointed toward
the open space, "That's the way to 'Mother's' tent; we will be there
within minutes." I was slowly getting used to the vocabulary. Saint
Dnyaneshwar was referred to as Dev (God) or Mauli * (Mother).
His god Vithoba1 was also Dev or Mauli*. It is rather confusing at
first but becomes quite clear because the context tells which dev or
mauli* is meant. I looked up and saw above the heads of people a
dirty white canvas tent, with a shining golden pinnacle. The saint
was represented by silver images of his wooden sandals, padukas*.
Everyone was elbowing his way to put his head on the feet of the
saint. I did not hurry; I had ample time, for after all, I was to be
with the saint for the next twelve days. We went to our quarters and
were welcomed by an old man. My companion, a well-known
preacher and devotee, was given a seat among the men. I was led
inside to a room for the women.
This was but a small hut. From where I sat, I could see Brahman
women, wearing special ritual garments, cooking food in the open
courtyard. There was a small brick wall, and beyond it, just a few
feet away, Maratha women were cooking food for their party,
without ritual clothes.
"What time is it?"
"Half-past eleven," said somebody.
 Page 144
"We must hurry," said the first voice. "The pots and pans have to be
scoured and washed and packed in the truck before the god starts
moving."
"The meal is ready" (this from the courtyard).
Apparently the party was waiting for my companion. He and the
other Brahman man of our party put on their silk garments and took
their meal. After them the women who had cooked filled their own
plates and sat apart to eat; the rest of the food, with the pots, was
handed over to those who, like me, were in ordinary clothes. After
the meal, we washed the pots. Beyond the wall, the Marathas were
also having their meal, all together and without ritual. They also
finished washing their pots. As we went to load the truck, I
discovered that the Marathas and we belonged to the same walking
group or dindi *, which was to keep together and share the truck,
but of course not the food nor the accommodations every noon and
night. Because there was a little time before the god's palanquin
could start, the older women lay down for a few moments of rest. I
sat against the wall and had a good look at my companions of the
next few days.
There were about nine women: three were past middle age and
were widows with shaved heads; about six were middle aged; and
oneTaiwas very young. At the next stop, two or three more joined
us. Beyond our room, in the men's group, was a gentleman whom
we called Kaka. He was a member of the group singing devotional
songs, and he kept accounts and generally looked after the
provisions. The actual shopping was done by the women, but he
rendered any help that was necessary. Then there was another
gentleman, the one with whom I had come. He was famous for his
religious discourses and was Guru" to everybody in the group.
I was quite new and eager to learn whatever Tai had to tell. Some
things I already knew from literary sources. I knew that in the
thirteenth century, when Dnyaneshwar wrote or rather composed
and sang in Marathi the meaning of the Sanskrit Bhagavad Gita*,
the cult of Vithoba was
 Page 145
already well established. Even then the shrine of Pandharpur was a
famous place of pilgrimage. Neither my father's family nor my
husband's family belonged to this cult, and so I had never gone to
Pandharpur. The pilgrimage starts from Alandi where
Dnyaneshwar "died" (i.e., took samadhi *) voluntarily at age
twenty-two in the presence of hundreds of people. The silver
images of his sandals are taken every year in a palanquin to
Pandharpur so as to reach the town the day before the first Ashadhi
Ekadashi, the eleventh day of the waxing moon in June-July.
Simultaneously, different "saints" born between the fourteenth and
the seventeenth century and belonging to this cult also startthat is,
their foot-images startfor this pilgrimage from different parts of
Maharashtra. Each palanquin is accompanied by pilgrims. The
pilgrims are those who belong to the cult and go to Pandharpur
each yearthe Varkarisas well as those who are not members of the
cult, but who have a wish to visit the god in the company of the
saints.
"But what did you mean when you pointed out that woman as the
mistress of our group?" I asked Tai, in my ignorance.
"Well, you see it is like this," she explained as one would to a child,
"The singers, the drummer, and the old luteplayer belong to a
sacred school in Alandi; they and Guruji are the core of our dindi-
group*. But taking these people to Pandharpur, feeding them,
carrying their things, all cost money. Lay people like us want to be
attached to such a group. So, people like that lady and her sister,
devotees who have money and a large circle of friends, undertake
to organize. We pay contributions while she and her manager hire
the truck, buy the provisions, and make arrangements for the
nightly halt. It is time for us to start now; the men have already left
to take their place in the procession."
We got up and stood by the road. I heard the bugle. The procession
had started. Our dindi* came along. Tai bent down and took up the
dust on the road. God's saints were passing today on this road. The
dust under their feet was
 Page 146
sacred. I too dipped my finger in the dust and put it to my forehead.
The ritual was followed every day. We joined our own group. The
mridang * drum gave the rhythm, the vina* lute strummed the
tune, the men with two small cymbals tied to a string around their
necks marked time and sang one of the multitude of sectarian songs
composed since the thirteenth century:
The quality of compassion is to love
To love without thought of return,
As a mother loves her child.
Easier said than done! How is it possible? Oris it so impossible?
That sparrow which built its nest, which fed the little ones all day
longwhat did it expect in return? It mourned pitifully when my cat
ate the fledgling, but what did it lose? Can one order one's love at
all? Does love ask one's permission before it appears? It weaves
itself into the warp and woof of the heart without asking
permission; the threads are pulled all the time this way and that,
and may cut deep. Then men cry out with bleeding hearts, "O God!
Please rescue us." Not only the love of the mother, but all love is
without any thought of gain; that is why it is so painful...or...
Suddenly, my neighbor gave me a nudge, "Look at the women with
the lamps." All along the main street, women were standing with
lamps, rice, and coconuts on brass plates held in their hands to pay
homage to the palanquin. I was jerked out of my thoughts and I
looked around. The road was a sea of human beings. From all
sides, one heard the chant of the saints' names, Dnyanoba
Tukaram," "Dnyanoba Tukaram."2 We crossed through the town
and began to walk along the open road. The speed of our walking
increased somewhat. The sun was covered with clouds. A strong
wind was blowing, and the dust raised by thousands of feet made
the atmosphere hazy. The hilly region of Alandi, Pune, and Saswad
was left behind, and we were slowly entering a high plateau. Still
one saw a few low hills and some high mountains in the
background. This year, there had been a lot of rain during the
Rohini constellation
 Page 147
in early June, and the weather was neither too dry nor too hot. Off
an on, some words of the songs came to my ears
Bring Hari speedily to me''
"Placed his hand on my head to caress me"
"Vithai come soon, come soon"
Different dindis * sang different songs, and snatches came to my
ears while I listened to our own group. Suddenly the procession
stopped.
"What is wrong?"
"Nothing, this is the place for the 'straight' ride."
I did not understand but kept mum, watched, and did what others
did. The songs had stopped. All chanted the name of the god and
his divine spouse"Vithoba-Rakhumai""Vithoba-Rakhumai." The
singers kept rhythm with their feet. The women behind them were
also moving their bodies to the rhythmever louder, ever faster the
cymbals clashed. The crowd parted, leaving a wide straight lane;
on came two horses at a gallop, one riderless, the other with a
richly dressed rider holding a silver staff. Both horses stopped near
the saint's palanquin, dipped their heads, and went back again. The
lines of people joined as the procession started.
"Do you see how even dumb animals are filled with devotion?"
said the woman.
"But what have these horses to do with the procession?" I asked.
She pitied my ignorance and explained, "Did you see the riderless
white horse? It is God's horse and has a silken saddle on its back.
And the rider with the staff is God's rider. Both horses are part of
the paraphernalia presented to the god [i.e., Saint Dnyaneshwar] by
Sardar Shitole."
I acknowledged the information and realized that the "straight" ride
was over and the palanquin was moving off.
Soon we reached the place where we were to stay overnight. It was
the open courtyard of a big house. Our Maratha companions lived
in the open porch of the next house. Tai
 Page 148
and I ate things left over from the morning meal and spread our
beds. The older women had prepared some fresh stuff for the men,
but before these arrived, I had fallen fast asleep. The other
Brahman women in our dindi * were going to eat later. Right up to
Pandharpur, this was our routine. Tai got very hungry in the
evening. She took her food early and I joined her. The others had
various ritual regulations about eating. Some had a fast; others ate
the usual food prepared in a special way, calling it a ritual diet and
not then putting on the ritually pure clothes; some ate only peanuts,
while still others ate sago. In this way, each evening there was
almost more variety than the number of women; at the morning
meal, it was the same. Some had the usual onemeal fast, some
would not eat salt on Mondays, some had a regular whole-day fast
on Monday, and some ate only in the evening. Moreover, special
food was prepared in the evening for the men. I could not
understand all this complicated business and the enormous amount
of extra work it involved. I could not explain how the women did
all this and why. As we proceeded on our way, the hot sun burnt
our faces and left everybody looking tired and parched. The daily
toil left everyone exhausted. All complained about aching feet and
legs, but hardly anybody protested about the work. The older
women were very lovingly looked after. The hard work and
cheerful attitude of the women always surprised me.
We got up at 4:30 in the morning and finished our toilet in the dim
light of a lantern. One woman drew water from the well, another
took a bath, a third washed her sari. There was only one hand-
wheel for drawing water from the well, and there were a hundred
men and women wanting to bathe. You had just time to pour a little
water over your body and wash clothes by beating them on stones
and rinsing them quickly. I never had occasion to use the soap
cakes, which I had brought in my vast ignorance, for bathing or
washing. I was accustomed to do my hair and put the red mark on
my forehead in the dark and so felt no need of a mirror. I was ready
before everybody else. I packed and put my bag
 Page 149
and bedding into the truck and went out with the idea of paying
homage to the sacred silver sandals. The place where the palanquin
had stopped for the night was about half a mile farther on from our
shelter. As usual, crowds of villagers were going towards the place.
The palanquin was resting in a big fallow field, and thousands of
people had made their beds at night around it. Some bullock carts
and pedestrians were already on the way while others were
collecting their bedding, clothes, and utensils. These were the
better-class farmers. There were hundreds of professional beggars
and poor people. They ate whatever people gave them, spread their
mat wherever they found room, and walked with the palanquin.
They suffered if it rained. Fortunately this year there was not much
rain; also the sky was cloudy and so there was not much sun either.
I put my head on the padukas * and turned to go away, but a
woman stopped me, "Watch the puja*. Don't go yet." The silver
sandals were taken out of the palanquin, put on a silver plate, and
handed over to the priest. The worship was gone through in full
detail, but rapidly, because this was only a short halt on a long
journey. At the end of the puja*, the worshipers sang devotional
songs and performed arati*, the waving of lamps. The hereditary
servants then stood up and held a screen around the god. "What is
all this now?" my ignorance queried again. The woman said, "God
has been offered food. He is now having his meal. The screen is to
prevent the evil eye of the onlookers from affecting him." I was
amazed at this extreme humanizing of god, of imagining him to
have qualities and form identical with man. "Formerly, the offering
in the plate before the god was actually eaten. But nowadays
nobody has faith, and naturally such miracles do not take place,"
the woman explained to me as I came out of the tent. The devotees
waiting outside rushed in, and I heard the men round the palanquin
crying loudly, "Ladies, please give your contribution." The
thoughts of all those rushing in were directed to the feet of the
godwhile the thoughts of those near the palanquin were directed to
the pockets of the people. I quickly got out
 Page 150
of this oppressive atmosphere, and soon the bugle gave the signal
to start. Every morning the god's palanquin started at 6:30, and this
was the signal. I mingled with the women's group and began to
walk.
We used to walk the whole day except for two or three hours
around noon. Right in the front, there were the bullock carts loaded
with luggage. Following them were hundreds of people in smaller
or larger groups, chanting, singing, and playing various
instruments. After that walked the main procession. In the
vanguard was the dindi * of the Untouchables,3 then came the
god's horses, then hundreds of people carrying flags. Again I was
supplied the information, "The huge orange flag carried on a pole
is a sign that the man who carries it is a special type of devotee
who goes to Pandharpur every month. A man hopes that when he is
too old and feeble, a strong son will bear the pole and carry on his
tradition." Following the banners came the wagon carrying the
palanquin of the god and behind them a mile-long crowd of people
on foot. There were as many women as men. The red, green, and
blue saris of the women, with borders and ends of contrasting
colors, the red turbans and other multicolored headgear of the men,
the dull orange flags fluttering in the breeze, the black, freshly-
ploughed fields spreading for miles on both sides, the hazy hills on
the distant horizon, the grass on the roadside which had turned
green from recent showers, and the blue sky peeping from behind
the rain cloudsI could look at all this for hours and hours and still
not be satisfied. In the early afternoon, thousands of people would
stop at a roadside brook, and the moving scene would become
stationary for a time. The first thing everybody did at a halt was to
dry the clothes which had been washed at the early morning bath.
Then all the fields would be carpeted by the colored saris spread
out to dry. Blue smoke and reddish flames rose from hundreds of
fires in the noon air. From morning till evening, one's ears were
ringing with the sound of the cymbals and drums and the
devotional verses of Tukaram, Dnyaneshwar, Eknath, Namdev, and
other poet-saints. When we stayed in
 Page 151
a house for the night, the singing within the four walls of a room
often seemed discordant and the noise of the instruments
unbearable. Indoors I felt oppressed, but out in the open, the sound
of the bell-like cymbals was never too loud.
Except during a few still hours of early morning, all day long a stiff
breeze was blowing. When I started from home, Haushi, my maid
servant, had told me, "Bai, it is no use taking an umbrella. The
wind is so strong that you can hardly hold it." She was right. I did
not regret having forgotten my umbrella in the train. Everything
was in motion in the wind-swept atmospherethe ends of the saris of
women, the branches of the trees, the stalks of millet in a few
unploughed fields, the walking crowds, and the clouds overhead. I
was walking on and on in a space filled with color, sound, and
wind. When I looked down, I saw innumerable feet moving up and
down, onward to the rhythm of tal * and mridang*. I felt I was a
drop in this vast stream of human beings; that instead of walking, I
was being carried forward by the surrounding motion. Even at
night when I slept, I dreamt that I was walking, and when I got up
in the morning, I was surprised that I still lay at the spot where I
had fallen asleep.
Today, the Brahmans and Marathas in our group were camping
near each other. Every day we would walk together and camp near
each other, but the food would be cooked separately. Today I said
to the Maratha man who managed all on behalf of the mistress,
"Buwa, please allow me to take my meals with you." Buwa agreed
very readily to my request. As soon as the truck arrived, the big
vessels con-taming the cooked food were taken down; the curry
was warmed and the leaf plates arranged in two rows, one for men
and the other for women. A few of the group served the food. All
the women were chattering and laughing while the meal was going
on. Wherever we camped for the night, the women got up in the
early dawn, lighted the fire, and cooked the rice, vegetables, and
chapatis. These were then
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packed in vessels and the mouths were tied tightly with cloth
before being loaded onto the truck. The rice would still be warm
when we reached the noon camp. This was easy on the women, for
as the rice was warm, only the curry had to be heated. Thus people
could sit down to their meals soon after we camped at noon. Then
they could rest for a couple of hours till the palanquin moved, and
they did not have to walk immediately after a meal. But the
Brahman group would start cooking only after reaching the noon
camping place. The Brahmans had to place the stones, light the
fire, bring water, chop the vegetables, and then make rice, chapatis,
and lentil curry; all this took at least an hour and a half. Then the
men ate, after changing into special silk dhotis; when they had
finished, the women in special clothes ate their food. Finally we
others took charge of all the remaining food and ate without
changing our clothes. By the time we ate, we would be hot and
very thirsty. After meals, we had to take all the pots to the stream
for scrubbing, put them into sacks, and load them into the truck as
quickly as possible, because the truck was to go ahead to our
evening camp. In this way we got hardly half an hour of rest before
it was time to start.
In the Maratha group, the women did the cooking, but the men took
over serving the food, bringing water, and loading the heavy
baggage into the truck. Altogether, the men and women behaved
more freely and openly with each other. Of course, they always sat
in separate groups and there was no joking or laughing between
them, but one noticed that there were no special inhibitions of
behavior between the two groups. On the other hand, in the
Brahman group, most of the work was done by the women. There
were only two men, the guru and another. When the guru was
about, everybody was very subdued and respectful. The other
gentleman did carry out a few chores, but the women did most of
the work. The routine the Marathas followed was uncomplicated.
None of them put on special clothes, and nobody had different
kinds of fasts. All sat down to their meal together and all finished
together; so, even
 Page 153
though there were about fifty or sixty people in the group,
everything was done quickly. Every day I regretted the fact that one
and the same dindi * was divided into these two sections. All of the
people were clean, and they ate their food only after taking a bath.
Then why this separateness? Was all this walking together, singing
together, and reciting the poetry of the saints together directed only
towards union in the other world while retaining separateness in
this world? This question was in my mind all the time. In the same
way I had become friendly with the Brahman group, the Maratha
women had also taken me to their hearts. As I could not bring the
groups together, I joined now one group and now the other, trying
to construct a bridgeat least as far as I was concerned. After I had
taken my meal with them, I felt that they were more friendly. Many
of them walked alongside of me, held my hand, and told me many
things about their life. Towards the end, they called me "Tai,"
meaning "Sister." A few of the said, ''Mark you, Tai, we shall visit
you in Pune." And then one young girl said, "But will you behave
with us then as you are behaving now?" It was a simple question,
but it touched me to the quick. We have been living near each other
thousands of years, but they are still not of us and we are not of
them.
Why is this so? Are the Brahmans so heartless? On no! Most
definitely not. If one of the Maratha women were hurt, the
Brahmans would at once go to her aid and give her medicine. If
some Maratha man had been hungry, the Brahmans would certainly
have fed him well. But they would not take food sitting in the same
row, or accept food or water from a Maratha. They had no feeling
that they were doing anything wrong. Every one of them was
caught up in the vicious circle of an old custom. Some were
observing the traditional rules of behavior willingly and earnestly.
Others were observing those rules just because otherwise society
might consider them improper. But what I could not understand
was that men who in their city life came daily into contact with
Christians, Muslims, and others were also behaving in the same
way as the women. The
 Page 154
tradition of the Varkari pilgrims, the rebellion of the saints against
giving importance to external matters and against the hypocritical
following of prescribed behavior, the teaching of the oneness of
man and deity, and above all modem city lifehow could one
reconcile these with regard for ritual purity and impurity?
On some occasions I was outraged. I do not remember the name of
the town, but when we reached that place in the evening, we found
that the well was far from our camp. I went there, washed my
hands, feet, and face, and brought back with me a small pot full of
water. Then I took out my bedroll from the track and sat down on
the veranda. lust then Buwa came to enquire if all the arrangements
were satisfactory. I said, "Oh, the place is very nice, but the well is
far away. Our feet are so sore from the long march that I do not
know how we can bring water from such a distance." Buwa pitied
our plight, made a servant scrub and clean a big copper pot, fill it
with water, and place it in our quarters. I blessed him and drank
from it to my heart's content. But for drinking and for making tea,
the other women in my group used only the water which they
themselves had brought; they employed the water sent by Buwa
only for toilet purposes. The next morning we got up early as usual
and went to the stream in the dark, in order to wash. A large
number of people were there, cleaning their teeth, washing their
mouths, and spitting into the stream. I could not bring myself to
clean my mouth with the water, and took only a cursory wash.
However, the women in our Brahman group apparently felt no
hesistation, took their baths with the usual cries of "O Ganga! O
Bhagirathi!" and even washed their mouths with the water.
Apparently the spitting of members of other castes was not
considered as pollution of their bathing water in the stream, while
the clean well water was considered polluted because it had been
brought by a man of non-Brahman caste!
It was the same story with conversation and ways of behavior. We
were, on another occasion, bathing in a wayside stream before
dawn. We had brought two kerosene
 Page 155
lanterns with us. When I came up from my bath, I could not find
the second lantern. It had apparently been taken away by some
women from our group who came later, in order to light their way
to the place where they had gone in the fields; but my companion
and I did not know this. Just then another woman with a lantern in
her hand came down to the bank into the stream and I asked my
companion, "Can that be our lantern? Should I ask her?" But before
I could say another word, my companion shouted to the woman,
"Hey, you there, whose lantern are you taking away there?" The
woman turned to us defiantly and said, "The lantern belongs to me.
And who are you to shout 'Hey, woman' at me?" Naturally, we
were in the wrong, but my companion was surprised at her sharp
retort. She turned to me and said, ''Do you see how angry she
became? One cannot even say 'Hey, woman' to them now!" In
order not to continue the quarrel by further exchange of words, I
quickly started up the bank; but I could not help thinking for a long
time how we do not realize the offending air of superiority in the
way we speak. With all our keenness to bow down before God
Pandurang and all our willingness to suffer much hardship on
account of that desire, we daily show contempt for the living gods
beside us.
But am I not being a victim of meaningless sentiment in my
analysis of the existing situation? Brahmans and other castes are
present in a particular social situation. Most people accept that
situation; they do not feel any unjust discrimination in it. Am I
making a mountain out of a molehill for nothing? No, definitely
not. Have not many saints in the Varkari cult themselves exposed
this degrading differentiation between Brahmans and the others by
means of many poems and many similes? Did they not ask for
justice at the feet of Pandurang? Only yesterday our dindi * was
singing the song of the Untouchable devotee Chokhamela.
Chokha is uncouth,
but his devotion is not uncouth.
Why judge him by his exterior?
 Page 156
Did we sing that without understanding its meaning at all? The
revulsion against social injustice is bound to be translated into
action soon and not remain as mere platitudes in the verses of the
saints. Are we Brahmans going to remain blind to this future?
Ritual purity, pollution by one person and not by anotherare we
going to keep up these outward pretenses? Are we going to
continue to give up humanity and neighborliness in the name of
ritual purity? "The pure love of God"are we never going to be
worthy of it?
Fortunately there was not much time for me to spend in these
fruitless and bitter thoughts. The whole atmosphere was full of joy.
Not that there were no quarrels, no abusive words, but such
occasions were very few. If anyone used bad language or became
angry, the others would say, "You must not do that while we are on
the way to Pandhari," and the offender would be ashamed and fall
silent. I saw this several times. Many of us used to walk a mile or
so ahead of the palanquin and sit down to rest under a tree.
Different groups got together under a tree in this way, and the
women would press each other to sing a song. From the language
and subject of the song and the way it was sung, I would try to
guess from which part of the country the singer had come. Once,
while I was sitting under a tree, I heard the words "male, rule" and
I at once got up and joined the group. "Are you from Khandesh?" I
asked one of the group. "No," she replied, "We belong to the Ghat."
My companion, who was from Pune, remarked, "They do not speak
like the people from Maval (the mountainous or ghat * area
between the Desh and Konkan). How can they be from the Ghat?" I
told her, "The 'Ghat' she means are the hills near Aurangabad or
perhaps near Buldana." The women were very happy to hear this,
and finding that I knew their country, they told me that they came
from near Ellora in Aurangabad District. I asked, "What caste do
you belong to?" One of them told me that they were of the Warik
(barber) caste. Then I quoted the verse of a poet-saint, "We
 Page 157
are Wariks and we shave very smoothly." At once the woman
smiled at me with great satisfaction and said, "Oh, you know just
the fight thing." That group had nearly fifty men, women, and
children all belonging to the barber caste. They had come by train
to Pune and had been walking with the palanquin right from the
start at Alandi. Some men and women had come from as far as
Bidar, Bhid, Parbhani, Jalna, even Nanded. They always said they
came from "Gangathadi"the bank of the river Ganga. Every sacred
river is ''Ganga" and in Maharashtra the river Godavari especially
is called "Ganga" or "Gangabai."
Once we were going along in the morning, and just in front of us
was a bullock cart hall of baggage with three or four children
seated on top. One boy in the group was howling loudly because he
did not want to sit in the cart as his mother was forcing him to do.
He was making a racket and kicking with his feet while his mother
held a millet stalk in her hand and pretended to threaten him,
smiling all the time. "We went out to see the god in the morning
and I thought that since the poor child had already walked a lot, he
would be happy to ride in the cart. But now he has started this
game! Wait, I will break your head for you," said the mother, and
rushed at him. She was followed by the other woman shouting,
"Oh, don't! Don't!"
While this chase went on ahead, a young woman came up from
behind, holding a child whom she could scarcely carry. I asked,
"Why is your child crying?"
She replied, "He just will not walk! All the time he says, 'Auntie,
please pick me up!' I thought he should walk for a couple of miles
in this cool morning. But he begins to wallow on the road, and so I
am just dragging him along."
"The irony of it! That other child is crying because he wants to
walk, and this one is howling because he does not want to walk.
Let this one sit in the cart and let that one walk."
Meanwhile a man came along, took up the child on his back, and
the woman began to walk with us. She was a
 Page 158
Maratha by the name of Pawar and came from Jogaiamba. The
child was her dead sister's son. She had started for Pandharpur and
was already out of town when her brother-in-law brought the child
and asked her to take him along. The child had just one shirt, not
even anything to cover himself with at night, and the poor gift
would be carrying him along on the pilgrimage for a fortnight.
Another day I saw her sitting with the child in a group of men and
women. We also sat down for a little rest. She was massaging her
arms. "Are you very tired?" I asked.
"What can I do?" she asked. "The whole day I have to carry the
child on my back. I don't feel any pleasure in living."
"Oh! But he will repay all your troubles when he is older," I tried to
console her.
"I don't think so at all! Yesterday he bothered me so much that
when I reached our halting place in the evening, I gave him a sound
beating. Do you know, he said, 'I will strangle you!'" She also
joined in our laughter and the naughty boy tumed his face away
and smiled.
So, I was getting to know my Maharashtra anew every day. I found
a new definition of Maharashtra: the land whose people go to
Pandharpur for pilgrimage. When the palanquin started from Pune,
there were people from Pune, Junnar, Moglai, Sataxa, etc. Every
day people were joining the pilgrimage from Khandesh, Sholapur,
Nasik, and Berar. As we neared Pandharpur, the pilgrimage was
becoming bigger and bigger. All were Marathi-speaking
peoplecoming from different castes, but singing the same songs,
the same verses of the Vatkarl cult, speaking to each other, helping
each other, singing songs to each other. The only Maharashtrian
area not represented was Konkan, the District of the Maharashtrian
seacoast. When I enquired about this, I was told that the Ashadh
month's pilgrimage was for the plateau people; the month of Kartik
would bring out the whole of Konkan. Ashadh was their time for
work in the fields, so naturally, they could not leave. On the
plateau, the fields
 Page 159
had already been ploughed, and there was now spare time before
the sowing. All areas were devoted to the god of Pandharpur, but
neither the coastal people nor the plateau people neglected their
fields to show their devotion.
I witnessed how the language and culture of Maharashtra had
spread among all its social layers. The fine poetry of five centuries
was recited daily. That poetry embodied a religion and a
philosophy. People speaking many dialects sang the same verses
and thus learned a standard language. Their learning was achieved
in a massive dose but without pain or compulsion. Every one was
laughing and joking during the march. Nobody pressed people to
join the pilgrimage. No public announcement of the program was
made, and the outside world might just as well not have existed.
The pilgrims were intoxicated with happiness; anyone who had a
heart, who had the insight, could have the same joy.
One day I became particularly aware of the difference between
culture and literacy. While we were resting in our midday camp, I
looked up the road and saw a pair of missionaries. They had little
pamphlets in their hands and had come to spread the religion of the
Lord Jesus Christ. After the first two or three days, they must have
despaired and gone away, for I did not see them during the later
stages of the pilgrimage. I was very angry with them, but the
people in my group just laughed at the whole thing. The pair was
certainly literate in Marathi but had not even a trace of
understanding of Maharashtrian culture. Different human societies
express their sense of beauty and sanctity and the goodwill in their
hearts in different ways; to learn the value of these different
manifestations and at least to try to understand what others believe
before insisting that one's own beliefs are the only right onesis this
not the sign of wisdom? "The quality of compassion is to loveto
love without a thought of return." To love humanity without any
desire for gainis not that the means to true wisdom? But the
followers of monotheismpolitical, social, or ethical
 Page 160
can never understand this. Particularly the servants of Christ, who
for the last two or three centuries have conquered and ruled
different human societies all over the world and trampled upon
their cherished values, are not likely to realize this.
I could never really find out how many songs, poems, and stories
these illiterate women knew by heart. During the whole journey, I
never heard the same song twice. There was great temptation to
take down the songs, but I had started from home with the vow that
I would not touch book, notebook, or pencil. Besides the usual
women's songs, others were of the devotional type common among
the Varkaris. There was a surprising variety of songs gondhal *,
kheliya*, gavlan*, everything was there. One woman who knew I
was teaching at Pune taunted me, "This is better than your colleges.
Have your students this education and this discipline?" Naturally I
did not agree with her, but though this was not a college, three
characteristics of education were present here: the preservation of
traditional knowledge, its cultivation, and its transmission to the
next generation. This education was also many-sided. Besides
religion and philosophy, the three arts of music, dancing, and
drama were included in it; and it also encompassed the living
together for some time of the whole society. Not that the music was
of a very high quality, but in addition to the traditional simple
tunes, attempts were made to put them into classical ragas* with
the rhythm of the mridang* drum. I had already heard the Bhairavi,
Kafi, Bhoop, Sarang, Jaijaivanti, Durga, and Malkansa ragas*. The
day we left Phaltan, it was raining. A singer of that town had come
with us for a couple of miles, and the morning's songs tunefully
sung by him and repeated after him by our group are still fresh in
my ears. So absorbed was I that only after the singer had gone back
did I realize that we had been walking in the rain for over an hour.
Five times on the way we witnessed the horses paying homage to
the saint in rangan* performances. For a rangan*,
 Page 161
the palanquin is taken into the center of a large field while
thousands of spectators sit or stand around it in a big circle.
Leaving a wide circular passage round the spectators, the
devotional singers form an outer circle and continuously repeat the
names of the saints, or chant "Vithoba Rakhumarl" Both horses
make three or five circuits through the passageway at a fast trot,
bend their heads down in front of the palanquin, and go away. Then
all the people play jhimma *, phugdya*, and the likegames of
hand-clapping, reeling and leap-frog. The men's games are rather
rough and fast, and women do not take part in them. Even if
someone takes a tumble, he does not get hurt very much in the soft
fields. Finally, all the members of the dindis* dance round the
palanquin in a circle and then the palanquin moves on.
The performance of bharud* stories also takes place in an open
field. Bharud* is a kind of folk-drama, in which the different actors
explain some ideas of Vedantic philosophy.4 A single actor may
perform a series of roles, making lightning changes in his dress and
make-up. Thus as a king's astrologer, he puts on an old pair of
spectacles and a big turban two feet in diameter; as soon as that
part is over, he throws away those paraphernalia and takes up
another role and its costume. Adding to the original philosophic
compositions of Eknath, the actor often puts a number of his own
words into the bharud* and accompanies them with gestures. The
interpolated words are sometimes obscene, but the gestures may be
particularly so. This crude form of theatrical art never lasts for
longer than about half an hour. Men and women listen to it, laugh
to their heart's content, and forget everything as soon as they take
to the road again.
Erotic representations and imagery have been a part of religious
festivals from very ancient times. In the old Brahmanical sacrifices
which went on for days and months, there were always some parts
which were purely for amusement, for sexual excitement, and for
entertainment. In fact there are some who insist that all drama
originates in religion and magic. Why should such entertainment be
vul-
 Page 162
gar? It could well do without the sexual slant. Of course none of
the well-known discoursers on religion, who are deeply learned and
respected, participate in the bharud *. The actors in these are half-
educated persons. Their easiest way to make people laugh is to use
shameless gestures and sentences with a double meaning. This has
been going on from very ancient times, and if in a whole fortnight
of continuous singing of devotional poetry there is a littlereally
very littleof this kind of diversion, one need not object to it. If the
low thoughts that are present in everybody's mind can be given
some outlet in this harmless way and for such a short time, and if
they disappear from ordinary life at other times, occasional
obscenity would be really a small price to pay.
There is always a considerable amount of latitude given to obscene
or disgusting sentiments in poetry which praises renunciation. To
give as offensive a description as possible of the worldly life while
recommending renunciation is a very old trick, and the Varkari
tradition is no exception to it. One such poetic song is a long
composition known by the name of "Madalasa." The story goes
that a royal lady named Madalasa advises her baby princes, while
they are still in their cradles, to give up the temptations of this life;
the sons thereupon renounce the pleasures of this life and become
ascetics. The song brings together the advice Madalasa gave to her
sons, punctuated by the refrain, "Madalasa spoke'I am He.' Sleep
child, sleep." I heard this song three or four times. The Varkaris
may perhaps be inspired towards renunciation by it, but what I
found disgusting was not the worldly life but the poem.
The human body, under the attractive skin, is full of blood and flesh
and such stuff; the body contains excreta, faeces, and urine; the nose
is full of mucus; this beautiful body decays with disease and old
 ageand therefore, O men, give up this life of enjoyment, adopt
celibacy, and retire from the affairs of daily lite.
This advice is directed towards men, and rightly enough.
 Page 163
A woman brings into this world a shapeless mass of flesh, feeds the
hungry being every three or four hours, washes its soiled clothes,
and cleans its body; and when gradually the bundle of flesh begins
to take on color and form and smiles at her, she feels herself the
happiest being on earth. Such a mother knows quite well what the
human body is made of, and a description is not likely to engender
renunciation in her mind. When men become ascetic, the only thing
they forgo is sex. Otherwise, they are being well looked after. Even
in the absence of a wife, they get tasty and well-prepared food: a
mother or sister by blood or by sentiment cooks for them. It is
always women who come forward to serve a celibate with devotion
and real attachment.
I found an interesting example of feminine devotion in this
pilgrimage. As we neared Pandharpur, palanquins from different
parts of Maharashtra joined the Dnyaneshwar palanquin. The camp
before Pandharpur became a huge city of palanquins and dindis *.
Every part of Maharashtra was represented there. There were the
palanquins of Tukaram Maharaj from Dehu, Sopankaka from
Saswad, Muktabai from Khandesh, Rakhumai herself from
Amraotiall of them were there. This year there was the palanquin
of Ramdas5 from Sajjangad near Satara, which joined us on the
way. The carriers of the palanquin were all men, but accompanying
it and waving the yak-tail brush (to keep away flies) were women.
This man, Ramdas, who ran away in the midst of his wedding
ceremony in order to escape leading the family life, was
surrounded by women after his death! It made me smile. It is
always women who come forward to render service to such
renouncers. Very often such devotion is completely without ulterior
motive. When I saw a woman whose life had been devastated by
early widowhood, lacking a family of her own children, but caring
for the Guru, seeing that he got warm, tasty food, then I valued
more the tender heart of that woman than the strict celibacy of the
Guru. "The quality of compassion is to loveto love without thought
of return." Once I had heard the song of
 Page 164
Madalasa, I found myself bored with listening to it again and again.
My thoughts used to wander into history. I wondered how and
when the status of the householder in the Hindu social system had
lost its honored place, and how celibacy and renunciation had
assumed more and more importance.
The Vatkarl sect itself insisted that the transcendental brahman was
too difficult a concept to grasp; one could reach it gradually
through loving worship of an incarnate god. Its saints showed
devotion to Vithoba on the level of human passion using the
imagery of a lover towards his beloved. Its god was the dark
Vithoba, who was none other than the Lord Shri Krishna, the lover
of many women. They chanted the name Vithoba but always with
the name of his wife Rakhumai, whose love story, too, is part of the
Varkari literature. The Gira * that induced Arjuna to accept his
duty in this world was the sacred book of the Varkari saintsand on
the other hand, there was all this preaching of celibacy and
renunciation! How were these two to be reconciled? The Vedas
taught one to become immortal through begetting progeny and
perpetuating the race. The land was once filled with smoke from
the sacrifices of the tribes of the Kurus and Panchalas who wanted
sons to be born to them; Manu, the ancient law-giver, told of
several ways of obtaining a son if there was no son born to a
person. Shabarswami, an old commentator, wrote, "One should
remain at the teacher's house for twelve years after initiation for the
usual education. If one wishes to become a specialist in some
branch, one may remain with the teacher and devote oneself to
study as a celibate. But one who preaches celibacy for a longer
period is probably a eunuch."
While the merits of a married life were being praised on the one
side, the life of seclusion in a forest and the philosophy of the
Upanishads was developing on the other. Buddhism and Jainism
based themselves on the latter philosophy, propagating the great
value of the ascetic life and the worthlessness of the normal life of
work and pleasure. But the popularity of the ascetic religion
depended upon a
 Page 165
peculiar social contradiction. The livelihood of the men and women
who renounce the ordinary pursuits and lived the life of beggars
with very few wants ultimately needed the support of wealthy royal
houses or the rich merchants who lived in cities like Vaishali and
Shravasti. A well-to-do and generous society of householders was
the essential precondition for the edifice of a religion of
renunciation and ascetism. The history of this great transformation
in the value system of the Hindus is as important as it is interesting.
But songs like that of Madalasa are neither entertaining nor
ennobling.
The song of Madalasa had ended some time back. I felt there was
some change in the atmosphere. In a moment, I heard the words of
Dnyaneshwar's well-known song
Caw, Caw!
A crow in the courtyard.
Are you giving a good omen?
Will the King of Pandhaxi be my guest?
If you bring him,
I'll put golden anklets round your feet.
Yes, the mood of the group had definitely changed. I too breathed
more easily. The leader of our dindi * always showed this kind of
judgment. Once, after the Madalasa song, he had started the verses
of Dnyaneshwar's sister, Muktabai. In anger one day, the saint had
locked the door of his room. In these verses, Mukta had begged
him to open the door of his room and of his heart. The tenderness
of this poem had dispersed my gloom. Another time, when the
evening halt was some distance away and we were weary, the men
could not find any enthusiasm in the usual hymns. But then our
leader began the song
We'll tell no lies,
Nor spread false news.
An ant gave birth to a colt,
And how much milk had she?
Seventeen barrels full.
And fourteen elephants drank
All that was left over.
 Page 166
We'll tell no lies,
Nor spread false news.
And everybody at once smiled. That particular song, which all of
us had heard as children, made everyone laugh, and we reached the
camping place in no time at all. When there was a rangan *, I felt
as if it was a circus. When the games started, everybody forgot the
hardships of the journey. The bharud* performances were given
occasionally, always interspersed with devotional songs or absurd
songs. The repetition of god's name was going on almost
incessantly and helped to keep the spirit happy and calm in spite of
the long and arduous marches.
This does not mean that all the pilgrims were happy. This
communal living, this sharing, brought both joy and sorrow. So
many unhappy and bereaved persons were walking the road to
Pandharpur! On the way they opened their hearts and unburdened
their sorrows to their travelling companions. They tried to get
consolation and sympathy and hoped to gather the strength to bear
their misfortunes. And what sorrows there were! Each of a different
kind, but still each sharing much with the others.
One day, we were sitting under a tree, speaking about this and that.
What else do women speak about but, "How many children have
you?" and "What does your man do?" I asked the same of the
handsome woman next to me. Her eyes filled with tears and she
said, "No, there aren't any children to play in our house. Such a
large house and just the two of ushe and I. No quarrels, nothing.
But what can we say to each other all the time? So, I am going to
the feet of Pandurang."
"I suppose you want to put your sorrow at his feet?" I asked.
"On no!", she said, "Doesn't he know it? He will do what he thinks
is best. One must live as he wills."
Again one day we were resting from the hot midday sun. Near us
was a group of three or four women. One of the women was
feeding a boy at her breast and tears were rolling down from her
eyes.
 Page 167
''What is the matter, my dear? Don't you feel well?" I asked.
"It's the little one," she answered.
She came from the region near Bhid. They had been on the road for
a month. The poor child was hot with fever. In sun and rain and
wind, the child had been carried on her back, and one would have
been surprised if the child was not now suffering from anything.
"But how could you bring such a small child?"
"How can I explain?" she started, "All the neighbors were going.
They wanted me to go with them. I said my baby was too young.
They retorted, 'With all the care you have given to your home and
children, have not many children died? Don't be afraid, come with
the little one. Why not go to the feet of Pandurang while you have
the strength?' So I came. But for the last two days, the baby hasn't
even opened its eyes."
I pointed to the government medical van accompanying the
pilgrimage and told her that they would give free medicine to her.
She used to buy milk every day and give it to the baby. How could
she know that it should have been boiled?
"Give hot tea with milk to the baby and it will perspire and the
fever will go. Vitthal won't let you suffer."
She went to the medical van. Just then I saw an old man who was
lying down with his head on his turban just beyond the group.
He said to me, "She is not the sort to do the pilgrimage. She cries
when the child gets fever. One must be satisfied with whatever God
gives us."
I was a little riled at this pontifical attitude and retorted, "You can
talk like this, but only one who suffers really knows."
But the old man continued. "You know, Vitthal is a very hard god.
If your heart gets entangled with something he tears it out. Look at
me. I had a wife and children and a home. But a single epidemic
killed them all in a few days. Then I sold the house, sold
everything, and said to God, 'You are the only one I have.'"
 Page 168
As my dindi * was approaching, I got up, gave him some money
for a cup of tea, and started walking, but not before I heard the
words, "God, you thought I should drink some tea! O Pandurang, O
Narayan!"
I also used to see an old woman off and on. Once somebody asked
her, "Grandma, where are your children, your grandchildren? What
do they do?" The old woman closed her eyes, her face became
strangely desolate, and she began to shake. We all got frightened,
went near her, and held her tightly with our arms.
"Grandma, please wake up. Drink this water," said I.
Her frail body was shivering in my arms. And then I remembered. I
had a dog once and her puppy died; she had also shivered like that
and I had drawn her to myself and felt her body quivering in my
arms. How near we are to the animals, I had thought! After some
time, the old woman stopped shaking. Tears streamed down from
her closed eyes and the dumb grief found words. She told her story.
And what was her sorrow? Hers was of the same kind as the others:
her only son had died in his early twenties. These sorrows were not
the result of any social inequalities, nor were they caused by any
political turmoil or war. These were human sorrows, and would
disappear only when human beings disappeared. They were there
for the rich and for the poor, for the young and the old; they
encompassed the whole of humanity. The old woman told her story,
stopped, gave a deep sigh, and said, "O Pandurang, one must live
as you will." I bit my lip and said to myself, "Tena tyaktena
bhunjithah*you can enjoy only that which he allows for your use."
Only what this greedy, all-taking Lord does not take, remains for
us. And the words of the old man came back to my mind:
"Pandurang is a very hard god! If your heart gets entangled
somewhere, he tears it out." But God! Why do you let it get
entangled in the first place? You allow it to be completely
enveloped and then cruelly tear it to shreds. What greatness do you
find in this? What pleasure do you get in bringing such tired, torn
hearts, shedding tears of blood, to your feet? Would it not be better
if in the
 Page 169
dawn of life, the blossoming flower in the mild early morning sun
of happiness is plucked and used for your worship?
Oh but I was out of my mind! The agony of the old woman made
me forget the world for a moment. Who brings whom to his feet? It
is all a play of the human mind. First it creates a god with qualities
out of a completely indifferent, formless, and attributeless
principle, then makes him the author of everything that happens,
makes him the Lord of the universe, and then says, "We can only
have what he does not take."
Every one of us was deep in her sad thoughts when one woman
started singing, "I care not if I live or die, for my heart is ever with
thee, Pandurang." All of us mingled our voices with hers. A
moment later, the woman also joined in with her shaky voice:
"Pandurang, I swear, my heart is with thee." After some time, the
shadows of sorrow melted away. All of us had our sorrows, and
still we would bear them in each other's company.
Is religion a kind of opium? Human civilization has created many
kinds of opiates and wines. Opium makes a man forget the world
and become sleepy. Wine makes him offensive. Both are methods
of forgetting the existing situation. Somebody creates a god,
somebody a science, somebody a political ism. Have not all those
thousands of scientists pursuing their studies, forgetting everything
else, partaken of a kind of opium? The ones who let out the cry that
modem science is the agency for making mankind happy are
clearly intoxicated with the wine of knowledge. From Buddha to
Marx, there have been many profound philosophers who wanted to
eliminate the sorrows of society by social reorganization. Yet we
see not only that the old sorrows have not been eliminated but that
new sorrows have been added to the list. And then man takes
opium or alcohol, forgets the sorrow, and says, "We have
progressed. We are at the dawn of a happy world..."
That was the last day on the road. By evening the companions of
all those days would part. Each one would go to his or her home. I
had an uneasy feelingmy eyes were filling again and again.
 Page 170
Haushi had told me, "The last bit of the plateau is called, 'Weeping
Plateau.'"
"But why?"
"Oh, you have got to cry when you walk there."
All around me, people were saying good-bye to each other. I could
find no wordsI could only nod to the companions in my dindi * to
say good-bye and start on ahead. I reached the entrance to the
town. But somehow I was feeling restless. I could not see Him,
who had been there, sometimes in the dindi*, sometimes ahead of
us, sometimes under a tree, and sometimes near the well. When I
turned round, I saw His back and He was marching away in the
opposite direction. "Why, Dark One, are You leaving too? Are You
not coming into Pandharpur?" He smiled and shook his head.
"Where are You off to?" Without a word, He merely waved His
arm and began to walk fast. The black ploughed fields and the sky
full of heavy black clouds soon engulfed that delicate dark figure
with the blanket on His shoulder. And I stepped inside the gates of
Pandharpur with streaming eyes, weary legs, and a heavy heart.6

Editors' Notes
1. Vithoba (Father Vitthal) is elsewhere in this account called by
the regional names of Vithai (Mother Vitthal), Vitthal,
Pandharinath (Lord of Pandharpur) and Pandurang (The White
One) as well as by the universal Vaishnava names for god, Hari and
Narayan.
2. Dnyanoba is a familiar name for Dnyaneshwar, the thirteenth-
century founder of the Varkari tradition. Tukaram, a seventeenth-
century poet and saint, is the most beloved of all the hundreds of
saints. A bibliography on this Maharashtrian bhakti movement is
included in the "Selected Bibliography" at the end of this volume.
3. Since this account was written, the Raidas dindi* of the
Chambhar Untouchables has won the privilege of marching behind
the god's horses, as do all other dindis*, rather than in front. The
change came about after much negotiation and represented to the
Chambhars greater equality with other castes. Raidas or Rohidas
was an Untouchable bhakti poet from the Hindi-speaking area who,
like the Maharashtrian Chambhars, was a leather worker.
 Page 171
4. For a note on the bharuds * and some translations, see Eleanor
Zelliot, "Chokhamela and Eknath," in the Journal of Asian and
African Studies 14 (1980): 136-156, and her "Eknath's Bharude" in
The Sants (Berkeley: Religious Studies Series, 1987). For an
account of a bharud* session, see Hugh van Skyhawk, "Eknathi*
Bharude* as a Performance Genre'' in the South Asian Digest of
Regional Writing 10 (1981): 48-56.
5. Ramdas (1608-81), a devotee of Ram, was the founder of a
monastic order and a commentator on socio-political matters as
well as religion. Nevertheless, he is included in most discussions of
the Maharashtrian bhakti movement and although he himself did
not go to Pandharpur as a Varkari, his palkhi* is part of the current
pilgrimage.
6. Another personal essay on the pilgrimage to Pandharpur by a
Maharashtrian intellectual offers an interesting comparison and
contrast to Irawati Karve's account. Palkhi by D. B. Mokashi, trans.
by Philip Engblom (Albany: State University of New York Press,
1987) is a book-length account of that author's pilgrimage.
 Page 172

9.
Pilgrims carrying their Varkari flags on the road to Pandharpur. Photography
by Maxine Berntsen.
 Page 173

10.
A small boy resists on being photographed with a wall representation
of Shivaji, seventeenth-century King of the Marathas, shown here with
the sword called Bhavani. The Goddess herself is thought to have
entered the sword. The legend reads, "Victory to Bhavani, Victory to
Maharashtra." The painting is probably the effort of an R.S.S. member.
Photography by Eleanor Zelliot.
 Page 174

12
The Gondhali: Singers for the Devi
Ramchandra Chintaman Dhere Translated by Anne Feldhaus

Editors' Introduction
Of all the colorful traditional performers in Maharashtrian popular
Hinduism, the Gondhalis seem to have the best chance of surviving
in the modem world. Their place in ritual now has been almost lost,
although a few Deshastha Brahmans and Marathas still include a
gondhal * performance in especially elaborate weddings. The
gondhal* as entertainment retains such vigor and is so adaptable,
however, that it may well continue with new functions and new
audiences. Although the initiative comes from the sophisticated
elite who treasure the meaningful forms of the past, the Gondhali
himself, who has adapted to changing circumstances for over a
thousand years, may find it possible and profitable to train his sons
to use the old techniques of performance in new ways or to teach
others.
Three recent gondhal* performances illustrate the continuance of
the tradition. Bhimsen Joshi, probably the bestloved classical
singer in Maharashtra, called a Gondhali to
 Page 175
perform at his house-warming, which in this area is still a ritual
occasion. A gondhal * performance was included in a great festival
of traditional performers at Pandharpur sponsored by the Indian
National Theatre in 1982; it was acclaimed as the most dramatic
and effective performance among all those of the Vasudevs
(colorful chanting religious mendicants), lawani* singers, bharud*
groups, and others. The third instance may be the most important:
the Central Government's Song and Dance Division has sent a
Gondhali party to tour the rural areas of Nasik district, where they
will incorporate advice on family planning and agriculture into
their flexible traditional songs. The party consists of one traditional
Gondhali and three non-traditional, highly-educated young
musicians who serve as accompanists. The same combination of
traditional and modem musicians serves Indian classical music
well; perhaps it can extend the life and vigor of folk music.
What seems lost in this modernization of the gondhal* is the close
tie with the worship of the Goddess. Although the devi
phenomenon has been little studied in Maharashtra, there is no
doubting the importance of the four great devi
templesMahalakshmi in Kolhapur, Renuka in Mahut, Saptashringi
near Nasik, Bhavani in Tuljapurwhich ring the Marathi-speaking
area, nor of the smaller temples dedicated to the goddess, nor of the
non-sanskritic, formless, formidable Mariai and other "mother"
goddesses whose rough temples are found in every village. There is
little doubt that the goddess Bhavani was far more important than
the gentle bhakti god Vithoba as a religious base for the dynamics
of the great Maratha empire in the seventeenth century.
Maharashtra does not pay such public homage to Mahalakshmi as
Bengal does to Durga, but the goddess as kuladaivat (family deity)
and the temples of the goddess as places of worship and festival
still have a large part in the religious life of the Maharashtrian
people. The contemporary attraction of the Gondhali may well be
not only his skill in performance but also his attachment to the
devi. Some of the power of his songs, even though they are bent
 Page 176
more now than in the past to secular matters, may stem from his
status as the devi's singer. (E. Z. and M. B.)
The Gondhali*
Among the great figures of Marathi folk religionthe Gondhali, the
Vaghya and Murli, the Bhutya, the Vasudev, the Potraj, and so
onthe most important is the Gondhali. The gondhal *, a dramatic
rite of goddess worship, is a traditional family observance in
Maharashtra. After weddings and thread ceremonies, Deshastha
Brahmans and most Marathas traditionally sponsor a gondhal* in
honor of their family goddess.
The Gondhali stands in the courtyard or on the verandah, a robe
over his body, a string of cowrie beads around his neck, and a
fancy turban on his head; with him are his accompanists with their
sambal-drums* and their one-stringed tuntun-drones*; in front of
them is a piece of blouse-cloth spread on a square stand, with grain
arranged on it in a quadrangular design; the goddess is installed on
a pot on top of this. Around the design is erected a frame of millet
or sugarcane stalks. The goddess has been worshipped, the host has
lit a torch, and, young and old, the audience is impatient to hear the
gondhal*. This scene may now be rare, but at one time it had an
important place in the life of the Marathi people. As long as the
host kept pouring oil on the torch, the gondhal* performance
would continueoften until dawn began to break. As the Gondhali
wove puranic myths and heroic legends into songs interspersed
with prose embellishments, listeners from all strata of society
would be caught up in the emotions evoked by the stories.
It was through the story woven into the songs, the var-
* This article is an abridged translation of a chapter from Dhere's
Marathi* Lokasamskrtice* Upasak*. [Religious Performers of
Marathi Folk Culture] (Pune: Dnyanaraj Prakashan, 1964). I am
grateful to Dr. S. G. Tulpule for his help in checking the translation.
A. F.
 Page 177
ious techniques of elocution and story-telling, the actions
accompanying the narrative, and the accompaniment of the sambal
* and the tuntun*, that the gondhal* captivated the minds of the
people who attended it. The gondhal* lavishly illustrates the
pleasure and fun of the institutions of folk religion. Because it is
enjoyable, it is an easy and natural medium of instruction.

History of the Gondhal*

Gondhalis are worshippers of Renuka and Tulja Bhavani.
Gondhalis maintain that they originated from Jamadagni and
Renuka and that their place of origin is Mahur. The Renuka*
Mahatmya* relates that after Parashuram had killed a demon
named Betasur, he cut off its head, threaded the sinews of the head
through the aperture in the crown, put it on his shoulder, and went
to his mother playing tintrin* tintrin* on it. This first homage
which Parashuram paid to his mother, playing the stringed
instrument fashioned from the body and the head of Betasur, is the
origin of the gondhal*.1 In his work Svanubhavadinakara*, Dinkar
Swami has recorded a similar story about the gondhal*:
Since Sahasrarjuna tormented his parents,
and wounded his mother twenty-one times,
so twenty-one times did Parashuram
rid the earth of Kshatriyas.
He killed Sahasrarjuna and his retinue,
and made a stringed instrument of his corpse.
Parashuram gave a gondhal* at Matapur;
"Come, Mother, come," he cried.2
Besides Renuka, another goddess of the Gondhalis is Tulja
Bhavani. The two main types of Gondhalis, Renukrai and
Kadamrai, are connected with Renuka and Tulja Bhavani
respectively.3 Kadams are officeholders who have a hereditary
share in the worship of Tulja Bhavani; this seems to be the origin
of the name Kadamrai.
It is difficult to determine when this honored tradition in the
worship of Renuka and Tulja Bhavani originated.
 Page 178
Tulja Bhavani's antiquity extends to before 1000 B.C., 4 and
Renuka is even more ancient than that. The antiquity of the
gondhal* is tied to the antiquity of Renuka.
However, from Old Marathi literatureparticularly from the earliest,
that of the Yadava periodwe learn that the gondhal* must originally
be linked with a goddess named "Bhutamata." Later the gondhal*
was incorporated in the worship of Renuka because Bhutamata
became incorporated into Renuka, a popular goddess in
Maharashtra. The Nrtyaratnavali*, composed in A.D. 1240 by
Jayan, the leader of Ganpati Kakati's elephant regiment, states that
the Chalukya king, Someshvar III (Bhulokamalla) of Kalyan, gave
a gondhal* program on the occasion of the great festival of
Bhutamata.5
The great festival of Bhutamata is a semi-secular festival; it is
described variously in the Puranas.6 From the first day of the dark
fortnight of the month of Vaishakh to the no-moon day,
Bhutamata's festival was celebrated with great pomp and much
noise, in order to drive away ill fortune and to obtain good progeny.
The popular belief was that by celebrating this festival people were
protected from the ravages of such ghostly and demonic creatures
as bhuts*, prets, dakinis*, shakinis*, pishacas*, and rakshasas*.
After worshipping Bhutamata with devotion for four days, on the
no-moon day they would hold an elaborate procession. The
Prabhasakhanda* of the Skanda Purana* informs us that plays
and dramatic performances would be held every night during the
festival. According to the Bhavisya* Purana*, Bhutamata's festival
was celebrated enthusiastically in the month of Jyeshtha. In their
exuberance, some people would sing and dance, laugh and play,
pronounce forbidden words, make obscene gestures, roll in the
dust, and even smear their bodies with mud as if they were
possessed. From the textual references it appears that this festival
of Bhutamata, which originated in folk culture, was celebrated with
enthusiasm from the seventh to the thirteenth century.
In the Jnanesvari*, the term "gondhali" is used in the sense of
"demon" (pishaca*) or "ghost" (bhut*). Dnyaneshwar
 Page 179
uses the following analogy to illustrate the point that purush, when
subject to prakriti *, loses its brilliance: "Just as, when a Gondhali
comes and drags him into his band, a saintly man's goodness is
destroyed, and he begins to dance with the band, so does purush
lose its brilliance when it becomes subject to prakriti*."7 The
association of Gondhalis with ghosts appears clearly in the
following verse from Dasopant's Gitarnava*:
One who's fallen into the ghosts' gondhal*
is not our [kind of] man.
His life has come
to depend on sin.8
The references to the gondhal* that occur as allegories in the
earliest Mahanubhav literature include such phrases as "a band of
all the shaktis*," "a gondhal* of a circle of yoginis*," and "circle
gondhal*.'' In addition, the tumult of musical instruments
preceding a corpse is brought into connection with the gondhal*.9
In view of these and many other such references, it can be stated
with certainty that the gondhal* was originally connected with
Bhutamata and, in fact, is a liturgical dance of Bhutamata's
companions, the troops of ghosts (bhuts*). In its original form, the
gondhal* appears to have been a ritual in which a group of men
dressed as ghosts formed a circle, made a clamor of songs and
music, and danced. Later, it seems, this ritual was introduced into
the worship of Renuka, and in time its ghost form was lost even to
memory.
Yadava-period scholars who wrote books on music and dance
included in their works many popular local musical and dance
forms. The gondhal*, under the name gaundalinritya*, is included
in Sangitaratnakara*, Sangitasamayasara*, Nrtyaratnavali*,
Aumapatam*, Bharatarnava*, and other texts about music and
dance. There are many Sanskrit variants of the name: gaundali*,
gundali*, gondali*, kundali*. In his Sangitaratnakara*
Sharngadeva holds that his local dance form was "born in the
Karnata land."10 Descriptions of this type of dance are also found
in the Telugu literature of the period.11
 Page 180
Gondhals * have a special place in the bharud* literature of the
saints. The gondhal* bharuds* of Eknath, the king of bharud*
literature, are extremely majestic and inspirational. Take as an
example the following gondhal* of Eknath's:
1. We've set up your gondhal* at a good time on a good day.
We've tied up the garland of knowledge and detachment.
We've lit the torch of the moon and the sun.
We've made a throne and installed a pot on it.
Refrain: Say "Hail!", the "Hail!" of Mother the guru.
2. We've spread the clean seat of action and restraint.
We've washed our feet with the object of meditation, the meditator,
and the meditation.
We've worshipped with our bodies, voices, and minds in unison.
We've sipped water with faith in dualism and non-dualism.
3. We've worshipped Amba with devotion, detachment, and
knowledge.
Seeing our goodness and intelligence, Jagadamba is pleased.
The crowd of your children take refuge in Eka Janardana.
Save us, Amba, save us! Your servant stands before you.
The saints who understand Vitthal as the primordial goddess
Bhavani have a particularly remarkable gondhal*.
The fact that the saints used Gondhalis as a medium for spreading
their ideas gives us an idea of how respectable the Gondhalis once
were. Contrasting Gondhalis' former popularity with contemporary
indifference to them, S. T. Shaligram, a compiler of povadas*
(ballads of heroic deeds), has said:
Just as the Bhats of Rajasthan caused a reawakening in that state by
telling the stories of its heroes, so under the Peshwas the Gondhalis'
povadas* had the same kind of effect. Under the Peshwas the
Maratha people would lose them-
 Page 181
selves in the gondhal *. It's not so now. Maratha people say, "Who
wants to listen to those pointless stories?" and so no one comes to
gondhals*. It's the same as the way these new and undiscriminating
people are bored with legends and with stories and myths. These
days, even war news bores Maratha people. In the Peshwa period,
there were so many gondhals* the Gondhalis hardly had time to catch
their breath between one gondhal* and another. They had no leisure
time at all. Under the Peshwas, Gondhalis used to get plenty of
honoraria: various types of bracelets, bags of money, pairs of double
earrings, and different types of shawls. At each gondhal* they would
get at least one shawl and turban and an overabundance of food to
eat.12
Gondhalis were at the same time bards and priests. Just as legends
and myths were recited in connection with Vedic sacrifices, so, in
the realm of Marathi folk religion, were legends and myths recited
on the occasion of the family worship of the goddess. The role of
these influential priests in the realm of folk religion needs to be
studied.
The Performance of the Gondhal*
There is an unpublished Sanskrit text named "Amali-kagrama*
Mahatmya*." Amalikagrama is Mahur. At Mahur there is a black
avali* (Phyllanthus emblica) tree which is considered holy, and
which has given Mahur the name Amalikagrama. In three chapters
of this text on the glories of Mahur, the "gaundali-dance*" is
described:
. . . One should select an auspicious day, don a necklace of cowries,
take a torch, and perform the gondhal*. Everyone should be invited to
the place where the gondhal* is to be performed. . . .
Gaundali* troupes are classified as superior, middling, and inferior,
the superior troupes having thirty-two members: four chief singers,
eight secondary, and four cymbal players. The middling troupes must
have half as many, that is, sixteen; and the inferior ones, half again as
many, that is, eight members. A warning is made that there should not
be fewer than that.
 Page 182
Since there are thus thirty-two people included in a Gaundali dance,
there must also be a big enough space for them to dance in. A circular
ground seven armsbreadths from east to west and seven from south to
north should be adequate for the dance. Precise stipulations are made
about how the dance is to be done, who should stand where, who
should hold the torches, who should use which musical instruments,
and what is an appropriate time for a gondhal *.13
In this description of the gaundali-dance*, a troupe of eight
members is considered inferior. But in gondhals* today there are
only four. One of them has the sambal-drum*. One has the tuntun-
drone*. One does the narration, with songs and stories; the fourth
interrupts the narration with humorous questions, making the
audience laugh and keeping the narration from lagging. The chief
Gondhali, the one who does the narration, is called the leader.
The leader begins the gondhal* with a gana*, a verse in praise of
Ganesh. After that the Gondhalis praise Jagadamba and invite
numerous gods and goddesses to the gondhal*. Then the "musical
storytelling" gets under way. The gondhal* ends with an arati* to
Jagadamba.
The literature which Gondhalis use in their gondals* is a type of
folk literature. To keep his audience of various classes and ages
interested all night long, the Gondhali showers them with
fascinating ballads and stories. These stories and ballads are, by
virtue of their content and their form, a branch of folk literature. No
major attempt has been made to collect the stories and songs of the
Gondhalis, such as was made to collect their povadas*. What is
remarkable is that the Gondhali evokes the heroic mood with his
povadas*, he creates waves of various emotions with his stories
and ballads, and at the same time, he brings forth bursts of laughter
with his humorous songs.
The song program of a gondhal*14 begins as we said with a gana*,
just as Ganesh is praised at the beginning of a book or at the
beginning of any auspicious ceremony. The Gondhali begins to
sing a hymn of praise to Ganaraja (Ganesh):
 Page 183
Morya, Ganapati, O Ganaraja,
How much can we ask of you, O Maharaja?
Thirty-three crores there are of gods and goddesses;
Ahead of them all is the leader of the Ganas.
You beat the demons and put them in distress.
You sent them running in all directions.
You punish the evil one.
How much can we ask of you, O Maharaja?
After singing the gana *, the Gondhali praises Jagadamba and
"invites" the gods and goddesses of many places to descend to the
arena of his gondhal*. Included in the "invitation" along with the
famous puranic deities known to everyone are the popular deities
of Maharashtra; and so as not to skimp on his idea of the ubiquity
of the gods, the Gondhali also does not fail to mention the gods
living in water, on land, and in the sky. He says:
You seven oceans, come to the gondhal*!
You hundred thousand waves, come to the gondhal*!
Mother Earth, come to the gondhal*!
Mother Space, come to the gondhal*!
You company of devotees, come to the gondhal*!
Everyone else, come to the gondhal*!
Heeding this invitation, all the gods and goddesses descend into the
"arena," and then with them as witnesses the Gondhali exhibits his
great memory, inventiveness, eloquence, and story-telling style.
Then he performs his combination of drama, song, and music, and
the gondhal* is unfadingly brilliantthe night comes to an end, but
no one feels that the gondhal* should stop.
In the song program of the gondhal* there are songs praising the
goddess, there are "dairy-maid songs" (gaulanis*) which string
together stories of Krishna; there are povadas* extolling the valor
of heroes; there are songs which in ironic language throw light on
the realities of village life; and there are also songs which are not
sarcastic but purely funny. The gondhal* song which presents the
story of Krishna killing the snake Kaliya is rhythmic, fast-moving,
and evocative of a whirlpool of emotions:
 Page 184
Said his mother Yashoda, "Listen, Yadunath,
Don't you wander around the village now.
The dairymaids practice calumny; they're accusing you with a torrent
of lies.
Go play outside; play
Your flute, Shri Hari; go play itidandu *."
Shriranga collected the cowherd boys; they went to play ball.
A crowd of cowherd boys came running; they encircled him all
around.
Shriranga was in the center; his face could not be seen.
He divided his playmates, taking half for his team; boldly he said,
"Come on, let's start the game."
So the cowherd boys begin to play catch. Krishna tosses the ball up
highas high as the sunand, as they look on, it gets caught on the
branch of a kadamba tree sticking out into the current of the
Yamuna river. A boy named "Crooked," one of Krishna's
playmates, stands in Krishna's way and tells him not to go home
without freeing the ball. Krishna climbs up into the kadamba tree,
but just as his hand is about to reach the ball, the branch it is caught
on breaks off with a crash and falls into Kaliya's pool. And then
A cry went up in Gokul: "Yadunath is lost!"
His cowherd friends came running.
They dove into the water.
They tried to see to the bottom, but they couldn't fathom the depths.
They got tired out from diving again and again.
"We can't find Hari anywhere," wailed the cowherds.
"Hari's lost; we can't find him.
At home, Hari's mother will ask where he is.
What will happen if we tell her?''
The cows came running,
They were lowing for Shri Hari's feet.
As the cowherds and the cows were crying, his mother Yashoda
came wailing; she stood on the bank of the Yamuna river and asked
it:
"How could you have done this, lady Yamuna?
 Page 185
Is Hari nowhere? Has no one seen him?
O fawn whose mother deer I am,
How can you have gone off and left me?"
As this lament was going on, Krishna himself came up, mounted
on the great snake Kaliya. As soon as they saw him, Gokul was
flooded with joy.
Young and old said, "Krishna! Krishna!"
They raised him to their hips.
All over, in front of Nanda's house,
They threw glass balls of red powder.
The hearts of the audience, at first gripped with fear at Krishna's
predicament, cannot fail to be dyed by that red powder of joy.
To bring the gondhal * to life, the Gondhali often also uses the
device of talking about individuals present in the audience, under
the pretext of creating a scene from a puranic story. To get an idea
of how this device works, take a look at this list of the names of the
dairymaids on their way to see Krishna:
The oil-man's wife Thaki, the bangle-seller Sakhi,
Talked with Bhiki the Dhangar's wife.
They began to talk together.
The goldsmith woman Sangi, the clothier's wife Lingi,
And Gangi the wife of Kusha Gurav
Were startled.
The carpenter-woman Maina, the blacksmith-woman Gahina,
And Changuna the wife of the Koli
Were all three invited together.
They thought to themselves,
"Let's go to Hari. Come on, let's see him for ourselves.
Let's place our minds at his feet."
In the Gondhalis' songs about Nagpanchmi as well, there is a
humorous and cleverly-drawn sketch of the women of the various
castes of the surrounding society. As the women begin bustling
together to go to the anthill on the Nagpanchmi day,
Here comes the Chambhar woman Ithi,
 Page 186
She always talks as if she's angry.
It's about no more than a guava.
She puts her friends aside.
Here comes the carpenter-woman Babi.
The way she talks is striking:
She holds a tobacco tin in her hand
And calls to her girlfriends.
Here comes the smith-woman Hiri.
Her saws not over her head.
In her rush to get ready
She's put no kunku * on her brow.
Here comes the Dhangar's wife Nara
There's fresh green snot at her nose.
On her hip is her crying child.
Let's not take her along.
Here comes the Maratha woman Sail.
Her ways are plain and simple.
The gypsy woman wears no blouse.
How will she understand our talk?
Among this collection of women, only for the Maratha woman
does the Gondhali show the least partiality.
Jokes, which are found only rarely in the Old Marathi literature of
the saints and scholars, abound in gondhal* performances. Also
worth hearing from this point of view are the Gondhalis' songs
"The Fight Between Salt and Chili" and "The Jackal's Wedding."
The song which presents "The Fight Between Salt and Chili'' is
satirical. When the quarrel between the two fails to get resolved,
the housewife prepares to grind chutney, and then
 With the grindstone below and the pestle above,
Their quarrel finally ends.
In the song "The Jackal's Wedding," a human marriage ceremony is
celebrated in all its details in the world of animals.

Conclusion
We have seen that besides being a priest of folk religion, the
Gondhali is also a bard. In this second role he dissem-
 Page 187
inates heroic compositions and povadas *. Gondhalis provided a
valuable service for the Maratha kingdom by binding together in
their songs stories of victorious ancestors and contemporary
heroes. Even now, when the tambourine is beaten, people's ears
prick up, their arms twitch, and their breasts are filled with
emotion. So one can imagine how thrilling the povadas* must have
been at a time when the audience included many heroes who had
themselves taken their lives in their hands and experienced heroic
events. It was the Gondhalis who sang the povadas* and brought
them to life. Most of the povadas* collected by Acworth and
Shaligram came from the mouths of Gondhalis.15
Besides, when the Gondhalis went into tamashas*,16 they were
able to make full use of the dramatic character of the gondhal*.
The humorous songs in the gondhals* and the character who asks
funny questions and makes the audience laugh play a part also in
tamashas*.
Rama Gondhali, who was famous in Pune at the end of the Peshwa
period (early nineteenth century), demonstrates the Gondhalis'
effect on the tamashas*. About this man's fame, Shaligram has
said:
He was like a Gandharva. . . . His eloquence was incomparable. The
city of Pune became so enamored of his sweet voice that thousands of
people would crowd around his tamashas*. It is said that the crowd
would extend for a quarter mile around his tamasha* And he received
honoraria which sound incredible now.17

After the Peshwas' rule was ended in 1818 by the British conquest,
Rama Gondhali went to Baroda to take refuge with the
Gaekwads.18 Tukaram Gondhali, Madhav Gondhali, Udaji Pandu
Gondhali, Ranaba Gondhali, Alekar Gondhali, and other Gondhalis
who performed in tamashas* lived, like Rama Gondhali, under the
protection of the Gaekwads.
This institution had at one time a great deal of influence over the
Marathi mind. As an institution of folk religion it has a thousand-
or twelve-hundred-year history. Since an-
 Page 188
cient times it has spread across the large southern regions of
Andhra, Karnataka, and Maharashtra. It has had a great influence
on the shape of our folk religion and folk literature. It is imperative
that this important institution be thoroughly studied before it dies
out.

Notes
1. Renuka * Mahatmya* (Marathi), chap. I0, verses 44-47.
2. Svanubhavadinakara*, 1.6:75-81.
3. In the book Mumbai* Ilakhyamtila* Jati* (an adaptation of
Enthoven's Tribes and Castes of Bombay; see Selected
Bibliography, Castes Iv), six subcastes of Gondhalis are given:
Maratha, Kumbhar, Kadamrai, Renukrai, Brahman, and Akaramase
(p. 76).
4. For further discussion of the antiquity of Tulja Bhavani, see my
article "Tulajabhavanici* Pracinata*," Indrayani* 1, no. 1.
5. Bharata* Itihasa* Samsodhaka* Mandala* Quarterly 20, no.
2:81-82.
6. Manmathray, Hamare* Kuca Pracina* Lokotsava, pp. 49-50.
7. Jnanesvari*, 13.1004.
8. Gitarnava*, 1.2391.
9. Sisupalavadha* (Bhaskara*), 446; Rukminisvayamvara*
(Narendra), 735, 810; Saihadrivarnana* (Ravalobas), 24.
10. Sangitaratnakara*, 7.1287.
11. Suravaram Pratap Reddi, Andhraka* Samajika* Itihasa*, pp.
34, 63, 90, 208, 292, etc.
12. Acworth, Harry Arbuthnot and S. T. Shaligram, eds., Itihasa-
prasiddha* Purusamce* va Striyamce* Povade* (Bombay:
Nirnayasagar, 1891). Introduction, pp. 3-4.
13. Amalikagrama* Mahatmyam*, chaps. 74-76. This manuscript
was given me by Mr. P. P. Dhamdhete. A manuscript of one chapter
(74) of the text is in the collection of the Bharata Itihasa
Samsodhaka Mandala. See Bharata* Itihasa* Samsodhaka*
Mandala* Quarterly 20, no. 1:18-20.
14. Here selections have been made from the Gondhalis' songs
published by Dr. Sarojini Babar in Eka Hota* Raja* (Bombay:
Maharashtra Rajya Lokasahitya Samiti, 1965), and in
Navabharata* (October, 1958).
15. See Harry Arbuthnot Acworth, Ballads of the Marathas
(London: Longrnans, Green and Co., 1894), for the translation of
ten powadas*, together with a lengthy introduction which includes
notes on the role of the Gondhali in the late nineteenth century.
(Eds.)
16. See Tevia Abrams, "Tamasha: People's Theatre of Maharashtra
State, India," Diss. Michigan State University, 1974, for the
lengthiest discussion in English on tamasha* the folk theater which
has appropriated the drama and humor, though not the religious
purpose, of the
 Page 189
Gondhalis. Abrams' "Folk Theatre in Maharashtrian Social
Development Programs," in the Educational Theatre Journal
27:3 (1975): 395-407, discusses the use of tamasha * and such
religious professionals as the Vasudev and the Vaghya of the
Khandoba sect m government social programs. (Eds.)
17. Acworth and Shaligram, Marathi Introduction, pp. 4-5.
18. The Gaekwads were princes of the Maratha Kingdom who
retamed much of their land after the British conquest, maintaining
the princely state of Baroda, now in Gujarat, up until the time of
Indian Independence. (Eds.)
 Page 190

13
My Years in the R. S.S.
V. M. Sirsikar

Editors' Introduction
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (National Volunteer Corps),
known as the R.S.S., has become an important part of a
nationalistic Hindu ethos since its founding in Nagput in 1925.
Subject to controversy almost since its inception, it has been
banned twiceonce after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in
1948 by a militant right-wing Hindu and again during the
Emergency declared in 1975, since it was identified with the
opposition to Indira Gandhi. The head of the R.S.S., Balasaheb
Deoras, together with some sixty thousand R.S.S. members and
members of the Jan Sangha political party linked ideologically and
through its personnel to the R.S.S.spent the period of the
Emergency in prison. The R.S.S. may have gained ground very
recently through a number of related educational organizations,
through new proselytizing work among tribal peo-
 Page 191
pies, and through its association with members of the Janata Party
coalition. The youth work of the R.S.S. can still be seen in the
cities and towns of Maharashtra, as young boys perform their early
morning or late afternoon drills with precision and decorum.
Obviously a disciplined group, their brand of Hinduism is not
sectarian but rather an austere nationalism based on glorifying the
militant aspects of the Hindunot the Mughal, Sultanate, or
Buddhistpast of India. (E. Z. and M. B.)

The Program of the R.S.S.

Although some of these things happened over five decades ago, I
will try to recapture the feelings, experiences, and perceptions of
the sixteen years I spent in the R.S.S. I remember very clearly the
day I was introduced to the organization. The year was 1933 and I
was studying in a high school in Nagpur, the home of the R.S.S. I
was introduced by my brother-in-law to a slightly older neighbor
who took me to an R.S.S. shakha * (branch) meeting one evening.
A number of young boys like me had gathered there, most of them
in a simple uniform of khaki shorts and a short-sleeved white shirt.
While I was being introduced to the other boys there was a shrill
whistle; the boys immediately formed lines according to their
pathaks (companies of fifteen to twenty boys). With another shrill
whistle, a saffron flag was hoisted on the flagpole. There was
complete silence, and then the order came for a salute. The R.S.S.
had developed a different kind of saluteneither the Western salute
nor the Indian namaste. Everyone kept his right arm folded with his
fist touching his heart. After a few moments there was a Sanskrit
prayer in praise of the motherland and the flag.
Salutation to thee, ever-affectionate Motherland! I was brought up in
comfort by thee, 0 Hindu Land, 0 most auspicious Holy Land. May
this body of mine fall for thee. Salutation to thee! Salutation to thee!
 Page 192
0 omnipotent God! We the members of the Hindu nation bow down to
thee respectfully. We have girded our loins in thy cause. Give us thy
sacred blessings for its fulfillment.
Give us O Lord, such power as will be invincible for the whole
universe; moral character, before which the world will bow down in
respect; knowledge, which will make easy the traversing of the thorny
path we have chosen.
The one and the highest means of obtaining both worldly prosperity
and spiritual liberation is the severe vow of the warrior; may it ever
throb in us. May staunch and undecaying devotion to the Ideal be
ever awake in our hearts.
And may the victorious and efficacious power of our union defend
this dharma, by thy blessings, and may it be able to lead this nation of
ours to the highest glory.
After the prayer was over, each group went to its appointed place.
Some played games, some performed calisthenics, and others did
military drill. After an hour, all the boys reassembled in front of the
flag, and with a salute and a prayer the flag was taken down.
Much impressed by the strict discipline and punctuality observed in
the shakha *, the next day I started inquiring about the R.S.S.
among my schoolmates. I found that nearly three-fourths of them
were attending various R.S.S. shakhas* in the city. Thus
surrounded by my neighbors and classmates, I started my career in
the R.S.S. in an atmosphere which was conducive to making me a
devoted svayamsevak (volunteer) in a matter of a few months. I
was invited to small informal parties and gatherings and was
overwhelmed by the cordiality with which I was welcomed. The
daily activity of games and athletics was fascinating since I had
never known anything like this in the taluka town where I had
grown up. The games and calisthenics were especially appealing
because, except for the drill, they were all Indian. We never played
volleyball, badminton, or other Western games, but our own games,
hu-tu-tu and kho-kho, instead. The calisthenics were all performed
with Sanskrit orders.
The whole week was filled with activity. Every evening,
 Page 193
of course, were the drill and games. Then once a week these were
suspended and there were lectures on Hindu culture, some of
which, I later realized, were repeated every year. These lectures
largely eulogized the Hindu religion and the political heroes of the
past, such as Shivaji and Rana Pratap. 1 They never emphasized
religious orthodoxy. Brahman boys were not encouraged to do
sandhya* or any other Brahman ritual, nor to go to a Hindu temple,
nor to pray to any particular god or goddess. The emphasis was on
an attitude toward a Hindu nation, not on Hindu religious rituals.
Every Sunday there was a parade. We assembled early in the
morning at the main parade ground on the outskirts of the city, clad
in dress uniformkhaki shirt and shorts, shoes, puttees, black cap,
and a long staff. We drilled and then performed a route march for
two or three hours. Orders for the drill were in English and a band
played English music. After the parade, the usual salute and prayer
marked the end of the Sunday routine.
These weekly parades served as preparation for formal occasions
like Vijaya Dashmi day when all the svayamsevaks in the city
assembled for a huge parade. Everyone looked forward to this
occasion and prepared assiduously for it. Hair was cut short, shoes
shined, uniforms pressed, and brass shoulder badges with the
initials R.S.S. polished.
I later came to know that most of the practices in the parade, even
the use of the military band, had been borrowed from the
University Training Corps. This kind of formal march and the
Sunday parade ground activities gave a certain militaristic tinge to
the whole organization. I am not sure this was in the mind of Dr. K.
B. Hedgewar when he began the organization in 1925, but eight
years later when I joined, the major lines of activity had been
drawn.
At this time I was also introduced to the R.S.S.'s novel method of
fund collection. Once a year, on a day fixed according to the Hindu
calendar, all the svayamsevaks were expected to place in front of
the flag an offering of money called the guru dakshina* (offering
made by a disciple to his teacher). Preparation for guru dakshina*
day began almost a
 Page 194
month earlier; there was a kind of competition among the pathaks
as to which of them would contribute the most. I remember how
later I too used to save every paisa * of my pocket money in order
to make a handsome guru dakshina*.
An interesting aspect of the whole procedure was that no one
except the karewar* (secretary) knew how much money had been
collected that day. It was only after the contributions from all the
branches had been pooled that the total was announced. Moreover,
there was an air of secrecy about the expenses that were met out of
the guru dakshina*. It was an unwritten rule that no svayamsevak
was to ask for accounts of the organization. I think that for a long
time no accounts were kept and everything depended on personal
trust between the svayamsevaks and the leadership.
A few months after my introduction to the R.S.S. I was considered
a regular member and assigned to the pathak of which my neighbor
and friend was in charge. From then on I was slowly absorbed,
stage by stage into the organization, moving into positions of
increasing commitment and responsibility. After a year of
membership, while still in high school, I was taken aside by the
shakha* karyavah* (head of the branch) and asked to take the oath
of initiation to become a full-fledged member of the R.S.S. Only a
few svayamsevaks, he told me, were considered good enough to
take the oath, which committed one to the organization for life.
Although too young to understand the implications of a life-long
commitment, I was very much elated at being asked, and I readily
agreed.
The dignity and solemnity of the oath-taking help to impress on the
initiate the seriousness of the occasion. The ceremony is held in
private with high dignitaries of the organization present. Every new
member comes before the flag and repeats very slowly the Sanskrit
oath dictated by the karyavah*:
I swear in the name of almighty God and my forefathers to protect
our sacred Hindu dharma, Hindu culture, and Hindu society and to
strengthen the organization. I have
 Page 195
become a member of the Rashtriya Svayamsevak Sangh. I will carry
out the work of the Rashtriya Svayamsevak Sangh honestly,
selflessly, with all my physical, moral, and material powers. I will
dedicate myself to this work for my whole life.
Hail to the motherland!
After taking the oath, the initiate salutes the flag and the
dignitaries. Following the oath-taking there is a short lecture. The
whole ceremony serves to impress on the initiate that he now has
new responsibilities and also a high status in the organization.

The R.S.S. Leadership

For the next few years, as a full-fledged member of the R.S.S., I
took part not only in the daily training and the Sunday parade but
in the annual camp held every December and the six-week summer
Officer Training Camps. The O.T.C.'s were started first in Nagpur
but later were conducted at various centers in different states. There
were separate camps for first, second, and third-year trainees, the
third-year camps being held only in Nagpur. The training in all the
camps emphasized physical fitness, moral uprightness, and
indoctrination in the R.S.S. ideology.
The daily routine in the camps was quite strict: physical training in
the morning, baudhiks (instruction sessions) in the afternoon, and
military drill in the evening.
Here also the stress was on Hindu nationalism and the superiority
of Hindu culture. There was not much emphasis on religious
orthodoxy or scripture. As in the shakha * the baudhiks here also
centered on Shivaji, Rana Pratap, and Hari Singh Nalwa, a
Kashmiri king who opposed the Muslims. There was an
undercurrent of anti-Muslim sentiment and a glorification of Bharat
MataMother India. The main speaker was M.S. Golwalkar, who
had succeeded Dr. Hedgewar as the sar sangh chalak* (leader of
the whole Sangh) after the latter's death in 1940.
 Page 196
Another emphasis of the camps was leadership training. Most of
the R.S.S. pracharaks * (missionaries), who devoted themselves to
lifelong celibacy, poverty, and service to the R.S.S., were selected
from the members of these third-year camps.
This institution of the pracharak* is the life-blood of the R.S.S. So
far as I know, no other Indian organization has as dedicated a
middle-range leadership. In the 1940s most pracharaks* were
highly-educated young men who could have made a success of
almost any career, but they denied themselves comfort and family
life and accepted a life of sacrifice and hard work. It was the band
of pracharaks* with their unbelievable devotion to the cause of the
R.S.S. which spread the organization outside Nagpur and outside
Maharashtra to all the states of the country. Wherever they went
they picked up the language, culture, and social attitudes of the
area. As a result, they were able to convert Punjabis, Tamils,
MalayaIls, Bengalis, and others to the R.S.S. ideology.
Not all pracharaks*, of course, kept their commitment to life-long
service. Some quit after six months or a year. Some worked for ten
years or so and then became disillusioned or tired and gave up the
work. Provided they remained loyal to the R.S.S., they were not
criticized.
The pracharak* institution itself contains several levels. At the
state level are the prant-pracharaks* (area missionaries), under
them, the divisional pracharaks*, and under them, district, taluka*
and local pracharaks*. The exact number of all of these categories
is not known, but the pracharaks* together must number in the
hundreds if not thousands.
During this period in the early 1940s I was getting more and more
involved in the R.S.S. After completing my college education in
1941 I was given charge of a shakha*. In 1943 I was sent to
Mysore State as a pracharak* with my headquarters in Bangalore.
I stayed there one year, with the duty of spreading the R.S.S. in the
district and taluka* towns of the area. Gradually, however, I began
to doubt that this life
 Page 197
of a modem ascetic really suited me; after a year I came back to
Nagpur and told the R.S.S. that I intended to lead a normal life.
By this time it was not only my unwillingness to remain a
pracharak * that had begun to alienate me from the R.S.S. I was
also beginning to have serious ideological differences with the
leadership. The R.S.S. under M.S. Golwalkar was a very different
organization than that originally shaped by Dr. Hedgewar. As this
difference was in part due to the character and personality of the
two men, it may be helpful to describe them both briefly.
The R.S.S. founder, Dr. Hedgewar, had studied medicine in
Calcutta but did not practice as a doctor. He was celibate and lived
a spartan life, dressing in a dhoti, plain shirt, coat, and tall cap. He
was not much of a speaker, nor, in my opinion, much of a thinker;
but he was a warm, honest man and an organizer of first-rate
caliber. Thus he was able to attract the young. His approach to the
organization was more political than religious or cultural. He had
participated in the independence movement satyagrahas* and had
gone to jail for a year or two. It was a matter of pride for all of us
that before his death he had met Subhash Chandra Bose2 and had a
long talk with him.
Dr. Hedgewar shaped the R.S.S. without a constitution. Under him
everything just evolved, and when the question of succession came
up, with his deteriorating health, there were many who aspired for
the position. Dr. Hedgewar's choice fell on a comparatively new
member of the organization, M.S. Golwalkar, who later came to be
known as Guruji. Though there was no overt factional fight,
Golwalkar was not completely accepted for several years by some
of the old guard.
The new sar sangh chalak* was cast in a different mold from the
founder. He had received his M.Sc. and law degree from Benares
Hindu University but did not practice law. He was religiously
inclined and had been associated with the Ramakrishna Mission
and other such organizations. Golwalkar Guruji definitely
possessed more charisma than
 Page 198
Dr. Hedgewar. With his long hair, flowing beard, and dhoti and
kurta *, he looked the part of a traditional guru. He had good
command over English, Hindi, and Marathi, and was a powerful
and emotional speaker who could keep his audience spellbound.
Under the leadership of Golwalkar the R.S.S. became a different
organization, with greater cohesion and dynamism. It was at this
time it expanded outside Maharashtra to become an all-India
organization stressing Hindi rather than Marathi as its main
language.
Golwalkar was more orthodox than Hedgewar in his view of
Hinduism. (In fact, later in his life he almost created a hornet's nest
by justifying the traditional four-fold division of castes known as
varnashrama*). He was also more dogmatic than Hedgewar about
the idea of Hindu nationalism. In his book, We, The Nationhood
Defined, he argued that Hindus are the only true nationals of this
country.
Concerned with maintaining the cultural nature of the organization,
Golwalkar tried to keep the R.S.S. out of the political struggles of
the time. I still remember a stormy meeting in 1942 which lasted
for eight or ten hours. The younger leaders, including the present
sar sangh chalak*, Balasaheb Deoras, were in favor of joining the
Quit India movement.3 Although Golwalkar had taken over the
reins of the organization only two years earlier, he was successful
in keeping the R.S.S. out of the movement. Five years later, when
the country became independent, Golwalkar, like the communists,
was not convinced of the worth of political independence or the
national resurgence.
In 1948, Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated by Nathuram Godse, a
member of a right wing party, the Hindu Mahasabha. That party
was banned, and a ban was also put on the R.S.S., which had been
critical of Gandhi, for a year. Although the Hindu Mahasabha and
the R.S.S. had somewhat the same roots in Hindu nationalism, they
disagreed in the 1940s about political participation. After
Independence, however, some of the younger R.S.S. leaders from
the North were anxious to start a political party. When the
 Page 199
period of the ban was over, and Golwalkar was finally convinced,
the combined efforts of some Hindu Mahasabha leaders, especially
Dr. Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, and the politicized activists of the
R.S.S., brought the Jan Sangh into being. The growth and
consolidation of this political party was really due to the trained
cadres it had received from the R.S.S.
As for myself, I left the R.S.S. in 1949, after the ban on the
organization was lifted. By this time I was becoming increasingly
aware of socio-political reality in India and was convinced that
what was required was a socio-economic and political program for
the transformation of society. I was in fundamental disagreement
with Golwalkar and the politicized younger leaders of the R.S.S.,
who, whatever their differences might be among themselves,
agreed on their support for the status quo and the preservation of
what they thought was good in the society.
Thus, intellectually, I had drifted away from both the old leadership
of the R.S.S., and the elements that were to become the Jan Sangh.
Under the circumstances it would have been dishonest to continue
as a member of the organization. My colleagues and friends were
extremely unhappy over my decision, but I had made it after
thinking it over for many months, and there was no going back on
it.
A Critique of the R.S.S.
It is now over thirty years since I left the R.S.S. As I look back on
the organization which for so many years formed the focus of my
life, I have mixed feelings. To begin with, there is no denying that
as an organization it was brilliantly conceived. The founder might
not have known the modem jargon of political sociology, but he
had understood the process by which young minds could be
politically socialized. The combination of organized games, drill,
and friendship groups, all with an ideological base, was a very
powerful one. Moreover, the system of self-financing and the
institution of pracharaks * gave the organization an autonomy
 Page 200
and dynamism seldom achieved in voluntary organizations in this
country. It was, in fact, the example of the R.S.S. that served as an
impetus for the founding of volunteer organizations by practically
every political party in India.
Of course, even the critics of the R.S.S. concede its organizational
strength. What they attack is the use to which the organization is
put. The R.S.S. is often considered a fanatical religious
organization and has been variously described as anti-intellectual,
fascist, and anti-Muslim. Not all of these charges can be
completely refuted, but neither can they be completely
substantiated.
It is understandable that the R.S.S. has been looked upon as a
religious organization. First of all, it is restricted to Hindus.
Secondly, the saffron flag of the R.S.S. is the traditional Hindu
religious flag; flags on many Hindu temples are of the same color,
and a saffron flag is used by the Varkaris (pilgrims) of Pandharpur.
But in my opinion, the R.S.S. is not fanatical. Moreover, unlike the
Muslim League and the Hindu Mahasabha, it is not interested in
religious orthodoxy or in strict adherence to the scriptures. The
svayamseyaks were never asked to observe the traditional rituals of
Hinduism. Even their zeal in the movement for a ban on cow-
slaughter must be considered in the context of the general demand
of Hindu society. (Prominent Congressmen too have been
vociferous in demanding the ban.) What the R.S.S. did was to
create an organization of modem youths believing in Hindu
nationalism. Religious identity and loyalty were used to strengthen
the organization. In its inception, at least, the R.S.S. was primarily
concerned with the struggle for the freedom of the country. At that
time its call for the protection of Hindu culture was primarily a
camouflage for its main goal.
The charge that the R.S.S. is fascist is frequently made. In a way,
the charge is understandable, for the uniforms, the military drill,
discipline, and devotion to a leader and the motherland give the
R.S.S. a superficial resemblance to the youth organizations of Nazi
Germany or fascist Italy. However, in more fundamental ways the
R.S.S. differs from
 Page 201
the fascists. It has never prevented non-conformist opinions among
its members and has never prevented any member from leaving the
organization. Neither has it used methods to suppress its
opponents.
The charge that the R.S.S. is anti-intellectual is correct. Youth
organizations are mainly built on emotionalism and the R.S.S. is no
exception. Anti-intellectualism was inherent in its ideology of
loyalty to the Hindu nation and its technique of personal
conversion of new entrants. No effort was made for a theoretical
defense of the ideology; such an effort was not considered
essential. To anyone who wanted theoretical explanations the
standard reply was, ''You don't require intellectual arguments to
love your motherthe same thing is true of the motherland."
The charge that the R.S.S. is anti-Muslim has some truth in it.
Though anti-Muslim attitudes were not officially encouraged, they
existed as an undercurrent in the organization. The anti-Muslim
attitude was the result of Hindu revivalist attitudes and of
ignorance about the Muslims, and also a reaction to Muslim
militancy and Muslim attacks on Hindus. Even more important,
perhaps, was the feeling that Muslimsand Christiansdo not regard
Bharat (India) as their motherland and thus have no parity with the
Hindus. Sometimes this anti-Muslim attitude expressed itself in the
juvenile pranks referred to by S.H. Deshpande in his article on the
R.S.S. 4 Though these things are certainly reprehensible it must be
kept in mind that they do not constitute the main thrust of the
organization.
My own criticisms of the R.S.S. are somewhat different from the
foregoing. For one thing, I feel that the restriction of the
organization to men has caused certain major distortions in the
R.S.S. As an organization of young men, emphasizing athletics and
feats of physical courage, it had an atmosphere of bubbling
enthusiasm and bravado. Looking back, I feel that this fostered
mistaken notions of manliness and virility and contributed to an
undesirable type of personality development.
Moreover, I feel that while the organization began with
 Page 202
a laudable goal it must ultimately be judged a failure. What it set
out to do was to transform Hindu society. It did succeed in building
healthy social attitudes in some of its svayamsevaks, teaching them
to subordinate their personal needs to social needs, but it never
developed a clear idea of a socio-economic program to transform
Hindu society. Moreover, in the more than fifty years of its
existence it has only one major achievement to its creditthat during
the time of partition 5 thousands of svayamsevaks gave their lives
helping to save Hindu refugees. But that was forty years ago. Thus,
as I look at the R.S.S. today, it is without bitterness or rancor, but
with a sense of pity for the thousands of svayamsevaks who
continue to cling to an organization that has lost its raison d'etre.

Editors' notes
1. Shivaji was the seventeenth century Maratha King who founded
the Maratha empire; his battles against the Mughal emperor
Aurangzeb are often interpreted by Maharashtrians as Hindu-
Muslim conflict. Rana Pratap ruled the Rajput kingdom of Mewar
in the sixteenth century, resisting the efforts of the Mughal emperor
Akbar to conquer his country until his death in 1597.
2. Subhash Chandra Bose (1897-1945), known as Netaji (the
leader), was a Bengali nationalist who served in the Indian
National Congress until his ouster in 1939. He joined the Germans
and then the Japanese in the Second World War, leading the Indian
National Army in an effort to free India.
3. The Quit India Movement was the third and largest of Mohandas
K. Gandhi's non-violent, non-cooperation campaigns. Almost all
Indian National Congress leaders were imprisoned after the Quit
India declaration in 1942.
4. S.H. Deshpande, "My Days in the R.S.S.," trans. by Ramesh
Deshpande, Quest 96 (July-August 1975): 19-30.
5. Even this action of the R.S.S. is subject to controversy. For a
generally critical view, see Des Raj Goyal, Rashtriya Swayam
Sewak Sangh (New Delhi: Radha Krishna Prakashan, 1979); for a
favorable history, see K.R. Malkani, The RSS Story (New Delhi:
Impex India, 1980). A Western scholar's view may be found in J.A.
Curran Jr., Militant Hinduism in Indian Politics: A Study of the
RSS. (New York: Institute of Pacific Relations, 1951). Curran
indicates that the strength of the R.S.S. was
 Page 203
greater in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and the Punjab at that
time than in Bombay Province. The most recent study is The
Brotherhood in Saffron: The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and
Hindu Revivalism by Walter K. Andersen and Shridhar D.
Damle (Boulder: Westview Press, 1987).
 Page 204

14
Scattered Voices: The Experience of Ritual
Editors' Introduction
Religious austerities and ritual worship form part and parcel of the
fabric of daily life in many Hindu homes. Perhaps to many this
daily ritual tends to become routine. There are some people,
however, who find in the details of ritual worship a source of joy
and even ecstasy. The first two voices below express this kind of
delight in ritual worship. The first is a description of one of the
characters in D.B. Mokashi's Farewell to the Gods. The second is
Vitthalrao Ghate's account of his adolescent experience of
worshipthe extravagant vow to offer a hundred thousand bel leaves
to Shiva.
The two women's voices here strike a very different note.
Anasuyabai Koratkar's statement (recorded by Maxine Berntsen)
tells in a matter-of-fact way how daily ritualespecially the
observance of sovla * (ritual purity)teaches self-control and
discipline. It is clear from her comments that these rules, in
addition to their spiritual benefits, pro-
 Page 205
vide a framework that enables family to live within its means. The
second voice is that of an anonymous Brahman woman who was
interviewed by Carolyn Slocum. She talks of women's powershakti
*as being derived from fasting and other ritual austerities. There
may be in this brief statement an undercurrent of resentment
against fathers and husbands who control women's wills, and a
brief hint that she may at times explode, although the main thrust
of the piece is a sense of self-contained strength.
The section ends with a description by Anutai Wagh of an entire
town participating in the rituals of a Ganesh temple. (E. Z. and M.
B.)
Ramu and the Godhouse*
Ramu sat cross-legged on the little foot stool and stared at the
images in front of him. The day after tomorrow the gods would not
be there. They would go to a new place and there they would feel
lost. This Balakrishna was put here by grandmother's friend. This
Vishnu was brought by another woman, who could no longer take
care of him. These ten shaligrams* were brought by a wandering
Brahman. Each one got himself a place on the ten steps below.
He looked at them carefully. He could see the shaligrams* and the
idols smeared with spots of stale, faded sandal paste. Two-day-old,
dark, wilted flowers and petals were strewn around. Vishnu-bhatji's
son was given the job of doing the puja*. This was his laziness,
obviously.
He felt unhappy. Since his childhood he had been doing the puja*
with true devotion. When he cleaned the brass images, he cleaned
them so well with tamarind that they glittered. He never let the
shaligrams* stay wet. He always dried them lovingly, carefully.
Aba had the force of his
* From Farewell to the Gods by D.B. Mokashi, trans. by Pramod
Kale (Delhi: Hind, 1972).
 Page 206
money. Naru was free, and Jagu was an atheist. He had neither the
force nor the freedom and atheism of these three brothers. Ever
since he could remember, he felt pressured and scared. Even in his
childhood he had needed god's grace, god's protection, as much as
he needed it now. He needed it to pass tests, to play well, to make
his kite fly high.
Should he take these gods? Who knows, fortune might smile on
him. These gods had protected his home for eight generations. This
house had lived on their grace. They might protect him. His
poverty might go away.
Would he be able to uphold the burden of the gods in his poverty?
Gods, they say, lose their power. Is it possible these gods no longer
had the power they once had?
Shocked at his own sinful thought, he folded his hands to the gods
and said to himself, "Narahare! I am poor. How can I take you? It's
my poverty which makes me think this way. Don't get angry. Be
merciful. I shall keep a small image of you in the house. I shall
perform a small feast in your honour. Or shall I take you? . . ."
Even when he had concluded the puja * Ramu had not quite made
up his mind whether he should take the gods with him. Getting
down from the stool he said to Jagu, "Go! Call everyone here for
the arati*."
D.B. Mokashi
translated by Pramod Kale

One Hundred Thousand Bel Leaves**

Bapusaheb had made a vow to offer a hundred thousand bel leaves
to Shankar. Just at that time he had to go on a tour to do some
urgent work. So I was given the task. It must have been Shivratri
[the major Shiva festival]. In the morning I took my bath. Then I
took the big basket of bel
** From Diwas Ase Hote [Such Were the Days] by Vitthalrao Ghate
(Bombay: Mauj, 1961).
 Page 207
leaves and went to the Mahadev temple. I fasted all day and I sat
offering the bel leaves, chanting in my broken Sanskrit, eka
bilvapatraya * shivarpanaya* (I offer a bel leaf to Shiva). I was
tremendously exalted.
I was literally in a state of ecstasy. I was ten years old. In
Ahmednagar I had gone through the magic world of the Arabian
Nights and now I had entered this new magic world. In my mind, in
my dreams, I saw innumerable visions of Godin various forms,
various textures and fragrances. When I went into the shrine the air
was heavy with incense. From whichever book I opened came the
fragrance of sandalwood. My senses feasted to the full.
Vitthalrao Ghate
translated by Maxine Berntsen

Sovla*
Sovla* means cleanliness. For instance, not going into the kitchen
in the morning without taking a bath. First you should wash your
face and hands and feet and then go into the kitchen or into the
shrine. It's all right to sweep or wipe the floor of the prayer room
without a bath. But if you are going to touch the image you must
bathe and put on freshly-laundered clothes. Then you can do puja*
in sovla*. Sovla* means cleanliness, extreme cleanliness. No
dirtiness is permitted. If some food that has touched your mouth
falls to the floor you must clean the spot and plaster it with cow
dung. That's what's called sovla* . . .. When a woman comes of age
they make her start observing sovla*. Sovla* means you first bathe,
then do puja* and water the tulshi* plant and then sit down to eat.
In the evening you put on the sovla* garments and then have your
meal. You shouldn't be eating something every time you turn
around. You shouldn't have meals four times a day. Just morning
and evening. And when Chaturmas comes there are many rules of
austerity to be followed. . . . You see, these are four sacred months.
During this time you observe special disciplines, read sacred
books,
 Page 208
and do not have your meals until you have gone to the temple. "I
won't do so and so until I have gone to the temple," "I have to do
puja * first," . . . "I won't eat until my Brahman has eaten"each
person has his own rules. The main thing is self-restraint. Not
eating or drinking whenever you feel like it. You could say self-
restraint or regulation. Say regulation. All these things are to
control our eating and drinking.
Anasuyabai Koratkar
Recorded by Maxine Berntsen

Shakti*: Women's Inner Strength

Shakti* is like steam: if you compress it, steam has the power to
pull a whole train. If you don't bottle it up, it simply dissipatesbut it
could explode if you don't let some out. Shakti* is just like that. If
you control your will, you can gain shakti* or inner strength. If you
don't, your shakti* will just disappear.
Rituals and fasts are the most important ways to control your will.
You have to suppress your desires and do everything for God.
Everyone has some shakti*, but women have more of it because
they do more rituals and fasts. Women also gain shakti* because of
their place in the family. Husbands and fathers control women's
wills. We must always be lower than men. You must control your
own desires too. You must have perfect fidelity to your husband
even in thought. When women have children, they bear pain and
suppress their own desires for their children. That brings shakti*
too. Young girls now aren't being taught self-control and aren't
learning to do rituals and fasts. They won't have as much shakti* as
older women.
Women use shakti* mostly to help their families. In the old days,
women like Savitri could save their husbands from death. Because
this is the Kali Yuga, women can't do that anymore, but we can
give our husbands longer lives and bring prosperity to the whole
family. Women can make
 Page 209
their husband's and sons' businesses go better. Women with a lot of
shakti * can cure illnesses. All women can bring happiness to their
families through their shakti*. Women also use their shakti* for
themselvesto help do all their daily work and to get peace of mind.
It can even save you from harm. Sita's shakti* saved her from
burning.
So a woman's shakti* can be really strong in helping herself and
others. It's funny that you get more inner strength the more you
control and suppress your desires and will. If it's suppressed too far
though, it can explode and be a bad force. But mostly it's a good
power. So you see, it's a lot like steam.
Anonymous
recorded by Carolyn Slocum

Ganeshbhakti* in Morgaon***
Our family is from Morgaon, in Pune District. Morgaon is the site
of the most important of the Ashtavinayaks*the eight major
temples of Ganesh. At Morgaon, there is a clean, spacious, and
beautiful temple of Morya (Ganesh). There the god is regarded as a
kingso to mark the hours of the day, the kettledrums are played.
The oil lamps are lit; arati* is performed morning, noon, and night.
A large amount of prasad* is prepared, and many young people
receive it.
Everybody in townyoung and old, rich and poorpeople of all castes,
sects, and religions, come at least once a day to take darshan of
Ganpati. On Ganesh chaturthi* everyone fasts. On the next day,
everyone feasts. Nowhere today are Harijans refused entrance into
a temple; but at Morgaon, everyone has had the freedom for many
years to pour water on the god and to touch his feet on Ganesh
chaturthi*.
*** From Kosbadcya* tekdivarun* [From the Hill of Kosbad], ed. by
Ashok Chitnis (Bombay: Rich Publishers, 1980).
 Page 210
The land for the great Ganesh temple at Chinchwad was given to
the Morya Gosavi sadhus by the Sultan of Bijapur four hundred
years ago. Every year, on the fourth day of the bright fortnights of
the months of Bhadrapad and Magh, the palanquin of Ganpati
comes from that great temple in Chinchwad to Morgaon. On
Dasara there is a big celebration of the god's ceremonial crossing of
the town border. The procession lasts all night long. There are the
fireworks and the firing of a cannon is permitted by the
government. The honor of firing the cannon belongs to the Wagh
family. . . .
All the Wagh family are fervent devotees of Ganesh, as if their
family had been given the motto of "one god." Today Ganesh-
bhakti (devotion to Ganesh) is increasing in society. Ganesh is the
"god of the multitudes"the protector of democracy. From this point
of view, I feel that this symbol is very important and hope that its
favor and protection will remain with us.
Anutai Wagh
translated by Maxine Berntsen
 Page 211

III.
REFORM AND REJECTION
 Page 213

15
''All That Is You": An Essay*
Irawati Karve Translated by Jai Nimbkar
"That's enough for today. My mind refuses to work any longer.
Why don't you correct the part we have gone over today and come
back tomorrow? Then we'll read on tomorrow."
"You are feeling all right, aren't you? I hope my coming every day
doesn't put too much of a strain on you," she said anxiously.
"No, no. That's not it. It's just that I can no longer work the way I
used to. You must try to finish your work before my health breaks
down altogether."
"You care so much about me, Bai. It's really my work, but you bear
all the burden of it. You do such a lot for others."
She said it very earnestly but without really thinking about it. I
smiled. She said, "Did I say something funny?"
* "Te sarva tuc * ahes*!" from Gangajal* [Ganga Water] (Pune:
Deshmukh and Company, 1972).
 Page 214
"You did. You said that I bear the burden of your work. You think
that I take pains over you because you are my student and I am
your teacher. . . ."
Before I could finish my sentence she interrupted, "But isn't that
true?"
I shook my head. "You see, Tapi, it's true that you are a student, but
what's significant is how I qualify that word. I say my student. I
teach her. When she passes, I too pass. You pass as a student, I pass
as a teacher. You have no idea how difficult this examination is.
The remarks of the external examiners apply more to me than to
you. Luckily for me, my disgrace is not too obvious. When
students fail, I fail with them. That is straightforward enough. But
even with those who pass I barely manage to pass. I have to
struggle to pass this examination. I sometimes scold you,
sometimes cajole you; I work hard to see that you write well. All
this is not really for you, it's for myself. One of the many different
roles I play in life is that of a teacher. I have formed a mental image
of myself as a teacher. Each one of my students is I myself twice
over. He or she is a symbol of me both as a teacher and as a
student. So my striving is all for myself. I strive only for the
endless I's' contained in my self."
I was silent for some time. Tapi was thinking over what I had said.
"Doesn't it say somewhere in the Upanishads that when you love a
wife, the love is not really for her but for your own self?" I asked.
Tapi had read the Upanishads only recently and her memory was
also sharper than mine. She took the Brhad-aranyaka * Upanisad*
down from my shelf and found the exact page:
A husband is dear not because you love him
but because you love yourself.
Sons are dear to you not because you love them
but because you love yourself.
Gods are dear to you not because you love them
but because you love yourself.
 Page 215
All beings are dear to you not because you love them
but because you love yourself.
"You see Tapi, Yadnyavalkya did not refer to a studentteacher
relationship separately because the student he was teaching was his
wife."
Tapi said a little doubtfully, "Do you mean that when a mother
loves a child, cares for it, it is only an expression of her self-love?"
"Yes, Tapi. Out of all the examples that Yadnyavalkya gives, I
think this one is the most apt. The mother's tiny self expands into
being the ultimate self, the Creator. The little being which she has
created is totally dependent on her. She feeds it, cares for it, she has
the power to make it cry or smile. In short, she is playing the role
of the omnipotent god. When she cares for the child, she casts
herself in the role of the mother, a role recognized by society. It is
she who teaches the child how to speak, how to behave, she who
pats it on the back or punishes it. She is all-in-all to the child.
While playing this role, she gets so intoxicated with the idea that
the child is an expression of her own self, that she forgets that it is
an independent being.She continues expecting, even from the
grown-up child, the helplessness of infancy. She continues
expecting it to cling to her, to be afraid of her and to obey her.
When she is thwarted in this wish, she feels sad. She forgets that
this grown-up child who is flouting her authority is also an
expression of her self."
Tapi seemed to be convinced by my lecture. She said, "You don't
have to wait for the child to grow up, Bai. Its independence
becomes evident very early. Just as the mother has her
expectations, the child has its own expectations. It also behaves as
though the mother were an extension of its self. My four-year-old
sulks if I go home late. And it's not as though he lacks anything
when I am not there. His whole attitude is that by being late I am
denying him what's his by right," she said laughingly. Then she
left, promising to come back the next day.
She went away, but she had left my mind with an en-
 Page 216
tertaining new game. My granddaughter fell down while playing.
Not thinking of my own ill health, I ran to pick her up. My mind
said, "She is you." With my dry old hands I held my small
granddaughter whose smile is like the tender moonlight and who
runs like a spring breeze. Smiling, I said, "Of course she is I." I
went out into the garden and was greeted by our tail-wagging dog.
He is also you." "Yes indeed," I said. A cuckoo was sitting on the
bakul * tree eating the fruit. It flew away as soon as it saw me. It is
also you."
I went on playing the game. A few days later I went to
Mahabaleshwar. From one of the viewing points I was watching
the sun set behind the ranges of hills across the valley. Giant waves
of frozen rock below, billowing multicolored clouds in the blue sky
above, and I suspended somewhere in between. "All this is you."
My mind was brimming over with joy. It revelled in the oneness
with the sunset. One of the Upanishads came to mind to add to my
joy. "O sun, you who regulate the lives of people, you who are the
creator of people, bring your burning rays together and subdue
them. Let me see your mild, beneficial aspect. The man who dwells
in it is I." I said the lines of the old verse again and again, rolling
the words around on my tongue, savoring them. I was drunk with
the feeling of oneness with the universe.
Back in Pune, I was skimming over the newspaper as I did every
day. It contained an account of the Eichmann trial. I had known of
course that the Nazis had tortured and killed millions of innocent
peoplemen, women, children. But I still could not bear to read this
account of the atrocities committed by one single man. I thought of
my German friends who had been destroyed in this holocaust, and
of others who had escaped and been saved but whose lives were
ruined, meaningless. My mind rose up in anger against their killers.
"They are also you." I felt as though I had received an electric
shock. No, no. Never. How can those for whom I feel nothing but
loathing and anger be I? It is impossible. I hastily shook off this
disgusting cockroach which was trying to cling to me. My poor
mind was silenced.
 Page 217
My daily routine went on. I was lecturing about crime and society,
enjoying my presentation. "The persons whom we label as
criminals are also components of society. Social environment and
the social system are also, along with other factors, responsible for
crime. You and I are sitting in this room discussing criminals and
criminal tendencies, as though criminals were some sort of strange
creatures, perhap apart. But that's not true. Human tendencies are
the same everywhere. Everyone wants to be able to live well, to
have enough to feed and clothe himself, his wife, his children. The
criminal shares these desires with ordinary people. Another natural
tendency is to respect the wishes of those who are older, more
educated, higher than oneself in social status, or in a position of
authority. We see that in the social, religious, and political field,
older people and leaders take advantage of this tendency that
people have. It is not as though a murderer murders only for gain or
out of revenge. People kill also out of religious fanaticism or
patriotic fervor."
"Do you mean that a war means murder?" a voice in the classroom
asked.
"It's an interesting point for speculation, but our subiect today is
crime in society, so we will confine our discussion to that."
"Do you mean that noble feelings like religious faith, love for one's
father or for one's country can also motivate crime?"a second
voice.
"Sometimes people are taken over by emotions. They do something
their teachers, leaders, or elders ask them to, without question.
They forget that they have values of their own, that they have a
right to weigh religious values and adopt only the ones which are
acceptable to them. Other things like a job or the desire for a good
life also make people forget this. In the old days a man in the king's
service was proud to obey his protector's orders. Giving up his own
life and taking someone else's was the same in his books. Being
completely possessed by another is a mark of the highest devotion.
In this state of mind it is possible to commit a
 Page 218
crime. History has recorded many such atrocious crimes. In the
Middle Ages in Europe many people were subjected to untold
torture by the Inquisition. And this was all for the sake of religion.
Even here in India people in Goa experienced some of the shock
waves of the Inquisition. This was a horrible crime against
humanity, and it was motivated by religious fanaticism."
The period over, the students had dispersed. But my thoughts went
on. If it is true that criminals have all the normal tendencies of
ordinary people, then it must mean that under special
circumstances, any person can commit a crime. You can perhaps
find one person among thousands of people who says, "I will keep
my values intact even at the cost of my life," and one in a million
who, when actually put to the test, will behave accordingly. When
you consider crime, immorality, and crookedness as expressions of
ordinary human nature, then criminality becomes merely a
reminder of the extremes that are possible in human nature. Does
crime present to us, then, our own hidden unrevealed face?
My mind recoiled in alarm.
We had finished the old topic and started on a new one. I was
explaining the different kinds of social relationships. Without
giving it much thought I was listing as if by rote, "superior-inferior,
leader-led, cooperation-opposition. . . ."
"Is opposition also a social relationship then?" a voice from the
classroom asked.
"Opposition is not possible unless a relationship exists. In fact,
wherever there is cooperation, opposition also exists. Industrialist
and laborer cooperate in manufacturing, and it is in this
relationship that their opposition is implicit. In the process of
learning society's rules and taboos and becoming socialized,
opposition is always evident. Take the example of children. Isn't it
hard to teach them the habit of brushing their teeth before eating in
the morning? They keep resisting it but slowly their resistance
weakens as their social consciousness develops and they imbibe the
values of their society. Freud goes beyond this and says that often
 Page 219
opposition is a sign of agreement. Deep down, the mind is in favor
of something; the opposition is only on the surface. A mind which
has awarenessin other words, a socialized mindhas been taught
very unequivocally what things are good, what things are bad. But
there is another mind buried deep inside this mind. That other mind
possesses a wolf's cruelty, a tiger's hunting instinct, a deer's fear, a
dog's servility, a pig's greed, and a monkey's mischievousness. This
mind secretly admires the events or people that the other mind
holds in contempt. There are thus two minds in one body.
Ordinarily, in the case of most people, only one mind comes into
play. The other one is repressed, but sometimes it boils up, and
then the same man plays the contradictory roles of god and demon.
This characteristic of human nature has been used in Western
literature to make the story line interesting. In many stories and
novels the man who is misunderstood, loathed, and hated ends up
being loved. Here in this country bhakti writings and philosophy
have deeply explored this idea, but other literary forms do not seem
to have used it. Bhakti literature mentions virodhbhakti (devotion
through opposition) as a form of worship. Those who vehemently
oppose god and hate him also reach him because their hatred itself
makes them permeated with god. According to our philosophy, in
order to become one with brahman, one must become totally
indifferent. In this state of indifference one has no anger, greed,
loathing, desire, love, or hate. Water has the same attitude towards
a cow and a tiger. It doesn't say, "Let me quench the cow's thirst,
but become poison to the tiger." The sun does not discriminate
between rich and poor. That is what is meant by indifference,
neutrality. It is the attitude that says that in one sense, everything is
you, and in another, you are not bound up in anything. When you
think of all this, you realize that oppositionextreme
oppositionstems from not only social but also personal
relationships, and it contains love. Love and hate are the two
manifestations of the same self."
My mind refused to go any further. It stopped thinking.
 Page 220
Sometimes once you stub your toe you keep on stubbing it in the
same place. That's what happened to me. A visitor highly
recommended a book he was readingShirer's Rise and Fall of the
Third Reich. I was familiar with the history of course, but it was
presented from a different point of view. The book explains the rise
of Hitler in Germany. After the First World War, Wilson had certain
plans for rehabilitating Europe, but he got fed up with the devious
political game which England and France were playing and opted
out of the whole situation, leaving Germany in the clutches of this
pair. These two enemies of that country wanted to punish Germany
for having committed the crime of starting the war, by crushing her
once and for all. It became impossible for German leaders to obtain
justice in the League of Nations. Even her simple, reasonable
demands were rejected out of hand. At the time when I was in
Germany, that whole nation was smoldering with rage. When
Hitler wrested by force what Germany could not get by begging,
Germans declared with one voice that this was exactly what was
needed. England, France, and even America would not respond to
their just demands; they only understood a show of force. When
Hitler had gotten away with this first act of bullying, he proceeded
to swallow up innocent countries. At this time the big nations kept
quiet. If they had rapped him and put Germany down in time, it
would have saved the world from the awful consequences of
Hitler's action. But they remained passiveat first out of selfishness,
then out of fear. The result of all this was that all the tiny middle
European countries, from Poland to Albania, lost their freedom to
Germany and later to Russia, and millions of helpless Jews were
inhumanly massacred. Was Germany alone responsible for this?
Didn't all Europe, and actually the whole world, share the
responsibility? And what is true of political crime must be true of
social crime.
I was in torment because I had become aware of a terrible truth.
My mind was pointing the finger at me, saying, All that is you!"
Trembling, I admitted, Yes, all that is I. I am Eichmann, Stalin,
Hitler, and I am also the people they killed."
 Page 221
But this flood of knowledge was not going to stop here. "Why are
you talking of the people and events in other countries?" my mind
mocked. "Why don't you come closer to home?"
"Do you remember what you said when innocent people got killed
in the struggle for freedom?"
I remembered. "When a country is at war, these things occasionally
happen."
"Is it possible for you to have nothing to do with those who are
corrupt, who have made their money by crooked means?"
"No," I admitted.
"You believe that all castes, all religions should live together in
harmony. But there are those who twist a situation, make strident
propaganda, and enflame young people's feelings. Are such people
among your acquaintances?"
I said yes, and asked, annoyed, "What must I do then? Go and live
in a jungle? Or commit suicide?"
"You can pretend to be neutral only if you do one or the other. Even
if you associate with such people only as far as absolutely
necessary, you still share in their misdeeds. You know that this kind
of propaganda was being made continuously against the Jews. The
atmosphere here is not that tense yet, but there is no guarantee that
what happened in Germany will not happen here. Wasn't Gandhi
murdered as a result of a similar hate-campaign? And was not his
murder used as an excuse to set fire to thousands of homes in
Maharashtra? Didn't an insignificant reason lead to fierce
communal riots in India?"
I was saying "Yes, yes," but this was not the end of it yet. "What
effort have you made to destroy these seeds of hate? Haven't you
lived in this same society by following the policy of saving your
own skin? Then what is the point of saying that you share none of
the responsibility for the crime in the world, in your own society?
All of it is you. Remember what Yadnyavalkya said?"
Heavily I went over the quotation, "Thus atma * is completely
outside, and in the same way it is totally inside.
 Page 222
While you still have the feeling of duality, those who are outside
you are 'others,' strangers. But really it is atma * that pervades all.
Atma* is full of knowledge; atma* is knowledge."
Is awareness or knowledge ever pleasant? I was being consumed
by the fire that is knowledge. Painfully I said, "Yes, yes. My young
granddaughter is I, the dog who wags his tail and looks at me with
expressive eyes is I, the cuckoo that flies swiftly across the blue
sky is I, the glorious evening is I, Eichmann, Stalin, Hitler, those
who murder, bum houses, start riots, and those who bum in the
burning houses, who die in the pits are also I. Yes, it is all I."
My confession was complete. I was reduced to ashes at the moment
of knowledge.
 Page 223

16
The Last Kirtan * of Gadge Baba
G. N. Dandekar Translated by Maxine Berntsen with Jayant Karve

Editors' Introduction
Gadge Maharaj (also called Gadge Buwa or Gadge Baba) (1876-
1956) left the life of a house-holder in Amravati Taluka when he
was about thirty to spend fifty years wandering through
Maharashtra preaching to the masses, his only possession a clay
pot (gadge*). His family belonged to the Parit (washerman) caste,
and from early youth he was concerned with the poverty and
indebtedness of the lower classes. His religious tradition was
bhaktithe Varkari movement begun in the thirteenth century and
still a strong force for piety and, sometimes, reform, in
Maharashtra. Like other saints in the bhakti movement, he stressed
devotion to Parmeshwar, the God above all who is also in
ourselves. Unlike most contemporary Varkaris, he also stressed
social reform. He would move from the praise of God to a stem
injunction to be thrifty and to get an education. He advocated
vegetarianism with passion and humor. He ridiculed
 Page 224
the practice of drinking, not uncommon among the lower classes,
telling sons to beat their drunken fathers and wives to consider
their husbands gods only if those ''gods" were sober. And,
consistently, he scorned the idea of untouchability, not only
lambasting the practice in his kirtans * but associating himself with
the work of the Untouchable leader, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, and
himself cleaning latrines.
This last kirtan* of Gadge Maharaj was tape recorded by some
stroke of fortune, and appears in a biography of Sri* Gadge*
Maharaj* by G.N. Dandekar. This is a slightly abridged translation
of that recording. Although Gadge Maharaj's work was little
noticed by the intelligensia in his lifetime, he has been the object of
much writing in recent years. The Shri Gadge Maharaj Mission of
Bombay runs more than thirty schools, orphanages, and missions
all over Maharashtra, including a center in Pandharpur, the heart of
the bhakti movement of which Gadge Maharaj was the most recent
of the unorthodox, pragmatic, altogether human saints. (E. Z. and
M. B.)

Gadge Baba's Kirtan**

On November 8, 1956, there was to be a Satyanarayan puja* at the
Bandra Railway Police Station in Bombay. The devout police there
had for many years wanted Gadge Baba to perform a kirtan* in
front of the police station. They came to meet Baba and humbly
expressed their wish.
Baba listened to them and said, "Look here, I'm not well. I'm down
in bed."
Still the police officers insisted, "All right, Baba. Don't do a
kirtan*. Just come to Bandra. We'll do a bhajan. You just listen.
That will be enough for us."
* From Gopal Nilkanth Dandekar, Sri* Gadge* Maharaj* (1976;
Bombay: Majestic Book Stall, 1982).
 Page 225

11.
Gadge Maharaj as he is pictured in a photograph-poster. The legend
may be loosely translated "The saint of action free from desire."
 Page 226
"Remember that! Otherwise you'll say . . . ."
"We won't say anything, Baba."
"All right, I'll come."
"Don't worry, Baba. We'll send a car."
The police car came. By the time Baba reached Bandra there were
lights and decorations strung and thousands of people had gathered.
Everyone had heard about Baba's health. At first they were all
disconsolate. But hearing that Baba was coming, not only all
Bandra but all the way from Byculla, Dadar, and Mahim to Borivili
the devout gathered in front of the police station.
No great expectations, but Baba was coming. We'll feast our eyes
on him.
Menyoung and oldwomen with babies at their breast. Seeing the
crowd of ten to twenty thousand, Baba said, "Where did you round
up all these people?"
"We didn't round up anybody, Baba. The devotees heard you were
coming, and they just gathered to take your darshan."
"Amazing. Do you have a bhajan group?"
"Yes, we do, Baba."
"Call them, I'll see if I can talk a few minutes. I'll say a few words."
The joy of the police knew no bounds. They said solicitously,
"Baba, don't stand up. Sit on a chair and speak!"
Baba laughed and said, "Sit on a chair? For a kirtan * You must be
crazy. Who can sit on a chair and do a kirtan*?"
Taking a stick in his hand Baba stood in the center of the crowd.
He was leaning on his stick. The bhajan group started singing.
Once again it was therethe spirit of the bhajan, the throng of the
faithful, the lights, the banners.
Experiencing once more the atmosphere he had striven to create all
his life, Baba forgot his body's frailty. His voice burst forth. Again
the old enthusiasm, the old fire. He began
the bhajan that had given him incomparable joy all his life.
"Gopala Gopala, Devkinandan Gopala . . .. "1
Eager and excited the crowd surged and overflowed, their
 Page 227
voices making a great tumult. Baba was struggling against the
noise of the crowd, "Be quiet! Who's talking there!"
Finally everyone was quiet. The stream of Baba's speech began to
flow:
Tukaram Maharaj, 2 that saintly man, gives advice to the
worldBrahmadev made the four Vedas, the fifth was made by
Tukobaraya. That saintly man tells us what we must do after taking
birth as a man. What should we do? Earn money, or take care of
wife and children and then die, or build up a mela* (happy throng)
of relatives and spend all our lives in that? But Tukobaraya says he
who is born as a man and does bhajan to God, he will become
GodGod! He gives his own example. Says,
I went looking for God
And I became God.
Tukoba says I'm a farmer, the son of a farmer, what do I know
about devotion to God? I heard the testimony of the saints and I
started on the path of bhakti, asking what is God like?
I went looking for God . . ..
He didn't see God. Tukobaraya says I became God. Some people
keep thinking about God and trying to imagine what God is like,
when they will find God, when they will see God. Anyone with
these kinds of ideas is plain crazy. Since the creation of the earth no
one has seen God. God is not going to appear to anybody. God is
not something that can be seen. The god in the temple, the god in
the river, the god here, the god there, the god at Rameshwar, the
god at Badrinarayanthis is the bazaar of the gods. He who is called
God, who is called Parmeshwar, who runs the universe, no one has
seen him and no one will see him. But in doing bhajan to him man
becomes God. A man talks to his wife, to his daughter, to his son,
to his friend, but he is ashamed to do bhajan. The man who is
ashamed to do bhajan is not a man.
 Page 228
Gopala Gopala, Devkinandan Gopala
What is God like? He is like the wind. Listen to what Dnyaneshwar
3 says:
The wind lives everywhere
But has no dwelling-place.
Wind, you know, wind? There's wind all over this earth. In the
house, in the trees, wind is everywhere. But nobody says last night
the wind stayed at Bombay Station. Does anybody say that?
No . . . oo! (the audience)
Does anybody say, "The day before yesterday the wind was at
Satara Station"?
No . . . oo!
So, just as we don't know if the wind is red, green, or yellow, and
the wind has no dwelling place, so it is of Parmeshwar. And these
gods in the tirthas*Jagannath, Rameshwarthey are gods for making
a living, they're not gods. People went to the tirthas* to worship
the gods. Tukoba did.
I searched for God till my mind grew weary.
Tukoba says I went all over, looking for God. I grew weary. But I
didn't see God. Then what did I see?
Water and stone, hither and yon!
Then what did I see? A stone god, the water of the Ganga! Water! I
didn't see God. Kabir17 says
Someone set up a stone at the temple fair
 And proclaimed the river holy!
The priests sell the holy waterfifteen rupees for the whole pottake a
holy siptwo annas a siptwo annas a sip.
Tell me, what is the god in the temple fair made of?
Of stone.
 Page 229
Right. Bravo. Of what?
Of stone! . . .
Going to a tirtha * has nothing to do with God. It's a waste of
money; it's useless.
Gopala Gopala, Devkinandan Gopala
Tukoba says,
How can a god made of stone speak?
Speech will never burst forth from him.
When you go to Jagannathpuri, is it because God has invited you?
Does He ask you where you came from? Or how many there are of
you or who else is with you? Or did you eat or not? Or would you
have tea? Did God ask you these questions?
No... oo.
That's why I say there's no God in tirthas* Going there is just a
waste of money. The people who go there are interested in
spending money. Let's raise our hands and do a bhajan.
Gopala Gopala, Devkinandan Gopala
People are ashamed to raise their hands. But they will raise their
hands to grab a little bit of prasad* the size of a fly....Let's raise our
hands and do bhajan.
Gopala Gopala, Devkinandan Gopala
Raising your hand isn't bhaktithen why raise your hand? Because
man is proud. Wherever a man goes he goes in his arrogance. He
thinks, "I won't die. I won't even fall sick."
......................................................
....
Tukoba says:
He whose pride has vanished
Tuka says he's become God.
......................................................
....
 Page 230
Nobody has seen God. God has appeared to no one and is not going
to appear to anyone. Somebody says, last night I saw Parmeshwar
in my dreams with all his baggage conch, disc, mace. No, you
didn't see Him.
What ever is in your mind
Is what you see in dreams.
Have you seen my father in your dreams?
No . . . oo!
So what you haven't seen won't appear in your dreams. So if
somebody looks at a picture of a god, he'll see the god in the
picture, he won't see God. God is not a thing to be seen. So God is
not in the tirtha * Now we set up a Ganpati,5 don't we?
Ye . . . s!
There's no bhakti in the setting up of a Ganpati. It's just a custom.
What is it?
A custom!
No, there's no bhakti in setting up Ganpati. When you bring a
Ganpati home you hire a band, arrange a bhajan, and bring him
with music, shouting
Morya . . . Morya . . . Mot . .ya . . .
You bring him in and set him on a throne. You do puja* to
himnaivedya, modak, arati*. Then the last day you take him out,
don't you?
Yes!
Then where do you put him?
On our head!
And where do you carry him?
Morya . . . Morya . . . Morya
(Baba puts his hand on his throat.) In water this deep Morya! Get
going! This isn't bhakti. You decorated him,
 Page 231
did draft to him, you throw him in the water and drown him?
Somebody could file a criminal suit against you. This isn't bhakti.
Bhajan is bhakti.
Gopala Gopala, Devkinandan Gopala
And what's here today? At the police station?
A pu *.. ja*!
It's a Satyanarayan.6 What?
Satyanarayan!
A Satyanarayan isn't God's bhakti. Who does a Satyanarayan?
People who want something. I don't have a son Oh, Satyanarayan,
give me a son. We don't have a car we'll do a Satyanarayan. We
don't have any money we'll do a Satyanarayan. When will we get
that house?we'll do a Satyanarayan. Greedy people. A
Satyanarayan isn't God's bhakti. It says in the Satyanarayan pothi*
(text) that Sadhuvani didn't take prasad* and didn't do
Satyanarayan and his ship worth millions of rupees...
Sank!
He did a two-and-a-half rupee Satyanarayan, distributed prasad*,
took prasad* and his ship worth millions of rupees came . . .
Up!
What? Up?
Yes, up!
No, no, it's not true. During the war years ship after ship sank to the
bottomeach worth five hundred million rupees. Completely lost.
Tell one of these priests doing Satyanarayan, why do you take two
and a half rupees and babble so much. Take two and a half lakhs,
take two and a half crores. Do a Satyanarayan on the ocean shore
and make one ship come up.
Gopala Gopala, Devkinandan Gopala
 Page 232
God is not in the temple.
Not in the mosque, not in the temple.
He's not in the Muslim mosque nor the Hindu temple.
......................................................
....
When a temple is ready we have to bring an image, don't we?
Ye . . . s!
Say it!
Yes!
Then is the image free or purchased?
Put . . . chased!
Can you purchase God? Tell me. Rather than that you'd better buy
the sun. Let it cost what it will, and set it up in the house! Can you
buy God? Is he spinach? Or potatoes or onions? The man who
thinks he can buy God, how can he be a man? Okay, you brought
the god and set him up in the temple. Can your god wash himself?
No . . . o!
Anyone who hasn't enough brains to wash himself, how can he be a
god? Can your god put on a dhoti?
No!
Anybody who can't put on his own dhotihow can you call him a
god? You put naivedya before your god and a dog grabs it. Can
your god drive the dog away?
 No!
He hasn't the strength to drive a dog away and you call him a god?
Well, then, does your god give enough light to light his temple?
No!
The light goes out and the people have come. Bapurao,
 Page 233
light the lamp. People have come for darshan. Bring a lamp. What
lit up the temple?
The lamp!
Then who is greaterthe lamp or the god?
The lamp!
God isn't in the temple. Where is God? God is in this world. Serve
the world! Let's raise our hands and do bhajan.
Gopala Gopala, Devkinandan Gopala
The British government brought a great calamity on us. Then did
the people carry on a satyagraha * or not?
Yes!
Did the god of any temple come to help? Did anyone see there the
Ram of Bandra or the Vithoba of Dadar?
No!
Did anyone see the Mahadev of Walkeshwar there?
No!
Then who did satyagraha*? Men! Who did it?
Men!
Who did it?
Men!
And who said "Quit India"? Gandhiji! Gandhiji! Who said "Quit
India"?
 Gandhiji!
Then call Gandhiji a god. He said to those who ruled for hundreds
of years, he said in a word, "Quit India." And did they go or not?
They went!
Call Gandhiji a god. With a great shout, with great love, say,
"Mahatma Gandhi ki* jay, Mahatma Gandhi ki* . . ."
 Page 234
Jay!
He lived on bread and water... suffered imprisonment for the
people, endured the blows of the policestayed in solitary
confinement . . .. Let's give a shout for him like the thunder of a
cannon! Mahatma Gandhi ki * . . .
Jay!
......................................................
....
In ten minutes, in ten minutes the news spread all over the
worldGandhiji has been murdered! Mahatmaji has gone,
Mahatmaji has gone! In ten minutes. And as for the rest of us, if we
die, the guy living in the house next door won't know about it for
six months. What happened? That Ganpatsingh died last night. Oh,
dear! I didn't know. Like it was a goddamn dog that died. A man's
wealth is not his money, it's not gold, it's not a car. A man's wealth
is a good name. Kabir says:
A good name is better than a beautiful face
Because it flies without wings.
Beauty fades, a good name never.
As long as the sun and moon remain on this earth Gandhi will not
die. Gandhi is alive. We are the ones who die, not Gandhi.
Tuka says that death is certain.
Good reputation lives on.
Death will carry everyone off. Death does not spare anybody, is not
going to spare anybody. Will the peons (office boys) in the office
die one day or not?
 Die!
And will their boss some day go that road?
Yes!
Then death will do everyone in. But fame doesn't die. Let's raise
our hands and do bhajan.
Gopala Gopala, Devkinandan Gopala
 Page 235
Where is God? In the world. God is in the world. Serve the world.
Have pity on the poor.
Do your dharma with humility.
There's danger in pride.
If you say, ''I'm the giver,"
Then where did you get the goods?
Who gives rain for four months? Paramatma. Then the earth brings
forth fruit. If it doesn't rain for four months will the earth produce?
No!
Thousands, crores of people will die. Do bhajan to God. Do you
offer flowers or not?
Yes!
Who made the flowers?
God did!
Your grandfather or great-grandfather didn't. Then they are His
flowers, His rain. We give Him what is His. Then what should we
give Him? Raise your hands nice and high and clap.
Gopala Gopala, Devkinandan Gopala
God is in the earth. Janardan is in the world. What is the proof of
this?
God is in man, God is in man
The saints have told us this.
Yes, the saints testify that God is in the world. Build a women's
hospital for the poor. Give medicine to the poor. Give the poor a
yard or two of cloth. Give them a pound or half-pound of rice.
Have pity on the poor.
God is in man, God is in man
The saints have told us this.
Who is great on this earth? The saints are, the saints. This is
proven. There was a meeting. The subject came up who was the
greatest of all? Who was the greatest of all?
 Page 236
One said, "The earth is the greatest." Another asked, "Why is the
earth greatest?" ''Oh, she's standing on the head of Shesha (the holy
snake)." "You call the earth greater than Shesha? She's standing on
his head." So the first said, "Shesha is better!" The other asked,
"Why is Shesha great? He's just an ornament around Shiva's neck."
So the first said, "Shankar (Shiva) is the greatest." Another said,
"Why is Shankar the greatest? He's sitting on Nandi (the bull)."
(Gadgebaba goes on with Nandi stands in heaven, heaven owed
three boons to Ravana, Ravana defeated Vali, Ram killed Vali.)
So... so... Ram is greatest. One said, "How is Ram the greatest? He
is in the custody of the saints' minds." Who is the greatest? The
saints! The saints!
......................................................
....
We are dupes! Why, Narayan built a house in his village. For five
thousand rupees. Two or three people said God gave it to him. Who
gave it?
God!
Go die in the monsoon or the hot season! God doesn't give houses.
Go ahead and die. Who builds houses?
Man!
God gave it? You dummies! Who has the most wealth in Bombay?
Marwadis, Gujaratis, priests, and Brahmans! In Bombay who's
considered worthless? Marathas, Malis, Tells, Nhavis, Dhobis,
Chambhars, Kolis, Kumbhars, Lohats, Wadars, Beldars, Kaikadis,
Gonds, Gavaris, Mangs, and Mahars! 7 They live like animals!
Only three men live wellthe Gujarati, Marwadi, and Brahman!
Every day they have shira* with ghee (clarified butter). Ask any
Maratha, have you had dinner today? Yes. The main dish? Amti*
(thin lentil soup)! The damned stuff sneaked into their house in
their grandfather's and great-grandfather's time and has never left!
Gopala Gopala, Devkinandan Gopala
......................................................
....
 Page 237
Why have the people stayed poor? One reason is they have no
education. What don't they have?
Education.
A man without education you might as well call a cartdrawing...
Ox!
Now, at least, do better. Now, at least, educate your children. If you
don't have any money sell your dishes, live from hand to mouth.
Give your wife a cheaper sari. Cut out having guests. But send your
children to school.
Don't fail!
Learning is great wealth. Learning is great wealth. People with
learning give speeches in Delhi. And our people lift sacks at
Boribandar Station. The first are men. What are ours? They're not
oxen are they? What are they?
Men!
Learning is a great thing, a great thing. Before, if you didn't
educate a child, he would have to do manual labor; but from now
on your child won't get a job at all, he'll have to polish boots.
"Come on, fifteen paise, come on." He'll have to polish boots. How
great learning is! Dr. Ambedkar's 8 family were sweeping the
streets for generations. Ambedkar's father had the good sense to
send him to school. And Ambedkar didn't just make a little money.
He made the Constitution of India. And if he hadn't gone to school
and gotten an education, his fate would have been sweeping the
streets. Learning is great wealth. Sell your dinner plate, give your
wife a cheap sari. Live in a brokendown house, but send your
children to school...
Don't fail!
And the other kind of education is devotion to God.
Gopala Gopala, Devkinandan Gopala
Household economy! Marwadis, Gujaratis, Brahmans,
 Page 238
priestswhy can these people eat shira * every day? Because they
keep accounts! Keep what?
Accounts!
They know how much they make and how much they spend. And
our Marathas, Tells, Malls, Nhavis, Dhobis don't know anything
about accounts. What do they do? They make seventy-five rupees
and spend eighty or ninety. Live it up in January and sit on their ass
moaning and groaning in February. You need to economize. You
need to keep accounts. A lot of people say our salary isn't...
Enough!
You've got to be able to say there's some left over. In a house where
the husband and wife are intelligent and sensible there's always
some left over. They put aside the balance. Who can't make ends
meet?
Whose strength is little, whose anger great.
A man is weak, but tops in picking quarrels. He starts something
and gets hit in the face, and goes home yelling. Nothing saved,
expenses huge . . .. In daily life, cleanliness, economy, and the
greatest thingcompassion! What is the big thing?
Compassion!
You may go to tirthas*,
you may go to Kashi, to Gaya if you want.
Kabir says to Kamal,
compassion is greater than all.
The master who has compassion in his heart is a man of virtuea
man of virtue! You Marathas, do you go to Jejuri?
 Yes!
Do you take a goat?
Yes!
 Page 239
Do you take your rightful cut?
Yes!
Do you spice it and cook it and eat it?
Yes!
All your generations of Jejuri-goers will die! Will your lot
improve?
Never!
Gopala Gopala Devkinandan Gopala
......................................................
.........
Do you feed the goat grass?
Yes!
Do you give it water?
Yes
If the goat is lost, do you look for it and bring it back!
Yes!
If it starts to rain, do you tie it in the house?
Yes!
You treat it like your own child, and then you spice it and cut it up
and eat it? You aren't men. If somebody called you a wild boar he
wouldn't be...
Wrong!
 Gopala Gopala, Devkinandan Gopala
In a wedding do you have a gondhal * 9 or not?
Yes!
Do you kill a goat in the yard and splash the blood about?
Yes!
Does anybody shed a tear that this is a sin? That we're
 Page 240
doing wrong? That we won't do it anymore? Does anyone say that?
......................................................
....
It's a sin, damn it, a sin! He whose knife cuts another's throat, who
takes another's life to feed himselfis he a man? He does not have a
trace of humanness in him.
Gopala Gopala, Devkinandan Gopala
Are there chickens in a Marwadi's house?
No!
Are there chickens in a Gujarati's house?
No!
Are there chickens in a Bhat's house?
No!
Well, then, how did they get into your houses? Every house filled
up with the damned chickens! Ko ko ku ku ku! There's sin in your
belly. In the morning you give it water in the trough, and in the
evening you kill and eat it. Kill it? Tell me what shastra * (holy
law) this is.
Some people go to the bazaar. The dried fish shop smells so far off
that as soon as a person gets near it he has to hold his nose. But
those who eat it have lost their sense of smell. Our womenall
except Brahmans, Gujaratis, Marwadis, and Jainsgo straight to the
shop. Dried fish is such a filthy thing that even a dog wouldn't eat
it. But these women are such that just two of them can finish off
the head of a fish this big! . . . Are these women? They were
demons in a previous birth. They are goblins. Why, put a piece of
bombil* by a Marwadi or Brahman woman's nose and she'll die
pukingaagh, aagh! And these women finish off a head! I've never
seen women like them! . . . Let's raise our hands and do bhajan.
Gopala Gopala, Devkinandan Gopala
Get an education and help the poor to get an education.
 Page 241
Give a poor kid a pair of pants, a khadi cap. Give him a pencil and
a slate. Give him a notebook. You plan to send your own children
to England and damn it, you don't think of giving a one or two-
anna notebook to a poor child. You're not men.
Tuka says do at least a little good to others.
You don't have to send him to England. But will you give him a
yard of rough cloth? . . . At Diwali when you've made a basketful
of ladus * (sweets) you give the kids of the house all they wanttill
they get the runs. But when a couple of poor kids come to the door
you don't give them each even two little ones. Do something at
least. You'll die without ever having done anything more than take
care of your wife and family. This life will be a waste, a waste. A
bitch feeds her young. A sparrow brings food to her young. Dumb
animals do this. Then having taken birth as a man, what should a
man do? Only if you do good to others are you a man. He who
thinks only of his wife and children is not a man, he's an ox. You
built a house, got a car, brought that, did this, got married! What
does Tukoba say?
Tuka says an ox hauled water all his life,
And died hauling water.
Women, your husband may go to a holy place, let him go. Your
husband's god may be in the mountains but your god is in the
house. Serve your husband. Fall at his feet every day. Garland your
husband's neck with flowers. Light incense before him.
A faithful wife has the faith
Her husband is her god.
Marathas, Nhavis, Dhobis, Koshtis, and Kumbhars will say, "Boy,
this is great. If a wife falls at her husband's feet, it would be really
great." What will they say?
It's really great!
Yes, really great! But shouldn't the husband have the qualities of a
god?
 Page 242
Yes!
Otherwise the damn husband comes home drunk and pukes in the
house and should the wife put the incense stick by his face or up
his rear end? Tell me. If she has a husband like that the wife should
do mahapuja * to him take a basketful of hot ashes from the stove
and throw them in his face. Here's your mahapuja*.
Gopala Gopala, Devkinandan Gopal
When Mirabai10 got taken up with bhajan she left the palace, gave
up fine clothes, and started to wear coarse cloth. She threw away
her bangles and tied a string of tulsi* beads on her wrist. The
woman who will do bhajan, who will serve her husband, is
fortunate, very fortunate.
Gopala Gopala, Devkinandan Gopala
.....................................
Take care of your husband, take care of your kids, take care of your
work all day long. But for a while do bhajan to Govinda.11 In the
evening, when all your work is done, you don't need cymbals,
drum, or harmonium. But everyone should sit together and do
bhajan for ten minutes, taking the name of God in whatever way
you can. The house where bhajan is donethe door of that house is
guarded by Parmeshwar. There is a Gurkha12 at the door, a
Gurkha. The house where there is idle gossip, abuse, this and that,
Yamraj, the god of death, is at that door, Yamraj! Bhajan to God is
a great thing!
Gopala Gopala, Devkinandan Gopala
In the houses of the rich, there are women doing the pots and pans.
The women of the house wear saris worth hundreds of rupees, and
the woman doing the pots and pans has a sari torn on all sides. She
has to lay her children on the floor. And she has to lift such a huge
stack of pots. Take pity on her. She's poor and she's probably
pregnant. How will she manage her delivery? You help her. You
don't have
 Page 243
to give her wheat. Give her jawar * flour. Don't give her ghee, give
her oil. Don't give her a new sari, give her an old one. Do
something before you die. If you do nothing but wear race clothes
and eat until you die, you'll have lived your life in vain, in vain!
Gopala Gopala, Devkinandan Gopala
There's a great blot on our Hindustan, a great blot. Try to wash that
blot away. What blot is that? Untouchability! What is it?
Untouchability.
What is it?
Untouchability.
Asking about a person's castewho are you? The person full of pride
is the one who asks about castewho are you? Is the person he asks a
man like the one who asks?
Yes, he is!
Is it that one has four hands and the other one and a half? Tell me.
No!
Is it that one has four eyes and the other only two? Tell me.
No!
Does the one have four legs and the other only one? Is that the way
it is?
No!
Then why ask who are you? If anyone asks who you are say, "I'm a
man, who are you?" A man! Or are you a buffalo?
 No!
Who are you?
A Man!
 Page 244
.....................................
The person who asks about caste is shameless. He is just like you
and still he asks who are you. Are you like him or is there
something wrong with you?
No!
What?
No!
Show what is different for us. Is your earth and theirs the same or
different?
The same!
Is your sky and theirs the same or different?
The same!
Is the sun the same or different?
The same!
Is the train the same or different?
the same!
Is the taxi the same or different?
The same!
Is the court the same or different?
The same!
Is the plague or cholera the same or different?
The same!
Are eating and shitting the same or different?
The same!
Show what's different, then talk about untouchability. Say what is
different. We have all been born by the same route. Or did some
come out of a mother's womb and some
 Page 245
out of a mother's mouth and armpit? Tell me. There are only two
castes of mankindtwo. How many?
Two!
Male and female. Just these two castes. There is no third.
.....................................
Gopala Gopala, Devkinandan Gopala
How many teeth do you have?
Thirty-two!
How many does the Harijan 13 have? Thirty-two. Or do you have
thirty-two and he only ten?
No!
How many days are you in your mother's womb? Nine months and
nine days. How long is the Harijan in his mother's womb? Four
months? Six months?
No!
What did you say?
No!
Show how we're different. You practice untouchability without any
justification! This won't do. Show how we're different. Then say
something. Somebody will mention the Scriptures. The Scriptures
you can teach to anyone. Gather together fifty kids from any caste,
teach them, have them recite the Vedas, have them listen to the
Bhagwat, whatever you like. But show me what is different
originally, from birth. Is your Ganga and theirs the same or
different?
The same!
The Marathas' river comes out from here and the Mangs' from
thereis this how it is?
No!
There is a blot on Hindustan. It is the blot of untouch-
 Page 246
ability. Is there untouchability in England? No. Is there in Russia?
No. In Japan? No. In China? No. In London? No. In America? No.
Among the Parsees? No. Among the Christians? No. Among the
Muslims? No. Did Hazrat 14 ever say the water's polluted, the
bastard's polluted it? Did he say that?
No.
Hey, fellow! You've polluted good water! Do you ever say that?
Yes!
The Muslims' or Christians' water doesn't get polluted, so what in
the hell is wrong with yours? Why does it get polluted? Does a
water pot get polluted? Do you purify it or not?
Yes!
How do you purify it? Speak! When a hand has touched the pot,
how do you purify it? How? By burning it. By burning it with fire?
Yes. And does a man get polluted or not?
Yes!
Then pile grass on the bastard's body and light a match. Let him
burn. Do you let a Harijan sit in your bullock cart?
No!
Then have you taken leave of your senses at the bus stand?
Narayan Patel comesplease sit down. Ganappa please sit down.
Shivrya Mang, please sit down. Then why doesn't anyone say the
bus is polluted, we won't sit in it! Hollow! Where does a rat
burrow? A hollow place! A hollow place! If he strikes rock he's
turned back. . . . Get rid of untouchability! Be sensible and become
human. Because of untouchability lakhs of people have become
Christians. Lakhs have become Muslims. This untouchability has
dealt a blow to Hinduism, a blow. Let's raise our hands and do
bhajan.
 Page 247
Gopala Gopala, Devkinandan Gopala
In Bombay a rich manone manbuilt ten buildings. And another man
doesn't have sense enough to build a goddamn hut for his wife and
kids. If you called him a Dhangar's sheep it'd be
Okay!
Now the government's advice is don't drink. Whose advice? The
government's. Do not stand in the shadow of that drink that has
mined the millionaire's house, killed the prince, made the palace
desolate. Friend, do you set up a still and drink? Young people, if
your father drinksyour who?
Father!
And if he is found drankbreak off your relationship with him. He's
not a father. He's an enemy. Run at him, grab his topknot, and take
off his shoes. Beat him up and don't let him go till he shits in his
dhoti. Only then are you sons. Otherwise if anyone called you
dumb sheep it'd be
Okay!
Gopala Gopala, Devkinandan Gopala
The government shouldn't have to give advice about drinking. But
children should become policechildren! Who should become
police?
Children!
If your father is found drank, beat him up and cool him off, like
nobody in his family has ever seen. Tell him, give up drinking. Are
you going to leave off liquor or are you going to drink? Are you
going to drink or have you given it up? Then let him go. Sons are
sheep. Who is that babbling? Fatherhe's drank. Don't let him go
without beating him up. Don't show him any respect. Beat him up
if you will. Besides, turn him over to the police. He's been making
liquor. Arrest him. Anybody who drinks is no father. Lakhs
 Page 248
of rich men have wasted their ancestral estates and ended up as
coolies, coolies!
.....................................
These blasted drinkerswrestlers, Marathas, Malis, Telis, Nhavis,
Dhobis, Chambhars, Koshtis, Kumbhars, Beldars, Kaikadis,
Gonds, Gavaris, Vinkars, Dhangars, Mangs, and Mahars! Have you
ever seen a Marwadi lying drunk in Bombay?
No!
Have you ever seen a Gujarati lying drunk in Bombay?
No!
Have you ever seen a Brahman lying drunk in an office?
No!
The man who drinks liquor will not fail to ruin his house...
And home!
Gopala Gopala, Devkinandan Gopala
Today you have made me happy. The police are my gurus. I have
had darshan of so many people today. I would have stayed in bed
but my mouth made me take the name of God. For this I am
indebted to our police friends. Let's do bhajan once more and then
go.
Gopala Gopala, Devkinandan Gopala 15

Editors' Notes
1. ''Gopala Gopala, Devkinandan Gopala," the chanted refrain of
this kirtan*, means "Hail to Krishna, son of Devki!"
2. Tukaram Maharaj, also called affectionately Tukoba and
Tukobaraya (King Tukaram), in respect, is a beloved saint-poet of
the bhakti
 Page 249
movement in Maharashtra. A seventeenth-century village
Shudra, his songs are considered superb poetry, as well as
religious advice as direct and unorthodox as that of Gadge
Maharaj himself.
3. Dnyaneshwar, thirteenth-century author of the Jnanesvari * a
commentary on the Bhagavad Gita*, is the founder of the bhakti
movement in Maharashtra.
4. Kabir, a fifteenth-century Hindi poet, decried symbolic piety and
ritual in the same manner as Tukaram. Gadge Maharaj here recites
Kabir's doha* in Hindi, a language understood by the Marathi-
speaking people in cosmopolitan Bombay.
5. The elephant-headed Ganpati or Ganesh is one of the most
popular gods in Maharashtra. In an annual festival, Ganpati images
are brought into homes or community-sponsored booths built for
the occasion to the chant of "Morya . . . Morya." Offerings,
including the sweet modak, are made to him, lights are waved
before him, and on the last day the clay image is ceremoniously
and publicly carried to a river and immersed. See Paul Courtright's
article in this volume.
6. Satyanarayan puja* is commonly performed for the well-being
of a person, the success of a particular occasion, or the fulfillment
of a wish. Gadge Maharaj here makes fun of Satyanarayan, even
though the original occasion for his appearance was a Satyanarayan
puja* at the Bandra Police Station, probably for the well-being of
the establishment in the coming year.
7. Marwadis, originally from Rajasthan, and Gujaratis comprise the
primary business communities of Bombay and are high caste
Vaishyas. Brahmans dominate positions related to education. The
castes on Gadge Maharaj's "worthless" list are Shudra castes
generally; the last two Mangs and Maharsas well as the ritually
higher Chambhars, are ex-Untouchables. These Marathi-speaking
low castes dominate the labor force of Bombay. Note that Gadge
Maharaj praises the thrift and the vegetarianism of the high-caste
Marwadis, Gujaratis, and Brahmans, but does not refer to their
ritual status.
8. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, an Untouchable Mahar by birth, became the
Law Minister in independent India. Gadge Maharaj exaggerates the
poverty of his background hereAmbedkar's father was a
schoolmaster in a British Army school.
9. A gondhal* is a ceremony performed in song by Gondhalis,
traditional singers for the devi. See R. C. Dhere's article in this
volume.
10. Mirabai, a Rajput princess in the sixteenth century, left her
husband to become a devotee of Krishna.
11. Govinda, like Gopala, is a name for Krishna.
12. Gurkhas from Nepal are now commonly found as highly-
respected guards at the doors of many establishments in
Maharashtra. They are better known world-wide as fierce and
effective soldiers.
13. Harijan (people of God) is a synonym for Untouchable made
popular by Mohandas K. Gandhi.
14. Hazrat is a title commonly used for the Prophet Mohammad.
 Page 250
15. For an assessment of Gadge Maharaj' place in the radical
tradition, see Eleanor Zelliot, "Four Radical Saints in
Maharashtra," in Religion and Society in Maharashtra, ed. by
Milton Israel and N.K. Wagle (Toronto: University of Toronto
Centre for South Asian Studies, 1987).
 Page 251

17
Orthodoxy and Human Rights: The Story of a Clash*
Kumar Saptarshi Translated by Maxine Berntsen

Editors' Introduction
Yukrand is a shortened version of Yuvak Kranti Dal (Youth
Revolution Force). Founded in 1967, by Saptarshi and the late
Arun Limaye, Yukrand has used the Gandhian method of
satyagraha * to bring about revolutionary change in rural
Maharashtra, but outside both Gandhian and Marxist organizations.
The following account of one of Yukrand's campaigns shows with
remarkable clarity the clash between two opposing philosophical
viewpointsthe orthodox Hindu view that men are graded on a
hierarchical scale with some men permanently outside the pale, and
the view of manuski*, the idea that each person is entitled to be
treated as a full human being. The concept of manuski* has been
central to all modem Hindu reform movements. (E.Z. and M. B.)
* This article first appeared in Marathi in the Maharashtra Times
(August 4, 1977).
 Page 252

The Datta Temple at Shedgao

In 1975, Yukrand chose an area near the town of Rashim in Karjat
Taluka of Ahmednagar District for intensive work. For the last two
years (1975-1977) Yukrand has been constantly in touch with the
people of this area. Shedgao, one of the villages we have been
working in, is very famous for its Datta temple. It is believed that
possession by ghosts can be cured by staying in the temple and
serving the god. As a result, one can always find forty or fifty
possessed people staying there. From a scientific point of view, of
course, these people are mentally ill.
In this temple the role of the doctor is played by a sannyasi * called
Akhandanand Maharaj. Of course he doesn't deliberately take the
role of a doctor. He strictly observes traditional ascetic practices
and religious vows. The Datta temple is not old; Akhandanand
started it from nothing nineteen years ago when he first came there
to devote himself to the reading of the scriptures. Gradually the
temple grew, and increasing numbers of people supposedly
possessed by ghosts came to be cured. At present, arati* is
performed three or four times daily, numerous festivals are
celebrated in the course of a year, and yadnyas and other such
ceremonies are performed from time to time. These activities have
grown to the point where almost everyone in the village
participates in them. Moreover, devotees of the Shedgao Maharaj
are found all over Maharashtra. The fame of the temple as a place
for curing ghost possession is spread through the
urusampraday*the network of gurus and their followers. Devotees
come to Shedgao from many different places. As a result, the local
economy has flourished. The Maharaj has firmly convinced the
townspeople that service to Datta has worldly advantages beyond
imagination. For that reason, they have surrendered their minds and
souls to the Maharaj and put themselves completely in his power.
The population of Shedgao is twenty-five hundred. Here, unlike
elsewhere in western Maharashtra, the Maratha
 Page 253
caste is in a minority. The majority of the population are Malis.
There are one hundred houses of Untouchables; that is, about five
or six hundred people in all. Thus, one-fourth of the population is
Untouchables, the largest proportion of them Mahars. Some
Mahars have become Buddhists, but on the level of their daily life
the conversion to Buddhism has not resulted in any change. They
are still considered untouchable. Moreover, in order to obtain
educational concessions these Buddhists list themselves in the
government register as "Hindu-Mahar."
When the rest of the townspeople go every day to do arati * at the
Datta temple or join together to celebrate festivals, or when the
whole town is alive with the celebation of the birthday of a god or a
yadnya, the Untouchables feel left out. Other townspeople can go
to the Maharaj when they are in difficulty; sometimes they even get
financial help. But the Untouchables get nothing from the Maharaj.
On the contrary, when they stand wistfully at the temple door, the
Maharaj asks them their caste and turns them away. The Maharaj
regularly violates the Untouchability Offenses Act. So the
Untouchables of Shedgao feel a suppressed, smoldering anger
toward Akhandanand. They are convinced that if they express it
they will be subjected to social boycott. They also know that in
case of a boycott no political party is going to come to their aid,
because the Maharaj is indirectly a political force. Opposing the
Maharaj means losing the votes of ten to fifteen villages and
incurring the active opposition of dedicated campaigners
throughout Shrigonda Taluka.
On June 10, 1977, Yukrand workers from Rashim went to Shedgao
to hold a public meeting. At that time the Untouchables of Shedgao
told Prakash Bajaj, the Yukrand leader from Rashim, that they were
barred from the Datta temple. When Prakash Bajaj and the
Untouchables went to meet the Maharaj, the Maharaj asked all the
local Untouchables their caste and refused to admit them into the
temple. When he found out the caste of the Untouchable Yukrand
workers from Rashim, he refused to admit them as well. Then
Bajaj discussed this situation with the local people.
 Page 254
As a result of Yukrand's activity in the area, political antagonism
had intensified. Consequently, it was hard for the Yukrand workers
to understand the need for persuasion. It was only for my sake that
the local workers were exercising restraint. On July 8, they went
again to meet the Maharaj of Shedgao. This time even Prakash
Bajaj and Shivaji Suravase, both caste Hindus, were denied
entrance into the temple on the grounds that they did not observe
untouchability.
By that time the Untouchables of Shedgao were frightened. They
feared they would be subjected to social boycott. All the vital
arteries of their existencewater supply, grocery store, and
agricultural workwere in the hands of the caste Hindus. If these
arteries were blocked, the Untouchables would find it difficult to
live. So, although they were in favor of the satyagraha * planned
by Yukrand, they were put off committing themselves to taking
part in it as a group. The patience of the Yukrand workers was
strained to the limit.

Declaration of Satyagraha*
As they were convinced that the Maharaj's adamant position would
not change, the Yukrand workers from Rashim argued, "First
satyagraha*, then persuasion." I had already planned to tour that
area from July 12 to 14. A visit to Shedgao had been scheduled for
the evening of July 13. My program had been planned by the
Yukrand workers from Rashim. They brought out a leaflet publicly
announcing that on July 13, Kumar Saptarshi, along with a group
of Untouchables, would enter the Datta temple in Shedgao. At that,
hectic political activity started among the townspeople, the police,
and political workers. They were all looking for ways to avert the
satyagraha*.
The Shrigonda Taluka sub-inspector of police said that he was
going to give an order banning public meetings. In the early
morning of July 12, Prakash Bajaj phoned me in Pune, saying that
the satyagraha* had been announced and
 Page 255
that tension had increased. He also told me what the subinspector
had said.
I took the morning bus to Ahmednagar on July 12. I phoned the
District Superintendent of Police and told him that if there was an
order banning public meetings, it would mean that the police were
obstructing the Harijans' efforts to gain entrance into the temple. I
told him that I would take responsibility for maintaining law and
order, that Yukrand had no quarrel with the townspeople, that we
would keep using persuasion until we succeeded, etc., etc.
On the evening of July 13, there was a public meeting in
Bhambora, a village eight miles from Shedgao, where Yukrand has
a great deal of influence. At Bhambora it was decided that
everyone would hold a meeting and afterwards about a hundred of
them would go by tractor-drawn trailer to Shedgao. A follower of
Datta warned the tractor driver that he would bring on himself the
wrath of the god, so the driver ran away in the dark, taking the key
with him. Even the owner of the tractor had no idea where he had
gone. Everyone in our group was discussing how to get to
Shedgao. There was no vehicle available. The bus to Jalalpur had
left at six. Ten Yukrand workers from Rashim had already gone on
that. They were going to go on foot the three miles from Jalalpur to
Shedgao. Seeing our confusion, the follower of Datta who had
started it all began spreading the story, "Look, Datta has made the
driver and the tractor key disappear. This is just a hint of the wrath
of Datta and the Maharaj. If Kumar Saptarshi goes with the
Harijans into the Shedgao temple, the Maharaj will destroy the
Yukrand organization in this area." On the one hand he was
propagandizing against us and on the other he was requesting me
not to go ahead with the plan. Finally Prakash Bajaj and I set out
on a motorcycle for Shedgao.
As we approached the village we saw many people walking
towards it in small groups. On the main road there was a large
crowd. From the surrounding area about ten thousand people had
gathered in that small town. Every person in the village was there
on the road. The crowd wasn't
 Page 256
supporting us, but it wasn't in an aggressive, violent mood either.
Everyone looked serious. No one was talking. They respected both
the Maharaj and us, in our separate spheres.
If the Maharaj had opposed us in the political sphere, the people
would perhaps have even gone against him. But now the Maharaj
had created a crisis for them, saying, "If you approve of these
people, if you approve of their program, our nineteen-year
relationship is at an end. The very moment the Harijans touch the
temple, the power of the temple will be destroyed. At that moment
Datta Maharaj will leave the temple. And immediately, without
even taking a drink of water, I will leave Shedgao, never to return.
Our relationship will be completely severed." Because of the
Maharaj's ploy they had to make a decision soon. They had to
choose between the Maharaj and us.
The local leaders said, "In politics we support you. We voted for
your Janata Party. 1 Understand our situation and cancel your
agitation. As far as admitting Untouchables into the Datta temple
we don't have any position one way or the other. We don't object to
their entering. If they want to go into the other temples in town
(Bahiroba's, for example) we will let them. The Maharaj has taken
a completely inflexible position about this, and we are anxious to
see that he does not leave the town. We ask you not to pursue this."
I told the leaders that if Baba's inflexibility was the only difficulty I
would persuade him to change his mind.
After that discussion we set out for the Datta temple to talk to the
Maharaj. Just then we were called by the police. Those present
included the Ahmednagar District Deputy Superintendent of
Police, four or five subinspectors, the mamlatdar* of Shrigonda
Taluka and his assistant, the regional and district level members of
the Central Intelligence Division, and some stenographers to
transcribe the speeches. There was a force of sixty to seventy
police in the town. Including jeeps and vans they had four or five
vehicles. I talked to them and asked them not to intervene in the
conflict. I assured them that I would handle the situation properly.
Then the Deputy Superintendent said, "As
 Page 257
far as possible we will not interfere. We will entrust the situation to
you. But if anyone breaks the law, we will have to intervene. I am
warning you that if you break the law, we won't listen to you." If
the police had clumsily interfered and violence had broken out,
there would have been a lathi * and firing and many people would
have been killed. Credit for averting this must be given to the
reasonableness of the townspeople and the police. Not a single
person in town picked up the stone that could have set off the
conflict. Similarly, the police avoided an unnecessary show of
force and handled the situation delicately. Generally, this is not
what happens.
The police officers had been encamped in town since morning. The
crowd started forming at four in the afternoon and continued to
grow. The widely-dispersed crowd milling about on the road could
at any moment have turned violent. So the police told me, "Call
everyone together and say something. Then they will sit in one
place. They are anxious to hear what you have to say. They haven't
even gone home to eat."
By then it was nine o'clock. We called a meeting on the open
ground near the Datta temple. In a few minutes everyone gathered
there. The Untouchables were waiting in their quarter of town, for
earlier I had sent a message for them to gather there. However,
after seeing the situation I thought it would be unwise to leave the
crowd by itself, so I sent a message asking the Untouchables to
come to the meeting. I told the seated crowd that I would go talk to
the Maharaj and then come back, and asked them to remain seated
until then.
The Maharaj's Viewpoint
I requested the Maharaj to be broad-minded and allow the Harijans
into the temple. I asked him why the Hindu religion, which saw
brahman in everything, was not ready to regard the Harijans as
men. Then he said, "Kumar, do you think that I am not humane? A
separate temple should
 Page 258
be built for the Harijans. I will give financial help. Neither steam
nor any other power can be put to effective use unless it is kept
under strict control. You have to enclose it in a steam engine and
use it when and in the amount you want it. Only when strictly
controlled is it of any use to anyone. 2 Datta Maharaj is able to help
people in their difficulties because the spiritual power here is
controlled by strict rules. You are raising the hue and cry that only
Harijans are denied entrance here for political purposes. In this
temple I have defined limits by caste. If these limits are broken, the
power of the temple will go, just as steam escapes from an engine.
You have come to destroy a power that is useful to the people, a
power that has been created through great effort. If you are really
interested in serving the people you will preserve this power intact.
But if you only want to pull off a political stunt, you will destroy
this power and deprive thousands of people of its benefits.
''The limit for the Harijans is outside the temple. Those non-
Brahmans who are not Harijans are allowed inside the sanctuary.
Inside the sanctuary is a smaller sanctuary where the image is. In
front of this smaller sanctuary there is a small area enclosed by a
wooden railing. Non-Brahmans who are not Harijans can come as
far as the railing. Only Brahmans are allowed inside. But not all
Brahmans are allowed to go all the way in to the inner sanctuary
where the image is. Those Brahmans who drink tea or smoke
cigarettes must stop just inside the railing. Only true Brahmans
who do not drink tea are allowed all the way inside. It is because
such strict rules are followed that Datta Maharaj stays here."
Then I asked him where in the most ancient Hindu scriptures
(before the Laws of Manu were written) there is any support for
untouchability. He cited the support of the Gita* and the
Gurucaritra.3 He quoted the verse from the Gita*:
caturvarnyam* mayasrstam* gunakarma* vibhagasah* The four-fold
caste system has been created by me, based on a division according to
characteristics and functions.
 Page 259
The Maharaj said, "This is correct. I am a true Hindu, so I am
going to observe untouchability even at the risk of my life. The
R.S.S., who claim to be Hindus and then say there is no
untouchability in the Hindu scriptures, are hypocrites. 4 These
people lie because the Harijans have votes. Your insistence on their
entering the temple is out of political motives. For the same reason
the R.S.S. doesn't believe in untouchability."
This discussion with the Maharaj took place in the porch of the
temple. The door of the temple was locked. Normally the door was
never locked. When I asked the Maharaj to open it, he said, "It will
be opened at four in the morning for arati*. If you want to enter
now you can break the lock. If you take the Untouchables and enter
the temple, I will give the keys to the townspeople and leave."
After all this discussion we realized that there was no common
ground, and so we got up to leave. According to the Gandhian
method one should not leave a single avenue of persuasion untried.
So we decided to conduct the satyagraha* only when we had
exhausted all the avenues at our disposal. As we were getting up I
asked him one last question, "Maharaj, do you acknowledge the
law which has come out of democratic process?" He thought that
the point of my question was that untouchability was against the
law, so he said, "I don't mind if I'm arrested. But I am not going to
give permission for Harijans to enter the temple. I do not
acknowledge the power of the state and government. I
acknowledge only the power of dharma, for I am a true Hindu."
Then we namaskared to him, requested him not to be angry with us
for doing satyagraha*, and left.
In the public meeting I said, "If you are going to support the
obstinate demand of this Brahman sannyasi*, I want to point out
that I too am a Brahman. I have given up the medical profession
and fought alongside you for ten or twelve years. So whose
demand are you going to meet? My demand is that the Harijans be
allowed entrance into the Datta temple. After that, let us all go
together and request
 Page 260
the Maharaj not to leave Shedgao. Let us close him in with love.
"This satyagraha * is not really for temple entry. There must be a
place for us, for our thoughts, for manuski* in your minds. Because
of customs and traditions thousands of years old you have closed
the doors of your minds. On those doors human feeling is
knocking. So the question is whether you are going to open them.
You, Untouchable friends who are gathered here, must be
humiliated that such a battle should be fought over your entry into
the temple. You have to be fearless. Human rights are not won
easily. So I ask you not to be afraid and to join me in the temple
entry satyagraha.*"
Entrance into the Temple
Twenty-two of us, after introducing ourselves, left the meeting,
and, raising cheers to Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Ambedkar,5 we
entered the temple courtyard. The Maharaj said that those who
were Harijans or Buddhists should go out. He forbade them from
even coming on the porch. But crossing the limits he had set, we
joined hands and silently sat cross-legged on the porch. I asked the
Maharaj to open the door of the sanctuary. He refused. He said that
the door would be opened at four in the morning for arati*.
We stayed outside the door until five in the morning. At eleven-
thirty the night beforethat is, when the Maharaj said that the
Harijans should not come inthe police were going to arrest him.
For, once he had forbidden the Untouchables to come into the
temple, the crime had been committed.6 But we had asked the
police not to make the arrest. Until early morning the police were
still trying to decide what to do. Both they and the townspeople had
stayed up all night. The Harijans were standing outside in the dark
on a slight rise, watching what was going on in the temple, giving
their silent support.
At five in the morning the police told the Maharaj to open the door,
warning that if he didn't do so they would
 Page 261
have to arrest him. Then the sarpanch (village headman) called the
Maharaj aside. The Maharaj turned the key over to him, saying he
could do as he saw fit, but if the Harijans went into the temple,
from that moment on he would break off relations with the
townspeople. The sarpanch was on the verge of tears. He didn't
know what to do. He called several other townspeople. The police
waited for another half hour and then at five-thirty gave him an
ultimatum: "Are you going to open the door or not? Make it clear
once and for all." Then the sarpanch opened the door. The
satyagrahis * went in, with cheers for Mahatma Gandhi and Dr.
Ambedkar. We all stayed in the temple for five minutes and then
came out. At the door of the temple there were a police jeep and
van. We were told to get into the van and the Maharaj into the jeep.
At six-thirty we arrived at the Shrigonda police station. The police
treated the Maharaj and us well. The Maharaj was freed on bail.
The twenty-two of us gave our statements and were released after
two in the afternoon.
When the police had left Shedgao with the Maharaj, the thirty or
forty "possessed" women residents of the temple set up a great
lament. Seeing this I too felt bad.
Slowly people from Daund and Shedgao were coming by bus and
gathering in front of the Shrigonda police station. In front of them
we appealed to the Maharaj to advise people not to start a boycott
against the Untouchables. His answer was, "Now the relations
between Shedgao and me are broken. The people are free to do
whatever they want."
Namaskaring, I said publicly to the Maharaj that I hoped he would
not be angry with me. In response he said to the crowd, "I am not
angry with Kumar. He has just provided the occasion. For the last
nineteen years I have been telling the Untouchables not to come
into the temple. I have been asking those people who come what
their caste is. I thought that someone would object, but nobody did.
I wanted to court arrest under the anti-untouchability act. Today
that has happened. In court I am going to say that I observe
untouchability and am going to keep on observing it. I want
 Page 262
to use this case to bring about a public discussion. I am going to
say to the Indian government, 'I want to live as a true Hindu. A true
Hindu cannot live without practicing untouchability. This is a
conflict of principles. These people cannot live without giving
Harijans entry into temples. I also cannot live without observing
untouchability.' Then is the Indian government going to let me live
according to my religion or not? I know that according to the law I
am going to have to serve six months' imprisonment at hard labor. I
am ready for that."

Coda
Akhandanand Maharaj did not serve his jail sentence. The Datta
temple of Shedgao is still closed.
Editors
Editors' Notes
1. The Janata Party was formed in 1977 to battle the Congress
Party ruled by Indira Gandhi. Saptarshi and other liberals entered
parliamentary politics under the banner of this coalition, along with
more conservative groups which had also been stifled during the
Emergency, 1975-77.
2. Note that the Maharaj uses the same metaphor of steam and a
steam engine that the Brahman woman used in Scattered Voices 2.
In both instances, control produces power: personal control, in the
case of women, and social control, in the case of priestly or
religious power.
3. "The Gita *" always refers to the Bhagavad Gita*. The
Gurucaritra is the life of two early Datta avatars*; it serves as a
basic text for Maharashtrian Datta worship. See the article on Datta
by Charles Pain with Eleanor Zelliot. Note that the four-fold caste
system does not include untouchability.
4. The R.S.S. (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh), although basically
a conservative Hindu nationalist organization, has been very
careful to balance its Brahman image with a defense of the idea of
equality of all castes. Sirsikar's article on the R.S.S. in this volume
does not deal specifically with this point.
 Page 263
5. Dr. Ambedkar (Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, 1892-1956) was the
most prominent Untouchable leader in India; he was responsible
for much social legislation and the Buddhist conversion as well as
an awakening among the Untouchables themselves. He actually
opposed Gandhi's use of the word "Harijan" (People of God) and
the patronizing attitude that indicated, but here the Yukrand group
claims both men as legitimizers of its action.
6. The Untouchability (Offenses) Act of 1955 made the practice of
untouchability punishable by law.
 Page 264

18
The Orthodoxy of the Mahanubhavs
Anne Feldhaus

Editors' Introduction
The thirteenth century in Maharashtra saw the beginning of
Marathi literature and the establishment of two still living religious
movements, the well-known bhakti movement of the Varkari sect
centered in Pandharpur and the less well-known bhakti sect of the
Mahanubhavs"those of the great experience." Considered
heterodox at best, the Mahanubhavs rejected caste and the worship
of idols, refused to acknowledge the ritual and scriptural authority
of Brahmans even though many early converts were Brahmans,
created an order of women sannyasis * as well as one of men, and
acknowledged the reality of only one god, Parmeshwar, who has
five major incarnations: Krishna, Dattatreya (see the article on
Datta in this volume), and three sect figures. Although the
Mahanubhavs seem to have been popular at first, spreading chiefly
north of the Godavari River even as the Varkari sect spread south,
they came to be considered suspect sometime in the next two
centuries. They adopted a secret script in which to preserve their
sa-
 Page 265
cred texts, and slipped into an inconspicuous position outside the
mainstream of Maharashtrian society. There is currently
considerable scholarly interest in the Mahanubhavs, and a renewed
sense of their historic importance. The way in which this long-lived
heterodox sect has accommodated itself to Hindu society shows us
a still different facet of Maharashtrian religion. (E. Z. and M. B.)

The Difference of the Mahanubhavs

It was in the year Irawati Karve died, 1970, that I first visited
Maharashtra. The English translation of her "Vatcal *"1 was one of
the few things I had read in preparation for my visit, and it was in
part that essay that led me to Pandharpur on Ashadha Ekadashi to
watch the pilgrimage arrive. We stood for hours that evening on the
Wakhari-Pandharpur road, watching the groups of pilgrims dance
their way, one after the other, into the town. It was entrancing: the
light of torches, the rhythmic sounds of drams and hand cymbals.
The faces of the Varkaris impressed me most. They held a joy that
was not that of schoolchildren on holiday or of mystics lost in
another world, but something else. Theirs, I thought, was the joy of
people dancing in to see their god.
Four years later, when I returned to India to write a thesis on
Maharashtrian religion, it was not contemporary practice that I was
to study, but medieval literature, and not the Varkaris but the
Mahanubhavs.2 It was not the mainstream bhakti sect of
Maharashtra but a less well-known bhakti movement that had
begun in the same medieval period, the thirteenth century.
In the course of my travels in search of manuscripts and
interpretations of the Mahanubhavs' Sutrapatha*, I had occasion to
meet many present-day Mahanubhavsmonks, nuns, and lay men
and women. I saw monasteries and temples, worship services
called pujas* and aratis*, a celebration of Krishna's birthday, and
an initiation ceremony; and I heard much talk about nonviolence
(ahimsa*) and asceticism
 Page 266
(sannyas *). These are all things and topics common enough in the
religious lives of ordinary Maharashtrian Hindus. Yet most of the
Mahanubhavs I met seemed to think of themselves as significantly
different from other Maharashtrian Hindus. And non-Mahanubhav
Maharashtrians with whom I talked about the Mahanubhavs
seemed to regard them as unusual or strange, if not downright
untrustworthy.
What is the basis of this perceived difference? And is it really so
great as everyone seems to think?
One kind of approach to these questions has been presented
elsewhere.3 If we take as the criterion of Hindu orthodoxy
acknowledgement of the authority of the Vedas, the Mahanubhavs
are probably heterodox. But none of the Mahanubhavs I met
seemed particularly concerned about the sect's orthodoxy or
heterodoxy with respect to the Vedas. What they seemed much
more concerned about was defining their relationship to present-
day popular Hindu belief and practice.
The basis of their difference along these lines is as follows:
Mahanubhavs do not deny the existence orwithin certain limitsthe
powers of the numerous gods (devatas*) of the Hindu pantheon.
But they do believe that there exists a single ultimate being, called
Parmeshwar, who is heterogeneous to the many gods, and who
alone has the power to liberate men. Parmeshwar brings about
man's liberation (moksha, uddharan*) by descending to
Karmabhumi (India) and giving his presence (sannidhan* or
sambandha) to men there: this presence is necessary for liberation.
There have been numerous descents (avatars*) of Parmeshwar, but
the relevant ones are those in which Parmeshwar has taken on
human form. We know of five of these: Krishna; Dattatreya;
Chakradhar, the founder of the sect; Govindaprabhu, Chakradhar's
guru; and Changadeva Raula, Govindaprabhu's guru.4
The devaluation of normal popular Hindu practice involved in such
beliefs is rather strikingly expressed in one of the short chapters of
the Sutrapatha*.5 This chapter, called "Yugadharma*," presents a
hierarchy of religious activities
 Page 267
(dharmas) arranged according to the four classical ages (yu-gas).
The dharma proper to the Krita yuga is introspection (atmopasti *);
that proper to the Treta, devotion (bhakti);6 that proper to the
Dvapara, sacrifice (yaga*); and that proper to the Kali, the religion
of pilgrimages, vows, and almsgiving (tirtha-kshetra-vrata-dana*).
Performance during a given yuga of the dharma proper to that yuga
leads to one of the hierarchized series of rewards, the better
rewards corresponding to the better yugas and to the more worthy
dharmas proper to them. But, the chapter ends, none of the dharmas
proper to the different yugas leads one to know or attain
Parmeshwar. Thus, none of these dharmas leads to liberation.
Since it is the Kali yuga in which Mahanubhavs since the time of
their founder have lived, it is the dharma of tirtha-kshetra-vrata-
dana*, popular Hinduism, with which the religion of Parmeshwar,
the pursuit of the means to liberation, must compete. In
"Yugadharma*," tirtha-kshe-tra-vrata-dana* is devalued in two
ways: not just by pointing out its qualitative difference from the
means to liberation, but by ranking it as the least of the non-
liberating dharmas. Contemporary Mahanubhavs adhere to the
spirit of "Yugadharma*" and other parts of the Sutrapatha* when,
without condemning devata* for others, they try not to participate
in it themselves.
In some cases, at least, this abstinence is quite self-conscious. For
example, the Sutrapatha* contains an explicit prohibition against
visiting Mahur and Kolhapur,7 the sites of temples to Renuka and
Mahalaksmi, two of the most important Maharashtrian goddesses.
Accompanied by a party of Mahanubhavs, I traveled once to one of
these places, Mahur, in search of manuscripts. On the hills of
Mahur, there are, besides the temple of Renuka, a temple of
Dattatreya, a temple of Atri and Anasuya, and a Mahanubhav
monastery reputed to have a good manuscript collection.
Our business at the monastery completed, we proceeded to visit the
other important sites of the place. We went to the Dattatreya temple
and to the temple of Atri and Ana-
 Page 268
suya on the further hill, and then returned to the tea-and-holy-
picture stalls at the foot of the steps to the Renuka temple. There
was some discussion among my Mahanubhav companionsa
sannyasi *, two laymen, and the recently-converted wife of one of
the laymenas to whether or not to visit the temple. As clearly as I
can remember, the recent convert and her rather easy-going
husband finally went up to the templeshe but not he making an
offeringwhile the other layman and the sannyasi* remained behind.
At the booths at the foot of the hill we bought some sweet prasad*
of the goddess. On the way home, all ate the prasad* with
pleasure; apparently, no one had qualms about eating food
supposed to have been offered to the proscribed deity.
Besides the uncertainty about visiting the Renuka temple, there was
even some discussion, in the course of this trip, of the
inappropriateness of going to Mahur at all, or of there being a
Mahanubhav monastery there; but the fact that there is a monastery
there seemed to excuse our trip.8

The Mahanubhav Monks and Nuns

Although the one sannyasi* who accompanied me on this trip lived
alone rather than in a monastery, and my three other companions
were lay people, the vast majority of Mahanubhavs I met were
sannyasis* living in monasteries or camped in tents pitched for a
few days' rest in the course of peregrination. The men were dressed
in pink or grey, the women in black saris, their heads shaved. The
appearance of these people, especially the women, impressed me
tremendously. Their food, when I was asked to share it, seemed no
worse than that of others in the surrounding countrysideexcept that
the Mahanubhavs made such a big point about theirs never
including meat.9 In the large rooms which serve as sleeping
chambers in the monks' quarters and the nuns' quarters, each
ascetic is allotted three feet or so of wall space and six feet of floor
space extending out from the wall. The wall space is used for
storing belongings, and the floor space for sleeping.
 Page 269
All the Mahanubhav monasteries and camps I saw included both
male and female sannyasis *. In the Aurangabad Mahanubhav
Ashram, I was shown the line separating the men's from the
women's quarters, and I was shown the toothless old man who, I
was told, is the only one to cross that line; he acts as a messenger
and at mealtimes he carries food from the kitchen, located in the
women's quarters, to the men's side of the ashram. The care with
which the line and the old man who crosses it were pointed out
indicated some anxiety, I thought, to dispel the suspicion that
celibacy cannot be maintained in a monastery housing both men
and women.
I visited only one monastery whose inhabitants did not claim to be
celibate. This was a monastery whose head (mahant) is an active
and respected leader in Mahanubhav circles. He is referred to, by
himself and others, as a sannyasi*. Of the several Mahanubhav
ashrams I visited, his was the only one where I had been invited to
stay at the monastery itself rather than being put up with a local
family of lay Mahanubhavs or in a lodge. I was grateful for the
invitation, and anticipated my stay with a mixture of fear and
excitement, picturing myself sleeping on the floor in a row of
black-saried nuns, finding out by experience about a life of severe
asceticism. I was surprised, then, on my arrival, to learn that,
besides the Mahant, the only other ''sannyasis*" living in the
monastery were his wife, his son, and his nephew. I was given a
soft bed in a room that I shared with only a modem refrigerator,
and I was well cared for by the Mahant's wife, who is a good cook
as well as a sweet-tempered person.
The Mahant himself is kindly and unassuming, despite his high
place in the order, and he was generous with manuscripts and
information. After a couple of days I felt I knew him well enough
to ask him about the types of lifestyle that are found among
Mahanubhavs. There are sannyasis*, I said, who do not marry, and
laymenand what other ways of life are there? He explained that
there are also some Mahanubhavs who, although they are married,
are called
 Page 270
sannyasis * because they have vowed to give up the householder's
life when they reach their mid-fifties. The Mahant looked as if he
was approaching his mid-fifties himself, but I did not ask his age.
From the fact that I met no other householder sannyasis*, I would
guess them to be fairly rare, though R. E. Enthoven10 mentions a
type of Mahanubhavs, called angvanshils* or gharbaris*, who "put
on the dress of the order and live in monasteries," but who "marry
by the gandharva* or love marriage form."

Mahanubhav Practice
Most Mahanubhavs live as ascetics, and most refuse to take part in
the worship of devatas*. From this it might appear that the
Mahanubhavs, intent on liberation, puritanically deprive
themselves of all the concrete forms which fill other
Maharashtrians' religious lives. In fact, however, Mahanubhavs
have no dearth of things to do: ritual worship, pilgrimage places to
visit, festivals to celebrate. They relate all of thesethe things to
which they do puja*, the places they go on pilgrimage, and the
festivals they celebrateto the five human avatars* of Parmeshwar.
Of the objects to which Mahanubhavs do puja*, they are careful to
state that none of them is Parmeshwar. The objects are, rather,
relics of Parmeshwar, reminders of his former presence in one of
his avatars*. They include things touched by avatars* of
Parmeshwar, and stones marking places Parmeshwar-avatars*
visited during the period of their descent on earth.
The relics which are things touched by Parmeshwar avatars* are
generally portable. These are stones, called sambandhi* pashans*
or visheshas, believed to have been touched by one or another of
the avatars*.11 The most numerous of these stones seem to be ones
touched by Chakradhar or by Krishnanotably those from Mount
Govardhan, which the child Krishna is said to have lifted and held
on one finger. Often the stones are encased in silver, and some of
the larger ones are carved in the shape of Krishna, Chakradhar, or
 Page 271
Dattatreya. Usually several are displayed together in the common
shrine of the monastery or the kitchen shrine of a private home, and
part of the regular worship service consists in passing the stones
among those present, each person rubbing each of the stones
between his hands, touching it to his face, and passing it on to the
person next to him. Most sannyasis * have a number of these
stones, and often a significant part of the wall space allotted to each
of the residents of a monastery is taken up by a shrine housing his
own sambandhi* pashan* collection.
It is often carefully pointed out that the sambandhi* pashans*
carved in the shape of Krishna, Dattatreya, or Chakradhar are
nothing more than stonesthat is, they are not gods, or images
containing gods (murtis*). In Phaltan I was told that carved stones
are displayed for worship so that the non-Mahanubhav
townspeople can understand what is going on. In other places it
was suggested that some Ma-hanubhavs, too, need images to
remind them of the forms that have been taken by the Parmeshwar
they worship.
Besides sambandhi* pashans*, the other kind of stone worshipped
by Mahanubhavs is a pedestal, called an ota*. These are raised to
mark places where an avatar* of Parmeshwar is remembered to
have visited and to have done something or other. What exactly
was done is often not clearly remembered, but that something was
done here and that it was done by Parmeshwar is confidently
believed. Otas* are generally rectangular blocks about three feet
high, whitewashed and sparingly decorated with red-lead designs.
Puja* is performed to them, aratis* are sung and lights waved in
front of them, and individuals bow to them, touching them with
their foreheads or their hands. Again, Mahanubhavs are careful to
make it clear that they do not understand themselves to be
worshipping the ota* as a god, or to be worshipping a god present
in the ota*, but to be honoring the stone as a marker of the place
where a Parmeshwar-avatar* once did something.
There are also examples of honor being paid to a type of object
which shares some of the characteristics of both sam-
Page 272
 12.
The head of the Mahanubhav monastery at the site of the Ellora cave
temples. Photography by Eleanor Zelliot.
 Page 273

13.
Mahanubhavs bow in worship before an ota *, a stone marking
a spot visited by an avatar of the great god Parmeshwar.
Photography by Anne Feldhaus.
 Page 274
bandhi * pashans* and otas*. Once, when I was returning from
another expedition with a small group of Mahanubhavs, we
stopped at a Shiva temple on the outskirts of a small town.
Everyone took darshan of the Shiva linga and touched it in
homage. I asked what was going on: why had we stopped here?
One member of the party remembered that this was a temple at
which Mahanubhavs worship. No one knew the exact story, but all
were sure that they were worshipping there not to honor Shiva but
to honor a place where Chaktadhar had beenhad himself, one of
them suggested, done puja* to the linga.
The existence of otas* and of other objects worshipped in a
specific location gives rise to the phenomenon of pilgrimage. There
are numerous Mahanubhav pilgrimage places in Maharashtra, all
connected with the lives of the Parmeshwar-avatars*. In contrast to
the Varkaris' pilgrimage places, which are mostly clustered in the
part of Maharashtra to the south and west of the Godavari River,
Mahanubhav holy placesas shown, for example, on the map
entitled Pañca avatara* caranankita* Maharastratila*
tirthasthane* prepared by Mahant Dattaraj Shevalikar12are most
numerous along both banks of the Godavari and to the north and
east of it, with a thick cluster in Amraoti District. The popular
handbook Sthana-marga-darsaka*, also prepared by Mahant
Dattaraj Shevalikar,13 lists and describes briefly 259 Ma-
harashtrian pilgrimage places by District: one in Satara, sixty-five
in Ahmednagar, twelve in Nasik, ten in Jalgaon, seventy in
Aurangabad, twenty-four in Bhid, twelve in Buldhana, seven in
Akola, six in Nanded, forty-six in Amraoti, one in Wardha, three in
Nagpur, and two in Bhandara.14 It also lists eleven Mahanubhav
pilgrimage places outside of Maharashtra: Warangal, Broach,
Dvarka, Gomati Dvarka, Mathura, Gokul, Govardhan, Vrindavan,
Kurukshetra, Badrikashrama, Kashi, and Ujjain.
I have no information about the frequency of pilgrimage among the
Mahanubhavs, nor about special practices their pilgrimages may
involve. Neither do I have much information about Mahanubhav
festivals, though I was told that
 Page 275
the principal ones celebrate the birthdays of the five avatars *. In
1975, I attended the celebration of Krishna's birthday,
Krishnajanmashtami, at the Mahanubhav temple in Ganesh Peth in
Pune, and then went on to a celebration in a Brahman household in
Narayan Peth. Superficially, at least, the similarities between the
two celebrations were greater than the differences. If anything, the
chaotic jubilation was more intense at the Mahanubhav temple than
in the Brahman home; but then Ganesh Peth is generally more
chaotic than Narayan Peth.
This much description should suffice to establish that the
Mahanubhavs do not have a purely ascetic religious life. They, too,
like other Maharashtrian Hindus, have their festivals and their
pilgrimages, as well as concrete objects which they worship.
Neither is their religious life completely separate from the popular
religion of their fellow Maharashtrians. Besides sharing with the
other Hindus of Maharashtra such festivals as Krishna's birthday
and such pilgrimage places as Paithan (connected, for most
Maharashtrians, with the saint Eknath, but for Mahanubhavs with
their founder Chakradhar), as well as an occasional Shiva linga,
Mahanubhavs also have their own roles in the wider Maharashtrian
religious life. They are known in the Maharashtrian countryside as
one of the many types of wandering rehgious mendicants,15 and
their monasteries and temples are frequented by persons seeking to
be cured of ghost possession.16
If modem-day Mahanubhavs have popular religious practices like
those of other Hindus, and if they also have their own place in
Maharashtrian popular religion as a whole, then how seriously are
they taking their scriptures' devaluation of the religion of tirtha-
kshetra-vrata-dana*? Worship of inferior deities they certainly try
to avoid; but, having avoided this worship, they then take its forms
and apply them to the relics of Parmeshwar's former presence on
earth: the things he touched, the places he lived, and his birthdays.
Mahanubhavs claim that the things to which they do
 Page 276
puja * are not murtis*: they do not call their stones gods. But how
different, really, is what the Mahanubhavs do from what other
Maharashtrian Hindus do? An adequate answer to this question
would involve a clear understanding of what Mahanubhavs and
other Maharashtrians think about what they do. For example, what
exactly do Mahanubhavs think is the relationship between
Parmeshwar and his otas* and sambandhi* pashans*? What
exactly do other Hindus think a murti* is? To answer such
questions would require a great deal of field- and/or text-work.

The Mahanubhavs and Liberation

Even without additional study, though, I can point out one factor
which distinguishes the Mahanubhavs from other Maharashtrian
Hindus. The exclusivism of the Mahanubhavs' attention to objects,
places, and days of worship connected for them with Parmeshwar
contrasts sharply to the eclecticism of most other Maharashtrians.
For these, devotion to Khandoba, for instance, will not necessitate
avoiding the temples or festivals of Datta, Krishna, or Vithoba;
whereas for the Mahanubhavs the worship of things connected with
Parmeshwar necessitatesin theory, at leastignoring all lesser deities.
But Mahanubhavs' exclusive concentration on the worship of
things connected with Parmeshwar does not seem to involve an
exclusive concentration on liberation. Even when directed to things
connected with Parmeshwar, the religion of tirtha-kshetra-vrata-
dana* cannot, according to their beliefs, produce liberation. For
that, the presence of Parmeshwar himselfnot just of something he
touched or some place he walkedis necessary. My guess is that
Mahanubhavs are very much like other Maharashtrian Hindus in
that they rarely, if ever, think of their pujas*, their pilgrimages, or
their festivals as conducive of liberation.
The two Mahanubhavs who expressed to me the most
reflectiveness about liberation and the means to it were also the
Mahanubhavs who were most aware of their difference,
 Page 277
not just from the rest of Hindu Maharashtra but from other
Mahanubhavs. These most reflective Mahanubhavs are not
sannyasis *, they are not vegetarians, they do not even call
themselves Mahanubhavs, since that term is not used in the
Sutrapatha* of Chakradhar. They are a pair of brothers who live
together, with their father and the wife of one of them, in a
comfortable bungalow in a Maratha housing colony on the
outskirts of Pune. C. K. p.17 by caste, they feel ill at ease with their
Maratha neighbors; I cannot tell whether or not caste differences
have anything to do with their alienation from the Maratha-
dominated Mahanubhays. At any rate, they are put off by what they
perceive as the complacency and cliquishness of the orthodox
Mahanubhav leaders, and they sought me out, late in my stay in
India, to get a disinterested opinion on their questions and
problems concerning Mahanubhav doctrines.
Their perplexities were intense and their opinions vehement, and
much of what they were bothered about I did not understand. But
their most pressing question was clear: how do we get liberation?
The main problem, as they saw it, is that whereas the Sutrapatha*
teaches that the presence (sannidhana*) of an avatar* of
Parmeshwar is necessary for liberation, there has not been an
avatar* of Parmeshwar since the end of the thirteenth century. So
what are we in the twentieth century to do?
I suggested all the substitutes I could think of: the words of
Parmeshwar's avatars*, the places they visited, the things they
touched, even the community of their disciples and the life of
asceticism taught by Chakradhar. But none of these was enough; it
was all irrelevant. The brothers begged me to be on the lookout for
the new avatar*, the one for our times. And to let them know when
I find him.
I did not see evidence of similar Messianic longings among other
Mahanubhavs I talked with, though these young men's dilemma
was based, as nearly as I can tell, on a sound interpretation of
Mahanubhav scripture. Perhaps other Mahanubhavs interpret the
scriptures differently. Or perhaps they do not really worry about
such things. Perhaps
 Page 278
for them, as for so many other religious people, the forms of their
religiontheir worship and even their monastic lifehave become,
over the centuries, ends in themselves, or, at least, means to things
other than liberation.
For the past six or seven centuries, Mahanubhavs 18 have had no
place like the Varkaris's Pandharpur, no place where they could go
to meet their God. Yet they seldom seem to feel their deprivation.

Notes
1. "On the Road: A Maharashtrian Pilgrimage," Journal of Asian
Studies, 22(1962):13-29. See also the version in this volume, pp.
142-171.
2. I am grateful to the American Institute of Indian Studies for
supporting my stay in India during 1974-75, as well as to the
scholars and Mahanubhavs who facilitated my work there.
3. See V. B. Kolte, "Mahanubhava* panthace* avaidikatva,"
Mahanubhava* samsodhana* 1 (Malkapur: Arun Prakasan, 1962),
59-76; also A. Feldhaus, "The Mahanubhavas* and Scripture,"
Journal of Dharma (Bangalore), 3.3 (1978): 295-308.
4. For further information about Mahanubhav beliefs, see I.M.P.
Raeside, "The Mahanubhavas*," Bulletin of the School of Oriental
and African Studies, 39(1976): 585-600; and Anne Feldhaus, The
Religious System of the Mahanubhava* Sect: The Mahanubhava*
Sutrapatha* (New Delhi: Manohar, and Columbia, Mo.: South
Asia Books, 1983): 3-68. An almost contemporary biography of
Chakradhar's guru, Gobindaprabhu, has been translated by Anne
Feldhaus as The Deeds of God in Rddhipur* (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1984).
5. The Sutrapatha* is a collection of sayings (sutras) attributed to
the Mahanubhavs' founder, Chakradhar. The edition of the
Sutrapatha* referred to here is that in A. Feldhaus, Religious
System of the Mahanubhava* Sect.
6. To devatas*, not to Parmeshwar.
7. 12 (Acara*).25: matapura* kolhapura* na vacavem*. tem*
sabhimaniem* sthanem* sadhakasi* vighna* kariti*. "Do not go to
Matapur [i.e., Mahur] or Kolhapur. Those proud places create
obstacles for those practicing religion."
8. The ambiguity about Mahur dates back to the early period of
Mahanubhav literature, for, counter to Chakradhar's prohibition, is
Govindaprabhu's reversal of it in Govindaprabhucaritra 322: avo*
mela* ma-tapurasi* jae* mhane*, rendered delightfully by
Raeside: "Damn it all, why don't you go to Mahur!" ("The
Mahanubhavas*," 594).
 Page 279
9. The Mahanubhav emphasis on ahimsa * is such that even lay
families strain their water; all are strict vegetarians.
10. The Tribes and Castes of Bombay (Bombay: Government
Central Press, 1922), vol. 2:430. The information for the article on
''Manbhavs" was obtained from R.D. Bhandarkar.
11. I do not remember seeing other sorts of relicsclothes, for
examplebut the Mahanubhav text Prasadaseva* lists many such
relics; and Dr. S.G. Tulpule tells me he has been shown a fingernail
worshipped as Govindaprabhu's.
12. Pune: Chitrashala Press, 1973.
13. Ghogargaon, Ahmednagar Dist., 1970.
14. The large number of pilgrimage places listed in Ahmednagar
and Aurangabad Districts is to be accounted for by the fact that the
Godavari River, the site of most of Chakradhar's activity, runs
between these two districts; the large number in Amraoti District is
explained by the location in that district of Riddhipur (Ritpur), the
thirteenth-century residence of Govindaprabhu.
15. They were known, for example, in the village in Satara District
which Lee Schlesinger studied in 1975-76.
16. See John Stanley's article in the present volume, pp. 26-59.
17. Candraseniya Kayastha Prabhu, a caste which considers itself
to be Kshatriya. They are generally ranked above the Marathas and
just below Brahmans.
18. It is impossible to find an accurate count of those who consider
themselves Mahanubhavs, since they are counted among the
Hindus in the Census. R.E. Enthoven in The Tribes and Castes of
Bombay, 3 vols. (Bombay: Government Central Press, 1920-22)
estimated their number as 22,000. A figure of 100,000 to 200,000
today seems likely, although the numbers at pilgrimage places and
one's subjective impressions indieate more.
 Page 280

19
The Birth of a Rationalist
K. N. Kadam

Editors' Introduction
K.N. Kadam, now a retired government official, writes here of his
childhood faith, including the many diverse intertwined Hindu-
Muslim practices which marked the religion of the lower classes
fifty years ago. Born a Mahar Untouchable, Kadam has now
become a Buddhist. His story is drawn from a collection of essays
he wrote for private circulation entitled "Buddhism as Rationalism
and Humanism," and indeed in later essays Kadam finds only the
purest and earliest Buddhism to be without irrational or mystical
overtones. Although his questioning of Hinduism and of religion in
general seems to have come in his childhood chiefly on other
grounds, his later experiences as an Untouchable reinforced his
complete disavowal of all Hinduism. We have not included these
passages from Kadam's writing here since, as it stands, Kadam's
experiences as a child tell us much about religion in Pune in
general in his day. And his entrance into the world of rationalism
was a process not
 Page 281
confined to Untouchables, but shared by a number of highcaste
intellectuals in Maharashtra. The atheist strain is not out of place in
a volume which is concerned with the reality of the religious scene
in Maharashtra. Nor is the mention of the widespread conversion to
Buddhism among Untouchables, a phenomenon with an impact on
both the converts and on Hinduism itself. (E. Z. and M. B.)

The God-Fearing Boy

It was in 1939, when I was about nineteen years old, that questions
relating to the existence of God, gods and goddesses, ghosts and
other supernatural beings, began to vex my mind. I have not always
been the atheist and irreligious skeptic that I am today. There was,
in fact, a time in my life when it could be said that I was a god-
fearing boy and practiced with devotion the religion in which I had
been brought up. That was the state of my mind almost until I
ceased to be a schoolboy.
I was born into a family which shared the beliefs and superstitions
of the benighted Mahar community. My grandfather, who had died
a little while before my birth, was a simple and kind old man. My
grandmother was a dominating woman. And perhaps precisely
because she herself lived in the fear of her gods and goddesses, she
demanded the same adoration and awe from her daughters-in-law
and other junior members in the family. She performed, of course,
with scrupulous care the religious duties enjoined upon her by the
Hindu religion. She observed the fasts and the feasts; she and the
rest of the family used to go on pilgrimage to Jejuri, Pandharpur,
and Tuljapur, and on one occasion the family had even been to far-
off Kashi. My grandmother used to offer sacrifices of sheep, goats,
and fowls to the deities in fulfillment of the promises and vows
made to them by her. The jawal * (the first haircutting ceremony of
a newly-born in the family) invariably required a sheep or a goat to
be sacrificed to the family deity. I remember, as a child, shuddering
at the sight of the poor
 Page 282
creatures slaughtered in the courtyard, and I ran away tremblingly
from the scene of horror to watch the awesome proceedings from
behind partially closed doors. Incidentally, I believe this is one of
the reasons why I am a vegetarian today.
My uncle was a devout, honest, and god-fearing man. He was
interminably praying to the gods, so it seemed to me. He used to
pray before meals and after meals. As he was about to set out to his
office, he would stand for eternity, it seemed, before the picture of
Vitthal and Rakhumai, and offer his silent prayers, gesticulating
gently with both his hands, while his lips moved as if articulating
inaudibly the prayers he offered. As a child, I used to watch him
during his prayers and could almost hear his communication with
the deities.
From the infant class up to my matriculation examination, I
attended a Jesuit missionary school, with its regular prayer hours,
and its transparently religious atmosphere. It is therefore evident
that both at home and at school, I was steeped to the gills in
religion.
Breathing as I was the religious atmosphere wherever I went, it
was, I think, but natural that I should also become religious. It
would, I suppose, be unnatural if I did not become so, while the
strong religious influences lasted. In my early years, I had taken it
upon myself to perform certain religious rituals. At regular
intervals, and as occasion demanded, I used to worship with
devotion the family deities. Before the puja *, I would reverently
collect all the household deities and other religious articles in a
large copper dish, and scrub them all with ash from the family
hearth. Then I washed the gods till they shone brightly. I washed
the little pieces of colored cloth on which the deities reposed, after
their divine bath, in the sacred corner assigned to them. Then I
applied to them the yellow turmeric and the red kunku?* powders,
offered them fresh flowers, lighted a piece or two of camphor,
tinkled the little brass bell long and loud, then joined my hands and
offered my prayers. I do not now remember precisely the contents
of the prayers, but I
 Page 283
believe they must have been chiefly to win the deities over to my
side in arithmetic, my worst enemy at school. The deities, however,
appear to have ignored my prayers, and I continued to do as badly
as ever in the subject. In these early religious practices, I think I
must have unconsciously imitated my uncle, hoping one day to
outdo him in piety.
My family used to worship not only Hindu gods, but Muslim
"gods" as well. (May Allah forgive me my blasphemy!) There was
a big effigy of a white horse in the city of Pune. It was called the
Ghode-Pir, or "Horse-Saint." My grandmother appears to have
made a vow to the Ghode-Pir before I was born, in her anxiety to
have a grandson. And she appears to have vowed in all solemnity
that if a male grandchild were born, she would make him a fakir at
the feet of the Horse-Saint every Muharram; 1 he would wear the
sacred shailies (a fakir's braided cloth). In response to her prayers,
and by the grace of the Ghode-Pir, I was born a male child. And so
for several years, until I was about eight years old, if I remember
right, I used to accompany my grandmother to the Ghode-Pir every
Muharram, and don the shailies and become a fakir for the day. I
should thank my grandmother she did not vow to turn me into a
"Muharram-Tiger," or else I would have had the black and yellow
stripes painted on my body, and performed the weird dance of the
"Muharram-Tiger,'' to the wild beat of a drum!
Again, while my family was living in Bhawani Peth, one of our
houses was said to have been the haunt of a pir*, a Muslim saint,
long dead and gone, but supposed to be still haunting the place. He
must have been, however, a benevolent soul, and all that his spirit
expected of the occupants of the place was an act of simple
worship, a few fresh flowers, some incense burnt at a specific spot,
and some sweets offered to him on Thursdays. I volunteered to take
upon myself to officiate as the little high-priest to the ancient pir*.
Every Thursday, without fail, I used to go to the market and buy
flowers, incense, and sweets for the ancient pir*. In the evenings
on Thursdays, I used to gather my younger brothers and sisters,
clean the "sacred" spot in the rear
 Page 284

14.
(L) The horse-saint (ghode-pir *) of Pune described in K. M. Kadam's
childhood memories. The proprietor of the Ghode-pir (and the colt,
which Kadam does not describe) is a Hindu, the pujari* a Muslim.
Photography by Eleanor Zelliot.
 15.
(R) The samadhi* of Cokhamela, the Mahar Untouchable devotee of
Vithoba,
at the foot of the great temple in Pandharpur. Photography by S. Y.
Waghmare.
 Page 285
verandah of the house, and perform the puja *. We used to enjoy
the weekly ritual, because after leaving some five batasas* or
rewadis* for the pir*, we used to distribute the remaining sweets
amongst ourselves and the other members of the family who would
respectfully accept the prasad* from us.
I used to accompany my grandmother on pilgrimages. I remember
the places we visited on such occasions. Jejuri, Pandharpur, and
Chaturshringi in Pune are those I remember best. At Pandharpur, I
recollect we had no access into the temple of Vithoba, on account
of the sacred Hindu cult of untouchability. We had to rest content at
the shrine of Chokhoba, the Mahar saint, outside the main temple
of Vithoba. Of course, we sent our offerings of flowers, and
coconuts and the priests' fee, laying these articles on the doorstep
of the temple for the agent of the priests to pick up and take away.
This was one of my earliest experiences of untouchability, as far as
I can recollect. I had similar experiences when I accompanied my
uncle to the Maruti temple every Saturday, and when I
accompanied my elders to the Chaturshringi temple on the outskirts
of Pune.
I remember I had once been to the Chaturshringi temple
accompanying my relatives, among whom was my father's
maternal uncle, a devotee of the goddess. He came down each year
from Bombay and stayed with us during the Navratra or Nine-
Night Festival. On this particular occasion, my elders selected a
spot under a shady tree, at the foot of the Chaturshringi hill. I
cannot now recall all the religious proceedings that were taking
place in our midst. But all of a sudden, I noticed my father's
maternal uncle in wild ecstatic convulsions. I discerned he was
"possessed" by the goddess Chaturshringi. I must have held my
breath, and stared at him in awe. Soon he picked up the fowl he had
brought there with him, and with a shout of "Jai Chaturshringi!"
(victory to the goddess Chaturshringi), he caught the living cock's
leg between his teeth, and tore the poor bird in two. Jai
Chaturshringi! indeed. Needless to say I was extremely horrified at
the spectacle of wanton cruelty,
 Page 286
though it may have been sanctified by religion. My childish mind
did not approve of these disgusting proceedings, and I have
avoided going on such pilgrimages, as far as possible, ever since.
The Mahars of the locality where I was born used to worship
another goddess named Mariai. The little shrine of the goddess still
stands in Synagogue Street. It was then believed that this goddess
had to be appeased to prevent the outburst of the dread diseases of
smallpox and the plague. Once when I was at school, during the
rainy season, it was decided by the women of the community to
take out a procession to the Sangam, the sacred confluence of the
Mula and the Mutha rivers, after worshipping at the shrine of the
goddess Mariai. I joined the procession, and off we started, led by a
colorful but awesome potraj *,2 in his quaint costume, dancing to
the wild beat of a rustic drum. At the Sangam, there were some
religious proceedings, and puja* in which apparently I did not take
much interest. But during the holy proceedings, the
potraj*"possessed" by the goddess, went into what may be called a
trance. And while in that "blessed" state, what the potraj* uttered
was supposed to be the voice of the goddess herself. Thus spake
the goddess through the potraj* "I am very angry, because people
are neglecting my worship. And that is why I have let loose the
disease of smallpox, to remind you of your duties to me."
Thereupon, a woman devotee asked the goddess prayerfully, "O
goddess! What should we do to appease you, and mitigate your
terrible anger?" To which the goddess replied through the medium
of the potraj*: "Listen. I want a young unmarried boy from among
you to bathe me every day, for a certain number of days." (I forget
the exact number.) "The boy should have his bath and bathe me
with wet clothes on . . . . Is there any boy willing to do it?"
Someone asked me whether I would volunteer to obey the deity's
behest, and I agreed. After all, I must have thought, I must do
something for my gods, my religion, and my people! I remember I
did keep my word, and I would have my daily bath with my clothes
on and walk, with wet clothes on, right from Bhawani Peth
 Page 287
to Synagogue Street (a distance of about a mile-and-a-half), with a
pot of water in my hand, to bathe the terrible goddess. I do not
know for how many days I underwent this ordeal, but I think I must
have fulfilled my vow. And Pune owes it to me, if the dread
diseases of smallpox and the plague have since been averted!
At school, I was under the influence of the Jesuit fathers and
Roman Catholic teachers. Although non-Catholic boys were not
made to sit for Catechism lessons, we had our moral lesson classes.
We were taught to believe in God as the Creator of the universe,
and we were instructed in our duties and moral responsibilities to
Him. We were taught the value of prayer; and we had to learn
simple prayers like "Our Father Who art in Heaven," "Grace before
Meals," "Grace after Meals,'' the prayer on waking up in the
morning, and the prayer before going to bed at night. I think I must
have taken all those prayers very seriously. I never went to sleep
without saying my prayer, and if I did at times fall asleep without
offering it, I would awake suddenly in the middle of the night, sit
up and say the prayer, and then lie down again to sleep.

The Development of Doubt

From the foregoing paragraphs, it would appear that I was well-
launched on the way to spirituality and sainthood. I shall now
proceed to tell you the story of my "downfall," and how I lost my
faith in God and religion.
It is difficult to give a precise date on which I lost my faith in God
and religion, for in the nature of things, a precise date perhaps
cannot be. Transition from one state to another, especially when it
involves ideas and beliefs, is a process, a gradual process. But I
recollect certain incidents in my early childhood that help show the
direction in which the wind was blowing. The first incident relates
to the day when my cousin (the only son of his mother) died in the
prime of his youth, leaving behind his widowed mother, his wife,
and two daughters. It was a sad blow to my family,
 Page 288
too. I remember my pious uncle's reaction on the occasion. In that
moment of intense affliction, he rushed to the wall, and gave a
blow to the picture of Vitthal-Rukmini hanging on it. Perhaps that
very blow must have also smashed the image of God in my mind.
In my early childhood, I must have compared the crude religion of
the family with the more sophisticated religion of the Christians.
One of my uncles had been converted to Christianity. I could not
have failed to observe how he was freed from the shackles of
untouchability on his conversion to Christianity. At the same time,
I was viewing with skepticism the attitude of the Catholic priests
who taught me at school. I wondered why they ridiculed Darwin
and science. To me, it seemed so obvious that man was descended
from the monkey, and there was no point in trying to disown our
ancestors!
During my school days, I was a "devout" boy scout. I still have
profound respect for the Scout movement, for the discipline it
inculcates in young boys and girls, and for the "religion" of youth
that it gives to youth. However, back to my story: I remember the
occasion when I was returning from the Scout Jamboree at Delhi,
in 1937. On the way our scout troop halted a while at Nasik for a
dip in the holy Godavari. Everybody, except I, "cleansed'' body and
soul in the sacred river. But I reigned indisposition, and my
scoutmaster, who incidentally was a medical man, did not press me
to take the holy bath.
While speaking about scouting, I must make some observations
about the Scout Oath. As a boy scout, in those days, one had to
take the following oath: "On my word of honor, I promise to do my
duty to God, King, and Country, etc." All went well, and I was a
good scout until towards the end of my school career, when I told
my scout-master that I could not bring myself to continue to take
the Scout Oath. For apart from my hesitation to voice my
allegiance to the King, I objected to the portion relating to the
Almighty God Himself, having by then completely lost my faith in
Him. So unless the Scout Oath and the relevant
 Page 289
Scout regulations were amended, I could not consent to continue as
a scout.
While at college, especially in philosophy class, I must have been a
source of continual annoyance to my professors, whenever God
happened to be discussed. I would not concede to God the position
of Prime Mover, or even the position of the Principle underlying
the phenomenon of cosmic existence. I would always attempt to
ridicule the deist argument, saying that "the Venerable Old Man
with His inordinate lust for power and propitiation has now, after
all, dwindled down to a dubious principle."
Thinkers and writers like Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and Bertrand Russell
had quite a devastating impact on my mind, while I was still at
college. Dr. Ambedkar's Annihilation of Caste was the first of his
books that I read with care. Though Hindu caste still survives, Dr.
Ambedkar's book annihilated completely my faith in Hinduism. Of
Russell's books, it was his Marriage and Morals that I read first. It
was followed by his The Scientific Outlook, Skeptical Essays,
Problems of Philosophy, and What I Believe. Descartes and Russell
taught me the philosophy of doubt. "Is there any knowledge in the
world which is so certain that no reasonable man could doubt it?"
asks Russell at the very outset, in his Problems of Philosophy. In
his Skeptical Essays, he advocates the doctrine of doubt, and says
that "it is undesirable to believe a proposition when there is no
ground whatever for supposing it to be true." His Marriage and
Morals blasted the traditional ideas about sex and marriage that
were then taking root in my mind.
Other books like Grant Allen's The Evolution of the Idea of God
and Joseph McCabe's The Existence of God helped destroy my
beliefs in God and gods. And Charles T. Gorham's Religion as a
Bar to Progress persuaded me to put all religions into the dock.
Such then was the impact of my contact with the master minds that
I came across in the world of books.
Such then in outline (as if in a capsule) is the story of the mental
processes that helped shape and define my out-
 Page 290
look on the subject. Such are the glimpses I get into my past, as I
look inward and stir my memories. These experiences and
memories are as real to me as the table at which I am presently
sitting. They are an integral part of me; they have made me what I
am. I cannot obliterate them, I cannot wipe them out of my mind,
from my existence.

Editors' Notes
1. Muharram, the first ten days of the first month of the Muslim
year, is associated with the memory of the martyred Husain,
grandson of the Prophet, killed in battle at Karbala. The Shi'ia
community observes this in various ways, some solemn and silent,
some dramatic. See Fairs and Festivals in Maharashtra, Census of
India, 1961, vol. 10, Maharashtra, Part 7-B (Delhi: Managers of
Publications, 1969), pp. 38-39, for a description of Muharram as it
is observed in Maharashtra.
2. The potraj * is the servant of the goddess of epidemic, Mariai.
Until the conversion of the majority of the Mahar Untouchable
caste to Buddhism in 1956 and after, the potraj* was almost
invariably a Mahar.
 Page 291

20
Scattered Voices: Refuge in the Buddha
Editors' Introduction
One of the most dramatic rejections of Hinduism was the mass
conversion to Buddhism initiated by Dr. B.R. (Baba-saheb)
Ambedkar in 1956. There are now almost four million Buddhists in
India, the majority of them converts from the Untouchable caste of
Mahars in Maharashtra, but others from urban areas throughout
India. The way in which the conversion is seen by two middle-aged
women, educated up to the seventh grade and the fifth grade
respectively, indicates the depth of conviction which many of the
former Untouchables feel as well as the way in which Buddhist
doctrine is interpreted by the unsophisticated.
The following statements are drawn from an interview conducted
by Maxine Berntsen, in which Bebi Kamble and Ulpabai Chauhan
first discuss the story of the fourteenth-century bhakta and saint-
poet Chokhamela, who came from their own caste, and then tell the
story of the Buddha in
 Page 292
such a way that one can feel the power of the oral tradition used in
a modern cause. (E. Z. and M. B.)
Refuge in the Buddha
There was a Mahar couple in a village who had no children. They
were devotees of Vitthal and every day did puja * to him. One day
the woman was walking down the road. She met a sadhu and
touched his feet. "Woman, what do you want?" he asked. "We are
content with what we have," she said, "but we don't have a child."
So he placed a mango in the padar of her sari and the woman went
home. A son was born from that mango and they named him
Chokha.
The boy grew up and about the time he was nineteen or twenty
there was an Asura, a kind of demon, who caused the nectar of the
gods to spoil. The gods began arguing among themselves about
who could purify the nectar. They couldn't do it themselves. Then
the sage Narada said that there was only one person on earth who
could purify the nectar, a boy in the Maharwada named Chokha.
He was born without the intercourse of his father and mother and
so was pure (cokh*) as his name implies, and he could purify the
nectar. Chokha did purify it and so was called Chokhamela. He was
a member of our community.
Now we feelbefore we didn'tthat nobody can be born from a
mango. That much is definite. And we don't put any faith in this
story. There probably was a saintly man named Chokha and he
probably did good works. But he wasn't born from a mango, and
we don't believe that he was taken up to heaven where he purified
the gods' nectar. There's no point to the story. The Brahmans
probably covered up the real facts.
Buddha came from a kingly family. He was the king's son. Then
why did he take up this new dharma? Do you know where he spent
all his time? In the house. He never felt the scorching sun outside.
He didn't know the wind or the birds or the animals. He didn't
know all the troubles and difficulties of men. He would sit on his
throne and say,
 Page 293
"Since I am happy the whole world must be happy." One day he
asked his father, "Baba, may I go out for a walk?" His father said,
"No, don't go. A guru told me not to let you go out for twelve more
years, so don't go." But without telling his father the prince went
out.
He went in a tonga with his servant. Just after they had left the
house they saw a corpse. "What is that?" the prince asked.
"A man has died."
"Do men die? What does die mean?"
So the servant explained, "Now here are you and me. We've been
born, we've grown up, we're alive. Now you are nineteen or twenty.
Soon you'll be forty, then fifty. Your hair will all turn gray, you'll
get tired, you'll sit wasting away. Finally you'll die and people will
carry you away and bury you. That's how it is in the world."
That was the first thing he learned. The tonga went on. They met a
leper. The prince asked his servant what had happened to the man.
The servant answered, "It's a kind of disease. It could happen to
you or to me. God sent this sickness to him and he could send it to
us. That's the way the world is. The whole world is rotting." That
shocked the prince.
They went forward a third time, and saw an old man with a bent
back. The prince asked, "What is this?"
"When we get old, when we get past forty, sometime before we're
eighty, we get bent like this. Our hair becomes gray. All of these
things are bad."
The prince had never seen any of these things. He went back to his
house, to his lovely wife and his son Rahul. All day long he sat
thinking, and at midnight he took leave of his wife and his son and
went into the forest. There he remained, doing tapashcharya * all
night, but he didn't find God. He did this according to Hindu
dharma, mind you. He did tapashcharya* but he didn't see God. So
what did he do next? He fasted until he was skin and bones and
ready to die. Then some passers-by came, gave him some milk, and
brought him back to consciousness. So he decided that one
 Page 294
cannot find God by fasting. Then he went down by the river and sat
under a banyan tree. He sat meditating on the world and the mind.
Nobody has seen the gods so why do people say that they exist?
After meditating on all this he wrote his thoughts down. He wrote
that menwe ourselvesare God. There is no God in the world and
nobody should put any hope in him. Nobody should feel that if he
fasts or does such things he will see God. A man should honestly
follow his own path. The atma * is God. As for us, sangham
saranam* gacchami* I go for refuge to the sangha. That is what
the Buddha taught. Be a friend to all and never hope in what we
cannot see.
Nobody pays Chokhamela any respect nowadays. Not at all. But
Babasheb Ambedkar is always before us. The things he has done
are written on our hearts. He was born a Mahar but didn't die a
Mahar, mind you. We don't believe what anybody else has said
about our community and our dharma the way we believe what he
has said.
The Mahars used to worship all the Hindu gods. They worshipped
and served them all, but they never got any good out of it. They
would do bhajans to Vitthal. They would just barely get along on
what little they had, and they would spend their time doing
bhajans. They would even beg from others, saying "Vitthal Vitthal"
all day long. That was their culture. It did them no good. They
didn't even try to spread it to others.
Now we know the way. Buddham saranam* gacchami* I go for
refuge to the Buddha. Sangham saranam* gacchami*I go for
refuge to the sangha. Dhammam saranam* gacchami*I go for
refuge to the dhamma. This at last is the way.
Bebi Kamble and Ulpabai Chauhan
Translated by Maxine Berntsen
 Page 295

IV.
CODA
 Page 297

21
Bhakti in the Modern Mode: Poems and Essays
Ashok R. Kelkar and Sadashiv S. Bhave

Editors' Introduction
A selection of seventeen poems by twelve contemporary Marathi
poets, chosen by S.S. Bhave and translated and annotated by A.R.
Kelkar, is presented first, so that the reader may deal directly with
the poetry. This selection is followed by an essay by Bhave, linking
the poems to age-old Hindu ideas. A response by Kelkar challenges
some of Bhave's statements and widens the perspective to one
which goes beyond Indian/Hindu poetry. Bhave, with his stress on
the strength of tradition, has the last word. The result of this "coda"
is not only the presentation of traditiona1 * Hindu ideas in modem
Marathi poetry but also insight into the differing attitudes and
interests of two contemporary Maharashtrian intellectuals.
Although Kelkar and Bhave originally prepared "Bhakti in the
Modem Mode" for this volume, we gave permission for slightly
different versions of it to appear in Vagartha 21, (1978):13-39, and
in the South Asian Digest of Regional Writing 6 (1977):3-28.
Bhave's death on October 5, 1986,
 Page 298
as this volume was being edited has unfortunately brought an end
to Kelkar and Bhave's dialogue. (E. Z. and M. B.)
The Poems
B.S. Mardhekar 1
Let the Hardness in Me Break2
Let the hardness in me break,
Let the sourness clear from my mind,
And let my voice sing
The notes of my love for you.
Let the taint in my known
Intention clear; and
Cast your seeds in the unknown
Font of my inspiration.
Let my freedom extend
Only to speaking forth,
Let the letters intone the shape3
Sent forth by your lungs.
Let the greed of my tongue burn,
Let all hatred freeze, and
Let the quality of Draupadi herself4
Grace the body of my speech.
Let the me-centered meanness vanish,
Let all into my embrace,
Let my feeling rival the test
Of the precision balance.
Let my ambition vaunt of
The pillars of your virtue,5
Let my ambition throb to
The beats spoken by your heart.
Let my hands feel for and grasp
The rudder of your remembrance,
Let great patience pervade my temper
Readying itself for the great effort.
I swear by the desire for you,
I swear by the devoid of luck,
I swear by my eyes
To keep my eyelids in vigil.
 Page 299
Grant me the courage, the humility
To see all that I must,
Let my intellect bend
Like heated steel,
And take through the senses
The impact of the world,
And bum to the core for that
Which lies beyond the senses.
You are the master of meaning:
This beggar is but the bearer of the word.
The asking knows no end
And the giver is the Lord.
But what possibly can I ask for?
What possibly can you give?
In a world where you alone are the giver
And you yourself the taker!
When the Heart Fills to the Brim 6
When the heart fills to the brim
And sweat is wrung from the body
When words take the bitthy bit,
Which digs firmly into their flesh,
Then may this sinful hand
Work some white on black
Only then! Else, the selfsame
Black writ on white!
If Only Thy Stone-still Brow7
Have I not hurled names at thee? Even so
I come prostrate to thy feet,
Head laid low I look thee
In the eyes, letting my eyes scald.
When was the earth born? And
When did the blue fumes jell
Over massively?
When did this stillness
Quicken with mind joined to mind?
As a blue champak might bloom
Out of a blue conduit of fire
 Page 300
So bloomed a bed of sensings
And feelings from the joined consciousness
But when?
What is discernible
Across the fire?
Or who, rather?
This hapless one sears his
Feckless feet over the coals.
Why the distress? Will the sky ever
Be laid low? I'll live on, afire,
If only they stone-still brow
Stir before my eyes the least little!
Have I not hurled names at thee? Even so
I come prostrate to thy feet,
Head laid low I look thee
In the eyes, letting my eyes scald.
B. B. Borkar 8
From across Five Red Hibiscus Flowers9
From across five red hibiscus flowers
Death greeted me: Aren't they
Dainty? And luscious? I mean
These cups I've filled among these trees.
The wounds of Jesus came to my mind10
Sweet honey welling up from them:
A moment saw my mind thrilled
To see the Cross drenched in fragrance and nectar.
Just Back from Mother's Home to Find11
Just back from Mother's home to find
My home washed away
And my man gone I dunno where
Any my belongings mud
And my children gone their separate ways.
The line's all open leaving
Me out on a limb, a lightning tree
Scaling the endless sky.
No home here or there: but their caresses
I now hug in the air.
 Page 301
Sharadchandra Muktibodh 12
No Yearnings13
No yearnings
And no regrets,
Under the blue sky
Laughs the quiet sea.
Storms gather.
Strange to relate,
Storms are led away
Bowing silently.
Roses in bunches,
Rosebuds growing,
Sprinkling joy
The evening retires.
No yearnings
And no regrets.
Now abides in me
Your boundless glory.
P.S. Rege14
Hari on the Lips Spends the Night15
Hari on the lips
Spends the night
The selfsame Hari
The name is Hari
Hari Hari
Wooing this maid of the forest16
The livelong night, saying Hari.
Light in the heart
The livelong night
Light of the heart
Who else? The same Hari
Hari Hari
This flowering maid of the forest17
The livelong night, the flame in the heart.
Light of the limbs
The livelong night
Hari's the night
Hari's the limbs
Hari Hari
 Page 302
Blooming Radha, maid of the forest
The livelong night, limb by limb.
Kusumagraj 18
An Earth House19
An earth house this, but it's yours
Make it bright and strong and fair!
To this day I felt it was mine
Under the blind sway of self,
I stood guard at the doors
Bolting me in from surrender!
In my heart of hearts I now see
I am but of your retinue,
The riches of life within
Are but a shaft of your glory!
The glory that fills the stars
And lights up night and day
And brings life to this earth
A speck of which lights me indoors!
What blooms in the flowers, thunders from t]
Flows down the river, blows in the winds
That same being of yours abides here,
No house of mine, it's but your temple!
Not here either grandeur or splendour:
Your throne stands within all the same,
Tarry here a moment, call it your own
To let songs bloom songs over the void within!
In this dark recess for a moment
Light up the pure flame,
Light up the walk that'll bear
Your shadow as long as they stand!
Arati Prabhu20
The Travelling Bed21
For god's sake pull
The covers over my legs,
And don't you, Lord, let
Vultures feast on this life
Cowering in your hands.
 Page 303
The moments writ to my account
Hunger for the water of mercy,
The quilt, Lord, is held
Together by seams threaded
With my nerves.
The blood of Jatayu 22
Is treasured by some lone vein,
Which in this tangled skein
Refuses to get lost
It will give pain.
Snuff out these cupped hands
And make a clean sweep,
Maybe then some time, Lord,
I'll quit the travelling bed
To be on my way.
Dilip Purushottam Chitre23
Down the Paths of Lightning24
1. Down the paths of lightning tumble the moments
free,
Through the darkness plunges the arrow unknown.
Let one come to your house down the paths of
lightning25
At the precise moment when cosmic knowledge
strikes.
The heartbeats hammer away at themselves,
So the lifebreaths escape into the storm.
Let one come to your house seeing it all,
Shedding the burden of a mind.
2. Let one come to your house down the paths of
lightning
That are seen for a moment from the darkness.
It's not for the feeble voice to sustain the notes
In octaves past the spheres of the compass.
Let one rather come to your house wreathed in
rivulets,
Lapsing into dust the while.
When all streams of melody are lost,
It's not for anyone to bear the pity of it.
Let one come to your house on the crest of the
 Page 304
melody
Battering the doors of desire.
Let the spirit expend itself in a burst of surrender
And the cosmic knot come undone.
3. Down the paths of lightning tumble the moments
free,
Through the darkness plunges the arrow unknown.
Rapt in the driving patter of melodic feet
And burnt up in the enveloping moistness is
my mind.
Let one come to your house down a different path
Stricken by a different malaise
. . . Across the sands the cloud-shade-water
To the brim ablaze, the fire within.
Grace 26
Fragrance of Snow27
Don't measure my steps
Along the path of deliverance:
The doors of the Cosmic Ovum
Have closed.
My tears sprout
The fragrance of snow
Dammed on either side
By the eyelids.
N.D. Mahanor28
Life Begins in Sorrow, Fills with Sorrow29
Live begins in sorrow, fills with sorrow,
Sorrow may stay to the end for aught I know and care.
The whole body burns on the pyre to see the others
through.
The near and dear ones too keep their distance.
Even gathering rosebuds turns out to be a chore
With life's burden weighing you down
With the eyes shutting the darkness in.
Then my farmland30
Where the trees spread me a bed of roses.
 Page 305
Vasant Sawant 31
Thou Art the Retreat32
Thou art the retreat,
I am the wilderness,
Send me the
Flower-wafting wind.
Not the thorns,
Send the bud.
Not the words
But are charged anew.
From afar
(O so far)
I begin to see
The city of Pandharpur.33
Fear Touches Not My Mind34
My mind ever
Longs for sandalwood35
Whose grace
Happiness or sorrow
Never disturbs.
This longing
Is but a trance,
Transcendent its rhythm;
There fear touches not
My mind.
He's the One36
He whom I walk around and who walks around with
me,
He's the one that walks men around.
The roads don't matter,
Each one has his own pace, treads his own soil.
The words on their lips may be of Krishna, Buddha,
Christ
Or Tukaram
He's the One they're about.
Those who bring down the wall, build up the wall
Be it in Berlin or in China.
In the end it is the word alone that lives,
 Page 306
That goes for me too: only when I write a poem,
Then alone am I truly living.
Padma 37
You See I Am Not around Here These Days38
You see I am not around here these days
Though I do drop in once in a while
Well, of course, I have my folks
Though I must say I find it difficult to keep track of
things
You see I am not around here these days
Where do I live? You ask
As if you don't know!
Well, it's possible you don't
Nobody visits that town
A house? Certainly
So big, so bigthe house hasn't got any walls.
Ceiling? Yes, the ceiling of it is and isn't
And a threshold of the same sort.
A river crosses the threshold
In the river play moon and starlets.
Me? You must have seen the flowers discarded after
puja*
Floating at the water's edgeI'm among them some-
where
In themwell, and in the fresh dreams of the flowers.
Of course I have company
(What d'you call himsure, he has a name
But it escapes me)
The silk thread is giving way slowly
It has been digging
Around the throat, which is just finding its freedom.
The song has come up to my lipsshall I?
The song of the time when the Katyayani Vrata was
performed in the Yamuna:39
The robes have long been draping the kadamba
branches
Like the antarpat*savadhan*!40
I'm turned into the blue song
Flowing down the blue riveralong with the discarded
flowers.
 Page 307
I am not around here these days
Though I do drop in once in a while.
Arun Kolatkar 41
At the Holy Sepulchre of Shri Dnyaneshwar42
Clear blue void of the sky
Narada, Tumbara, the clouds scattered
Gone is the halo brought on by the Gandharvas43
The moonchild plays by himself
Scattered is the devout Vaishnava throng
The fever of the drum has ebbed away
The vina* strings stand still, as do the cymbals
The cowherds are back in their homes
The wreath stays, the petal withers
Entangled is the rib in the withered skein.44
Notes
1. Bal Sitaram Mardhekar (1909-56) was a poet, critic, and literary
theorist who also wrote novels and operettas.
2. From Ankhi* kahi* (Bombay: Mauj, 1951):3-5.
3. ''Intone the shape": the original word is akar* "shape," whose
other sense, "the vowel aa, often used by singers to sustain a note,"
is also relevant here.
4. "Draupadi": the wife shared by the Pandavas who won the
Mahabharata war; in a famous episode Dushshasan tries to disrobe
her, but Krishna covers her nakedness in answer to her prayer; she
is fiery in speech and purpose (in consonance with her birth from
the sacrificial fire).
5. "Virtue": the original word tap (Sanskrit tapas) means power,
especially power accrued through single-minded austerities: the
element of penance or self-mortification may or may not be
present.
6. From Ankhi*kahi* kavita*:1.
7. From Mardhekaranci*kavita* (Bombay: Mauj, 1959):160-61.
8. Balkrishna Bhagavant Borkar (1910-84) was a poet and speaker.
He also wrote personal essays and a novel. He wrote both in
Marathi and his native Konkani and translated from English.
9. From Caitrapunav (Bombay: Mauj, 1970):84.
10. It will be recalled that the stigmata marking Jesus' wounds were
five in number.
11. From Caitrapunav, 1970:17.
 Page 308
12. Sharadchandra Madhav Muktibodh (1921-85) was a poet,
novelist, and Marxist critic; he was the younger brother of Gajanan
Madhav Muktibodh, who wrote poetry in Hindi.
13. From Yatrik *, 1957:134.
14. Purushottam Shivram Rege (1910-78) was a poet, novelist,
short story writer, literary theorist, playwright, and economist.
15. From Priyal* (Bombay: Mauj, 1972):73.
16. "Maid": the original word gauri* means "the fair-skinned
maid," also an epithet of the mother goddess.
17. "Flowering": the original word phulavit refers to the flowering
of a bud as well as the growth of a flame.
18. Kusumagraj (Vishnu Waman Shirwadkar, b. 1912) is a poet,
playwright, novelist, and speaker.
19. From Kinara* (Pune: Deshmukh, 1952):75.
20. Arati Prabhu (Chintamani Tryambak Khanolkar, 1930-76) was
a poet and song writer, a novelist, short story writer, and
playwright.
21. From Jogava* (Bombay: Mauj, 1959):39.
22. "Jatayu": the vulture in the Ramayana* that fights courageously
by himself for Rama against Ravana.
23. Dilip Purushottam Chitre (b. 1939) is a poet, translator of
poetry from and into Marathi, critic and commentator, dramatist,
filmmaker, and writer of short stories and literary travelogues.
24. From Kavita* (Bombay: Mauj, 1960):40.
25. "Your": this poem could also be read as a love poem.
26. Grace (Manik Godghate, b. 1937) is a poet who has also edited
literary reviews and written personal essays.
27. From Sandhyakalcya*kavita* (Bombay: Popular, 1967): 17.
28. Namdeo Dhondo Mahanor (b. 1942) is a poet who also collects
folklore when he is not tending his farm.
29. From Ranatlya*kavita* (Bombay: Popular, 1967):60.
30. "My farmland": the original word ran* also means woodland in
other contexts; a farmland may have trees in it.
31. Vasant Ladoba Sawant (b. 1935) is a poet and the author of a
forthcoming study of the Marathi travelogue.
32. From Svastik (Bombay: Popular, 1973):52-53.
33. "Pandharpur": with its temple of Vithoba, it is the City of God
visited by the Vaishnava pilgrims of Maharashtra.
34. From Svastik:53.
35. "Sandalwood": yields a lasting fragrance as it is ground to a
paste, which is applied to the icon in a puja*
36. From Svastik:78-80; this is the fifth out of the six stanzas in the
original.
37. Padma (Padmavati Gole, b. 1913) is a poet.
38. From Akashvedi* (Bombay: Mauj, 1968):67.
39. "Katyayani Vrata": allusion to an episode narrated in the
Bhagavata*Purana*; the Gopis are bathing in the Yamuna on a
religious occasion of this name; Krishna playfully makes away
with the milk-
 Page 309
maids' clothes, hangs them on a nearby kadamba tree, and
watches their discomfiture from the tree as he plays the flute.
40. "The antarpat *": the cloth held curtain-like between the bride
and the groom by the priests reciting the wedding mantras, whose
refrain is savadhan*! (alerting the couple and the others that the
two are entering into the blessed union).
41. Arun Kolatkar (b. 1932) writes poetry in Marathi and English
and translates Marathi poetry (some of it his own) into English; he
is also a graphic artist.
42. From Arun* Kolatkarcya*kavita* (Bombay: Pras, 1977):49.
43. "Gandharvas": the court singers of Indra, the god of thunder,
Tumbara being one of them. The rishi* Narada, along with
Tumbara, sings in attendance on Vishnu. The Gandharvas
beclouded the night sky to deceive Pururavas into losing Urvashi.
44. Dnyaneshwar had himself immured, sitting in a trance. The
term samadhi* refers to the mystic trance and metonymically to the
holy sepulchre where a sannyasi* is buried. (Sannyasis* are not
cremated. ) There is a tradition that he urged the poet Eknath in a
dream to disentangle from his bones the roots of the tree planted on
the spot. Eknath, who did so, also edited the text of Jnanesvari*,
the poetic exegisis of the Bhagavadgita*.

Acknowledgement
Thanks are due to the poets and their heirs who were generous with
their permission and to those who commented on the translations
and offered suggestions (Borkar, Rege, Sawant, Bhave on their
respective work and Nissim Ezekiel, Vrinda Nabar, lames
Beveridge, Maxine Berntsen, Eleanor Zelliot, Vinay Hardikar, and
Bhave on the translations of the poems.)
Ashok Kelkar
Bhakti in Modern Marathi Poetry:
An Essay
These poems are not just modern but contemporary, spread over
the last twenty-five years or so. "Modern poetry" in Marathi is
about a century old. Marathi critics generally date it from the poet
Keshavsut (1866-1905). Earlier Marathi poetryin contrast to
modernis (it is held) renunciatory, other-worldly, spiritual, and
devotional. The British con-
 Page 310
nection brought people into contact with values like liberty,
equality, and fraternity. With them came also rationalism, secular
humanism, nationalism, the integrity of the individual, love of
nature, the dignity of womanhood, and social reform. "Modernity"
(or navmatvad *as it is sometimes called in Marathi) came to be
identified with the composite of all these values. The Marathi
poetry of the last hundred years is modem or navmatvadi*
according to the critics.
A finer exploration of the century's poetry, however, would not
wholly bear out this assessment. True, modem values gradually
"arrived" and modernity was recognized as important. But the older
values were by no means displaced, and did not suffer any real loss
of prestige. There has been a constant effort to achieve a synthesis
of the two value systems, to accept the new without destroying the
old, indeed to accommodate the new within the older framework.
This urge was in evidence in the poetic personality of Keshavsut as
much as in that of Kusumagraj forty years later. Keshavsut
cherished the notion of advaita (non-duality), the interpenetration
of prakriti* and purush (the female principle of active energy and
the male principle of passive knowingness). Not too different is the
pull underlying these lines of Kusumagraj:
But then comes to mind (rousing even longings)
The still small lamp flame near the hearth.
The union of the individual person and the Cosmic Person, the
sense of one's own incompleteness, and other such older ways of
thought are still very much there. The simple and direct expression
of these beliefsbhakti, in other words is apparent in the poems of all
the following major Marathi poets of this centuryKeshavsut,
Narayan Waman Tilak (a Christian minister), Vinayak, Balakavi,
Govindagraj, Tambe, "Bee," Yashvant, Madhav Julian, Savarkar,
Anil, Kusumagraj, and Borkar.
The poetry written after the Second World War accepted the
revolutionary lead of B.S. Mardhekar and is held to be even more
modem than the earlier poetry. This is not to be denied. One can
certainly characterize the "new" modern
 Page 311
poetry (navkavita *) in terms of a revolt against established values,
a stance against the tradition (even against the notion of tradition
itself), an excessively individualist view of life, a need to take a
stand against any sort of establishment, and an acute sense of
frustration engulfing any sort of optimism.
One wouldn't have been surprised to have found no room for the
old bhakti theme in this new modernity. But, notably, the
devotional theme of the Indian tradition has a place in this poetry.
Let's go over the selected poets and poems.
Each poet has made a reference, mostly direct, to God or
GodheadLord (murari*), by Mardhekar; Jesus, by Borkar; Hari, by
Rege; Lord (prabhu*), by Arati Prabhu; Dynaneshwar, by Arun
Kolatkar. Then there is a direct address (the Marathi tu*) in the
poems of Muktibodh, Kusumagraj, Chitre, and Sawant. Sawant
also specifically speaks of Him (the Marathi to). Borkar has an
indirectly suggestive mention: Mother's home (maher*), i.e., God's
house. Padma alludes to Krishna's Katyayani Vrata games.
Mahanor sees Godhead in his farmland (ran*).
The wholeness of God, the less-than-wholeness of oneself, and
consequently the hoping for and begging of divine gracethese are
the three important constituents of bhakti. And they are all there in
these poems to a greater or lesser extent.
Let the quality of Draupadi herself
Grace the body of my speech.
These lines are from a Mardhekar poem that has all the three
elements. It goes on to say:
You are the master of meaning:
 This beggar is but the bearer of the word.
Lines which are not too different from the seventeenth-century
saint-poet Tukaram's:
Breaking into the storehouse
All this is the Lord's property
Me but a lowly porter
 Page 312
Bearer of loads.
The poem is overfull of the sense of the less-than-wholeness of
oneselfone has only to look at the harsh words Mardhekar hurls at
himself: hardness, sourness, taintedness, greed, hatred, meanness,
vaunting ambition, and (in the third poem) haplessness. In contrast,
Muktibodh speaks of God's wholeness as:
Your boundless glory.
(Glory is what the Almighty hasaishwarya (lordship) is the
attribute of Ishwar.) Kusumagraj refers to the body as earth house.
Arati Prabhu expresses an acute sense of the tangled skein and the
abject hunger of existence, as does Dilip Chitre of the feeble voice.
Mahanor speaks of life's sorrow and burden. Padma has chosen the
image of discarded flowers, and Sawant spots the soil on
everyone's feet.
The essential worthlessness of this world and the worth of union
with Godor at least some treasured moments of realization "in this
very body, with these very eyes" (in Tukaram's phrase); life as the
progressive winning over (sadhana *) of this goal; the need of
God's grace to fulfill and complete this progressthis characteristic
spiritual progression of the Indian tradition can be seen in the
poems selected. Arun Kolatkar writes:
The fever of the drum has ebbed away.
The drum (mridang*) is the earth (mrid*) that is body (anga). The
ebbing of the fever of maya* (the magical illusion-creating energy)
marks the fulfillment of sadhana*, the liberation from the hold of
illusion.
 Make it bright . . .
Tarry here a moment . . .
Such is the prayer of Kusumagraj.
Even so I come prostrate to thy feet . . .
so confesses Mardhekar. Chitre has neatly expressed the traditional
devotional image in
Let the spirit expand itself in a burst of surrender
And the cosmic knot come undone.
 Page 313
The power of surrender (lacharit *shakti*) is very much in the
spirit of the medieval Marathi saint-poets. The bhakta (devotee) is
the childnay, the babe. God is mother. Wherein does the power of
the baby lie? In its total dependence on the mother. What is left for
the baby to do? To express openly and unreservedly this
powerlessness, to send out a piercing howl without budging an
inch, eyes shut tight and mouth stretched wide. The mother runs
down, picks it up, clasps it to her bosom. And she is doing no favor
to the baby. It's her duty. It's the baby's privilegethis is bhakti,
Marathi style. Chitre's poem is in august company. Grace wants
The doors of the Cosmic Ovum
to open. That can't be so long as the worldly bond has not snapped.
The silk thread is giving way slowly.
To realize this image of Padma's is also to recall another breaking
of the threadthe seventeenth-century sage, Ramdas's:
For God's friendship's sake
May I break with the near ones.
The realization and the approach to realizationas described in these
poemsis quite in line with the bhakti tradition. Rege hints at the
experiential progression in "Wooing... Flowering... Blooming."
The robes have long been draping the kadamba branches
I am turned into the blue song
says Padma.
The trees spread me a bed
testifies Mahanor.
 To the brim ablaze, the fire within
so runs Chitre's line.
Me out on a limb, a lightning tree
this is Borkar's variation; and
Sprinkling joy
 Page 314
being Muktibodh's.
I look thee
In the eyes letting my eyes scald.
Such is the searing experience of Mardhekar, who has felt the
power of that moment in:
Then may this sinful hand
Work some white on black
Only then!
Suffice it, I should think. Exploring the expanding circles of
meanings through all these poems is letting oneself in for unending
delight. But that's not what this essay is for. The point, the question
rather, is: why does this traditional bhakti theme appear in this
ultra-modern poetry? Mardhekar, Borkar, Kusumagraj, and
Muktibodh belong almost to the same generation, but nobody can
accuse them of belonging to the same school!the individualistic,
pessimistic Mardhekar; the socialistic, radical Muktibodh; the
incorrigibly romantic Borkar; the idealistic Kusumagraj. The
generation of Chitre, Khanolkar, and Sawant is again a different
story. Padma, Arun Kolatkar, and P.S. Rege do not admit of any
labels. With all these differences, what is the source of this
common affinity with the bhakti tradition?
It is not for me to offer a complete answeror even to choose from
among the varied answers that might be forthcoming from
sociologists, social psychologists, or ethnologists. Maybe I can,
however, suggest one for consideration-something "felt" along the
way, so to speak.
I think that, broadly, almost to a man, the Indian consciousness has
remained just where it has been for centuries. It accepts the idea of
the other world, rebirth, the fruit of karma of past births, karma,
God, nonduality, renunciation, sadhana *, realization, liberation.
Indeed these ideas are ingrained in it. Howsoever the context of life
may alter, howsoever modern it may become, the Indian preserves
his detachment. Once the life here is taken to be secondary, unreal,
something to be quickly gotten through, one cannot
 Page 315
really be excited about changes in it. Maturity in age and attitude
only confirms an Indian in this wisdom.
Wisdomam I not begging the question in so calling it? Wisdom or
folly, knowledge or ignorancewho can say? A comparison with
other peoples and times may be to our disadvantage. But then
which other attitude can support an individual into self-sufficient
contentment irrespective of circumstance and society? None that I
know of.
Sadashiv Bhave,
translated by Ashok Kelkar
A Response to Sadashiv Bhave's Essay
It may seem curious that Bhave repeatedly speaks of the Indian
tradition consisting of a worldview and a simple and direct
expression of it in bhakti. This, for him as for us, provides
perspective for bhakti in contemporary Marathi poetry. But the
perspective needs to be broadened further.
It is not so much a question of a pedantic correction, namely for
"Indian" read "Hindu," for are not all the poets selected Hindus (in
any case for census purposes)? In point of fact, Bhave does
mention the precontemporary modem Marathi poet Narayan
Waman Tilak, born a Hindu and converted to Protestant
Christianity, and Jesus, who makes his appearance in one of
Borkar's poems. (Sadanand Rege is another contemporary Marathi
poet who uses the Christ theme without being a Christian. One may
also recall the Indian Sufis or premamargi * (path of love) bhaktas
among Muslims.)
Indeed, "Hindu" may not be enough of a correction to satisfy the
exact historian. After all Bhave's account of the worldview is
unmistakably Vedantic, and Vedanta is not the whole of Hinduism
despite popularized accounts of it. Hinduism is not a "book faith"
(to borrow a convenient term from Islamic theology); rather it is
like the ancient Greek complex of myth, ritual, philosophy, and
morals which impinges on the life of a family or rather a person.
 Page 316
Historically, Hinduism is far from a complete fusion of (at least)
three elements:
(1) The Vedic religion centering around the sacrifice (yad-nya) to
the pantheon (with unmistakable family resemblances to the Greek,
Latin, Norse, and Celtic pantheons) and displaying its orderly and
orgiastic elements.
(2) The family of pre-Vedic religions centering round notions of
pollution (ashaucha) and oblation (puja *) to the local (grama*),
familial (kula), and above all personal (ishta*) godthese partially
crystalized into the cults of Shiva, of the epic heroes Ram and
Krishna, and the Mother Goddess (devi), and the cycle of festivals.
(3) The ferment of speculative and meditative philosophy
attempting philosophical cosmology and a definition of dharma
(the proper ordering of one's personal or social life) and thus
"containing" and transcending the poly-theistic and tribalistic thrust
of both Vedic and pre-Vedic religionsthis ferment being associated
with the Upanishads, the rise of Buddhism and other views and
more recently, the absorbing of Islamic and Christian pressures.
The Hindu world views draw both on other-worldly and this-
worldly, pessimistic and optimistic, non-materialistic and
materialistic ways of looking, in different proportions and
combinations. The Brahman priest supporting ritual, segregation,
and rigid order; the wandering sadhu whose special strength lies in
his renouncing both the benefits and the constraints of the Hindu
social order (segregating caste from caste, village from village, sex
from sex); and the poetizing and singing bhakta seeking an ecstatic
and loving union with one God and making light of the ritual
proprieties, without, however, renouncing a worldly lifeall claim
veneration from the populace, though the last is probably closest to
their hearts. India has then its orgies of religious hatred and
sectarian persecution, but the dominant tendency is one of peaceful
coexistence, informal organization, and multiple commitments.
Vedanta and bhakti is only one rather well-trodden path cutting
through this maze.
 Page 317
Moreover, this way has close affinities to pre-rational and mystical
ways everywhere. It is not for nothing that Protestant missionaries
enthusiastically translated Tukaram into English or that Borkar or
Sadanand Rege appropriate Jesus. Indeed some phrases from these
poems may strike the reader as parallel to Christian or Sufi phrases.
Of course, there are unmistakable differences. Bhakti as interpreted
by the medieval Marathi saint-poets (consider Bhave's striking
image of the howling babe) is in important ways different from
bhakti as interpreted in other parts of India. (One may note in
passing that P.S. Rege has greater affinity with Jayadeva's Sanskrit
Gitagovinda * than with Tukaram's Marathi poetry.) If the howling
babe image is inappropriate for an understanding of, say, Rege or
Tulsi Das, it is of course even more so for the Christian bhakta not
daring to hope for divine grace and mercy.
But, speaking of affinities and divergences, what do we make of
Bhave's central question: Why does this traditional bhakti theme
appear in this modem poetry, not to speak of ultra-modem poetry?
In the first place, the marriage of religious, mystical, devotional
consciousness and the modernist perspective is not confined to
Indiaone has only to think of William Blake, Kierkegaard, and T.S.
Eliot, among others. The sense of anxiety brought on by the
scientific perspective has obvious religious intimations. Think of
A.E. Housman's haunting lines:
I, a stranger and afraid
In a world I never made.
Surely the point is not so much that
Even so I come prostrate at thy feet
But that the condition is going to remain unfulfilled
If only thy stone-still brow
Stir before my eyes the least little!
To realize that
The doors of the Cosmic Ovum have closed
is not necessarily to pine for deliverance and snapping of
 Page 318
worldly bonds. The sense of anxiety has religious intimations, but
not necessarily religious consequences.
A second and perhaps more important point has already been
hinted at when I spoke of Borkar and Sadanand Rege ''using" the
Christ theme. Sawant's lines are quite explicit:
In the end it is the word alone that lives,
That goes for me too: only when I write a poem
Then alone am I truly living.
Here is a poet using the religious perspective for a poetic purpose,
and not a sadhak * (religious seeker) using the poetic stance to
convey a spiritual quest. The important thing is that one could read
Muktibodh's poem as a mood poem and Chitre's poem as a love
poem. One doesn't have to, but one could. But this already means
that one doesn't have to read either of them as a religious poem,
though one certainly could and Bhave obviously has. The
modernist poets in Marathi pointedly reject a good deal of the inter-
war poetry, which is their immediate heritage, as factitious and
recognize a true lyricism in the medieval bhaktasit is a poetic
rather than a religious affinity.
To write a bhakti poem in the modernist mode is perhaps to write a
modernist poem in the bhakti mode. Of course contemporary
modernist Marathi poetry has many other modes; and Bhave of
course is not denying that in confining his attention to a specially-
made selection out of it.
Ashok Kelkar
A Response to Ashok Kelkar's Response
"Indian" of course is not an exact rendering of bharatiya* (of or
belonging to Bharat) in my original Marathi version. (The
Constitution of India, to be sure, speaks of "India, that is Bharat.")
"Bharatiya" reminds us, as "Indian" does not, of the Hindu
tradition. Buddhists, Jains, Muslims, Christians, nay, even the
Marxists, of today's India cannot help partaking of itthey are all
Hindu-Bharatiya at heart.
What is it to be a Hindu-Bharatiya? What does it involve?
 Page 319
Chiefly, the accepting of the other world as well as this world, the
attempt to reconcile the two. But between the two, the other world
comes first. Brahman and maya * are both real, but brahman is the
ultimate Reality, maya* being the provisional reality. This
ultimate/provisional duality has best been resolved into a unity in
the Vedanta of non-duality (advaita).
In the world of Hindu thought Advaita Vedanta is the most
dominant. In Maharashtra, moreover, all the bhakti sects, with the
exception of the Mahanubhavs, are Advaita Vedantist and Veda-
accepting. And the Mahanubhavs were never accepted by the
Marathi people, whose aversion to them became evident as early as
the latter half of the fourteenth century. Not only is bhakti in
Maharashtra Vedantist, but many other sects have been either
brought into the bhakti fold or have disappeared. Dnyaneshwar
brought the Nath Sect into the Varkari fold in the thirteenth century,
and Eknath the Datta Sect in the sixteenth century. The Ramdasi
Sect of the seventeenth century had no future after the death of its
founder, Ramdas. The highway of the Varkari sect has always
remained the most frequented ever since the thirteenth century. I
should account for this fact on the following lines:
(1) The unification of the Shaivas and the Vaishnavas in the Varkari
sectthanks to Dnyaneshwar, its thir-teenth-century
founderconstituted its strength.
(2) To see God, Vithoba, in the image of a mother is the distinctive
feature of bhakti in Maharashtra, which saved it from the excesses
and the morbid possibilities of madhur (sweet) bhakti which sees
God in the image of the beloved.
(3) Another feature of bhakti in Maharashtra is the wonderful
reconciliation of the spiritual and the temporal. In the thirteenth
and fourteenth centuries the saints' way of seeing the practical life
as but an aspect of the spiritual was innovative. Besides, this came
in handy for coming to terms with the Islamic invasion. Even Savta
Mali, the humble gardener, could declare:
 Page 320
Onions, radishes, greens
They're all mother Vithoba to me.
To spiritualize the practical life, to think of the allotted necessities
of life as a form of sadhana *this bold step did not remain limited
to Dnyaneshwar in the thirteenth century. That everybody, a
goldsmith, a tailor, a barber, a lowly Mahar, a humble serving
maid, even a Muslim Varkari, came to realize this difficult
abstraction is as much a token of the prior dissemination of advaita
Vedanta to all strata of the Hindu-Bharatiya Society as it is of
Dnyaneshwar's achievement.
So, when the Advaita insight (dnyan*) of Dnyaneshwar was joined
to the passion for God's name (nam*) in Namdev in Maharashtra,
the way of bhakti proved to be not only the easiest way but the
chief waythe Varkari sect becoming the principal vehicle.
Naturally, in Maharashtra no less than in the rest of Bharat, the
bhakta is no mere bard dreaming of union with God. In his
personal life he is a social worker. This twofold urge is as present
in the poetry of Keshavsut in the nineteenth century as in the
contemporary poetry of Ku-sumagraj or Muktibodh. Mardhekar's
poetry presents a clear retreat from the twofold stance, but most of
the contemporary intellectuals of Maharashtra display this dual
stance in their critical activity.
So, therefore, the quivering unease of modernist Marathi poetry
relates not only to the artist's restlessness but also to the Hindu-
Bharatiya tradition. That's why it is not possible to read Chitre's
poem as a simple love poem. There are word-images in that poem
that definitely transcend the sentiment of love.
Sadashiv Bhave
translated by Ashok Kelkar
 Page 321

V.
APPENDICES
 Page 323

Appendix A
Glossary
NOTE: Separate lists of the Hindu months; Gods, Goddesses and
Festivals; and Castes follow the glossary. The first spelling
indicates Marathi pronunciation; standard transliteration, when
different, follows in parentheses. Proper nouns have not been
italicized. Please refer to our initial "Notes on the Writing of
Marathi Words." We are indebted to Philip Engblom and Anne
Feldhaus for their comments on the Glossaries, but neither is
responsible for our errors.
A
abhanga: (abhanga *) (Lit. unbroken, inviolable); a particular
metrical composition used by the Varkari saint-poets
advaita: Non-dualism; advaita vedanta* is a prominent school of
monistic philosophy
ai*: (Anglicized as aee) Mother; appended to the name of a god
seen as mother
ahimsa*: (ahimsa*) Non-violence
amavasya*: No-moon (new moon) day
Ambedkar*, B.R.: (1891-1956) Affectionately known as
Babasaheb*; a statesman, writer, and leader of the Untouchables
amti*: Thin lentil soup
angat* (angat*) alela* / aleli*: One who is possessed
angat* (angat*) yene*: (Lit. to come into the body); possession of
a person by a god
 Page 324
arati *: The ceremony of circling a tray of lights before a deity
Ashtavinayak*: (Astavinayaka*) The eight pilgrimage places of the
Ganpati Sect
ashram*: (asrama*) A stage of life; used also for the retreat of a
guru and his disciples
atma*: The individual soul; identical with brahman, the universal
absolute
audumbar: Glomerous fig tree
avali*: Phyllanthus emblica; a tree
avatar*: An incarnation of a god
B
baba*: Holy man, father
Babasaheb*: (Lit. father-master); respectful name given to
Ambedkar around 1930
babhul*: Gum arabica, an acacia tree
bai*: Woman; a respectful form of address
bakul*: Mimusops elengi; a flowering tree and its flower
bel: Cratoeva religiosa; a tree sacred to Shiva
Bhagavad Gita*: (Lit. the song of god); often called simply the
Gita*; Krishna's message to Arjuna in the Mahabharata* epic
Bhagavata* Purana*: A purana* devoted to Krishna; often called
in Marathi simply the Bhagwat*
bhajan: Devotional group singing, usually accompanied by
instruments; also the devotional song sung by such a group
bhakri*: Flat unleavened bread made of sorghum, millet, or maize
flour; the staple food of rural Maharashtra
bhakti: Devotion, usually a personal devotional relationship to one
particular god; the "Bhakti movement" refers to the historic
presence of numerous schools of bhakti saint-poets and teachers in
the various linguistic regions
bhaktimarg*: (bhakti marga*) The path of devotion
bharatiya*: Indian; an adjective
bharud*: Allegorical story presented in dramatic form
bhut*; bhut* badha*: Ghost; possession of a person by a ghost
bhutya*: A religious mendicant who sings for the goddess
Jagadamba
bombil*: Bommelow, a type of fish
buwa*: (buva*) A religious leader; a respectful form of address
C
cauk*: (cauk) (Anglicized as chowk), an intersection of roads
Chakradhar: (Cakradhara) The historic founder of the Mahan-
 Page 325
ubhav sect in the thirteenth century; see also the Gods and
Goddesses list
chilla: Memorial to a Muslim saint
Chokamela: See Cokhamela *
Cokhamela*: (Cokhamela*) A fourteenth century Mahar saintpoet
D
dalit: Downtrodden, oppressed; now current among ex-
Untouchables as an acceptable word for themselves and all
oppressed peoples
darga*: Tomb of a Muslim saint, often a center of healing
darshan: (darsan*) Seeing an idol or a person with divine power
Dasnami*: (Dasanami*) An order of monks, followers of the
philosopher Shankara
Desh: (Des*) A country or region; in Maharashtra, the area east of
the ghats from the Godavari River south to the Karnataka region
devasthan*: (Lit. place of the god), temple
devata*: Deity
devrishi*: (devarsi*) Shaman
dindi*: (dindi*) A group, usually with a specific leader,
participating in a pilgrimage
Dnyaneshwar*: (Jnanesvar*) The thirteenth century author of the
Jnanesvari*, formally titled the Bhavarthadipika*, a commentary
on the Bhagavad Gita*; considered to be the founder of the Varkari
tradition
doha*: A couplet form used by Hindi bhakti poets
dvadashi*: (dvadasi*) The twelfth day of the lunar fortnight
E
ekadashi*: (ekadasi*) The eleventh day of the lunar fortnight
Eknath*: (1533-99) One of the major saint-poets; a linking figure
who edited the Jnanesvari* and prepared the way for later bhaktas
G
gana*: Multitude or troops; a composition in praise of Ganpati
(lord of the ganas)
Ganpatyas*: (Ganapatyas*) The sampraday* or formal tradition of
the Ganesh* sect
Gandharva: Heavenly singer in Indra's court
ganja*: (ganja*) Hemp
gavlan*: A song in honor of Krishna playing with the milk-maids
ghi*: (Anglicized as ghee), clarified butter
 Page 326
Gita *: See Bhavagad Gita*
gondhal*: A folk-art form consisting of narration presented
through songs, accompanied by instruments and pantomime.
Gondhali*: A gondha1* performer
gopura: The tower of a Hindu temple
gosavi*: An ascetic or a sect of ascetics
gulal*: Bright red powder scattered on festive occasions
Gurucaritra: A religious text of the Datta tradition; the life of
Narasimha Saraswati, written around 1538 by Saraswati
Gangadhara
guru dakshina*: (guru daksina*) An offering made by a disciple to
his teacher
guru sampraday*: A network or lineage of gurus, past and present,
and their followers
H
halad*: Turmeric powder, used in many rituals
Harijan: (Lit. people of God); a synonym for Untouchable initiated
by Mohandas K. Gandhi
J
jagrit*: (jagrta*) Wakeful, used for an especially potent, awake god
Jain: A member of a religion organized around the fifth to sixth
century B.C.; now chiefly found among merchants in Gujarat and
Gujarati-speaking merchants in Maharashtrian cities, also among a
small community of agriculturists still present in southern
Maharashtra
Janabai*: (1260-1363) The maid servant of Namdev who was also
a saint-poet
jatra*: A religious fair
jay; ki* jay: Victory; victory to . . .
jiv*: Life or soul
jawar; jawari*: Holcus sorghum; the staple grain of Maharashtra
K
kadak*: harsh, hard
kadamba: Nauclea cadamba; a tree
Kailas*: The heaven of Shiva
Kali yuga: The fourth age of the fourfold cycle of the universe; the
"dark age" in which we now live
karni*: Black magic
khel*: A game or sport; a Dhangar ritual dance
kheliya*: A song sung during Holi or in fun at weddings
 Page 327
kirtan *: A religious discourse accompanied by bhajan, q.v.
kunku*: Vermillion powder, usually used as a mark of
auspiciousness
L
ladu*: A sweetmeat ball
lagori*: A game played with a ball
lalit nibandh: An artistic or light essay
lathi*: A heavy stick carried by the police
lawani*: (lavani*) A type of love song
lejim*: (lejim*) A group dance performed with sticks to which
metal discs are attached
linga: (linga*) The phallic symbol of Shiva
Lingayat*: A person of the Virashaiva faith; see the Caste list
M
madhur; madhur bhakti: Sweet; the bhakti in which the devotees
see themselves to be the female beloved of Krishna
Mahabharata*: The great epic of the Pandava and Kaurava clans
and the war at Kurukshetra
mahant: Head of a monastery
Mahanubhav*: (Mahanubhava*) A member of a religious sect
begun m the thirteenth century as protest against image worship
and Brahmanical orthodoxy
mahapuja*: An elaborate form of ritual worship
maharaj*: (maharaja*) A title used for royalty, some holy men, and
some gods
maher*: Mother's house
Mahipati*: (1715-90) Author of the Bhaktalilamrta* and other
texts on the saint-poets
mama*: Maternal uncle; father-in-law
mamledar*, mamlatdar*: Taluka revenue officer
mandal*: (mandal*) Association
mantrik*: Practitioner of magic
Manu: The traditional first man; the law giver
manus*; manuski*: Man; humaneness; the view that each person is
entitled to be treated as a full human being
Maratha* kingdom: The kingdom ruled by Shivaji, and later his
son and grandson, and the Peshwas, existing from 1660 to 1818
math*: Hermitage, monastery
mauli*: Mother; used as a term of endearment especially for
Vithoba
maya*: Illusion, the power to cause illusion
 Page 328
Mirabai *: (Anglicized as Meera), a sixteenth-century Rajput
princess, poet and devotee of Krishna
mela*: A gathering, assembly; fair, often for religious purposes
modak: A sweetmeat held to be beloved by Ganpati
moksha: (moksa*) Final liberation
Morya*: A shout at the time of the Ganpati festival; a name of
Ganpati
mridang*: (mrdanga*) A long horizontal drum, played at both ends
Muktabai*: (1279-96) The sister of Dnyaneshwar and a saint-poet
in her own right
mujavar*: An attendant at a Muslim shrine
murli*: (murali*) A female dedicated to the service of Khandoba
murti*: An image; in this volume, the image of a god or goddess
N
nag*: A snake
naivedya: Food offered to a god
namaste, namaskar*: A greeting with the palms pressed together
Namdev*, Namdeo*: (1270-1350) A contemporary of
Dnyaneshwar; a saint-poet held to be the originator of many of the
practices of the Warkari tradition
Nandi*: The bull which is the vehicle of the god Shiva
Nath*: (Lit. lord); member of a sect of Shaiva ascetics
naves: A vow to a god, often involving the promise of an offering
in return for the granting of a request
nived, nivedya: Dialect variants of naivedya, q.v.
O
ota*: A stone block worshipped by the Mahanubhavs as a place
hallowed by an action of one of the avatars* of Parmeshwar
ovi*: A poetic stanza form, often used for religious songs
P
padar: The end of a piece of cloth or a sari
paduka*: Raised impression of the feet or the sandals of a saint or a
god
paisa*: A coin worth one hundredth of a rupee
palkhi*: A palanquin
pan*: (Lit. leaf) the leaf of piper betel, rolled with spices and lime
as a chew
panchayat*: (pancayata*) The council of a caste or a village
Pandhari*: (Pandhari*) A religious name for the town of
Pandharput
 Page 329
panja *: (panja*) A wooden pole capped by a hand representing a
pir*, used at the time of Muharram
panth: (pantha) (Lit. road or way); a religious group or persuasion;
often translated sect or cult
Parsi*: A member of the Zoroastrian faith; a small group of highly
educated and successful people, originally from Persia, now
concentrated in Bombay
pati: Lord
patil*: The village headman
payli*: About eight pounds
Peshwa*: (Pesva*) Prime minister; the de facto rulers of the
Maratha* Empire from the early 1700s until 1818, when the
Peshwa's armies were defeated by the British
peth*: A section of a city, originally demarcated by a market
pir*: A Muslim saint in the Sufi tradition
pishaca*: (pisaca*) A ghost, a spirit
pothi*: A holy text or manuscript
potraj*: Servant of the village goddess of epidemics, Mariai,
generally a Mahar before the Buddhist conversion
povada*: A ballad recounting heroic deeds
prabhu: Lord
pracharak*: (pracaraka*) A missionary, one who spreads doctrine;
the basic R.S.S. leadership category
pradakshina*: (pradaksina*) Circumambulation of a god or a holy
place
prakriti*: (prakrti*) The female principle of active energy in the
Sankhya system of philosophy
prasad*: Anything received as a gift from the deity; often a portion
of the offering a worshipper has made
pret: Corpse, ghost
puja*: Ritual worship
pujari*: Temple priest
puranas*: The most voluminous body of all Sanskrit texts,
composed chiefly in the first millennium of our era; mythic
histories of gods and kings
purnima*: Full moon day
purush: (purusa*) The male principle of passive knowingness in
Sankhya philosophy
R
rag*: (raga*) A series of notes which denote a mode of music
rakshas*: (raksas*) A demon
Ramayana*: Epic of the ideal king, Ram, and the ideal woman,
Sita, his wife
 Page 330
Ramdas *: (1534-81) A bhakta of Ram who founded a religious
order and began the ''Maharashtra dharma" idea of a special ethos
for a Hindu state
rangan*: (rangan*) (Lit. a playing field); in the Varkari tradition, a
ceremony of horses circling the palkhi* in a large field
Rashtriya* Swayamsevak Sangh: (Rastriya* Svayamsevaka*
Sangha) Known as the R.S.S.; an organization of volunteers for a
Hindu nation
S
sadhana*: Practice, study toward a goal of release from bondage; a
sadhak* is one engaged in religious exercises to obtain moksha
Sakhu*: The eighteenth century devotee of Vithoba punished for
joining the pilgrimage without her mother-in-law's consent, who
was rescued and reconciled to her husband's family by Vithoba
samadhi*: A monument built over the remains of a Hindu saint;
entrance into a state of union with brahman
sambal*: A kind of drum
sampraday*: (sampradaya*) Custom, practice; a system of
religious doctrine; a systematized tradition
samskar*: (samskara*) Life cycle rituals
sangam: (sangam*) A confluence of rivers
sannyas*; sannyasi*: The ascetic life; one who lives the ascetic life
sant: (santa) Close to the English word saint in meaning, but with
no etymological connection; usually used for the bhakti saint-poets
of the Marathi and Hindi speaking areas
sarpanch: (sarpanca*) The head of the village panchayat
sat: The real, the essential
sattva: Moral goodness, virtue
satyagraha*; satyagrahi*: The technique of non-violent direct
action developed by Mahatma Gandhi; a participant in satyagraha*
saumya: Benign, gentle
Savitri*: A princess whose devotion and cleverness saved her
husband from death.
Savta* Mali*: A Varkari saint-poet of the fourteenth century from
the gardener caste
shakha*: (sakha*) (Lit. branch or bough); a section or subdivision
of the R.S.S.
shakti*: (sakti*) Power; the principle of female power
 Page 331
shaligram *: (saligrama*) Black stones found in rivers, worshipped
as sacred to Vishnu
Shankara, Shankaracharya*: (Sankaracarya*) An 8-9th century
philosophy; founder of the Dasnami* order and chief formulator of
the Advaita Vedanta* school of philosophy; a Shaiva bhakta
shanta*: (santa*) Calm, peaceful
shastra*: (sastra*) A Hindu text or treatise, considered to be of
divine origin
shira*: (sira*) A sweet dessert
Shivaji*: (Sivaji*) (1630-80) The first Chhatrapati or King of the
Marathas, founder of the Maratha empire and most important hero
of the Marathi speaking people
shri*: (sri*) An honorific term
siddha; siddhi: One who has attained extraordinary powers through
ascetic practice; that extraordinary power
Sita*: Wife of the god-king Ram, symbol of ideal womanhood
sovla*: Ritual purity; ritually pure clothing
Sutrapatha*: Sayings attributed to Chakradhar, founder of the
Mahanubhav* sect
T
tai*: Older sister; used as a respectful term of address to another
woman
tal*: A pair of small cymbals
taluka*: A division of a district, somewhat like an American
county
tamasha*: (tamasa*) Marathi folk drama
Tamil: The language of Tamilnadu, a large state on the southeast
coast of India
tapashcharya*: (tapascarya*) Devout austerities
tarun*: Young
Telugu: The language of the state of Andhra Pradesh, adjoining
Maharashtra to the east and southeast
tilak: A spot or line on the forehead which sometimes has religious
meaning
Tilak*, Bal* Gangadhar*: (1856-1920) A fervant nationalist,
founder of the public Ganpati festival, and an important politico-
religious influence today
tirtha*: Holy water; holy place
tirtha-kshetra-vrata-dana*: The religion of pilgrimages, vows and
almsgiving
Tukaram*: (1608-49) (Also called Tuka*, Tukoba* and Tukobar-
 Page 332
aya *); a saint-poet of Dehu near Pune, one of the most beloved
poets in the Marathi tradition
tulshi*: (tulsi*) Ocymum sanctum; a plant sacred to Krishna; holy
basil
tuntun*: A one-stringed drone
U
Upanishads: (Upanisads*) Philosophical and mystical texts, from
around 650-200 B.C., very important in the development of Hindu
thought
V
vaghya*: A man dedicated to lifelong service of Khandoba
vahini*: Brother's wife, used by extension for a friend's wife
Varkari*: (Lit. one who keeps a regular time); the name for the
pilgrims to Pandharpur
varnashram*: (varnasrama*) The traditional four-fold division of
varnas*: Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra; also the four stages
of life for the three highest varnas*
Vasudev*: A religious performer or mendicant, marked by a hat of
peacock feathers, who sings of Krishna
vedanta*: (Lit. the end of the Vedas); the philosophical systems
based on the Upanishads; the advaita vedanta is dominant in Indian
intellectual circles today
Vedas: The four Vedas form the earliest literature of the Indo-
European peoples, dating roughly 1200-1000 B.C.; the Rig Veda is
considered the holiest of texts by the orthodox.
vina*: The Indian lute
virodh-bhakti: Devotion through opposition
W
wada*: An area of residence, often by caste; a traditional joint
family home
Y
Yadava* kingdom: Centered at Devgiri, near modem Aurangabad,
the dynasty of the Yadavas in the eleventh and twelfth centuries
saw the beginnings of Marathi literature and the foundation of the
Mahanubhav and Warkari traditions
yadnya: (yajña) Vedic sacrifice
yatra*: Pilgrimage; among the Nandiwalas, this word is used to
mean a group sacrifice
yuga: An age; classically four ages form a cycle in the life of the
universe
Z
 Page 333
Zoroastrianism: The religion of Zoroaster of sixth century Persia,
practiced in India by a small but influential group of Parsis
 Page 334

Appendix B
Gods, Goddesses, and Religious Festivals
NOTE: Names are given first as they are pronounced in Marathi.
Standard transliteration is given in parentheses. See the "Notes on
the Writing of Marathi Words" for our formula.
A goddess whose name means "Mother," at times
Amba *,
associated with Durga. Also known as Bhavani.
Ambabai*
Ambaji- A Nandiwala god.
Limbaji*, or
Bapu*
Saheb*
Atri and The parents of Datta.
Anasuya*
Babir* A Shaiva god, born a Gavli cowherd.
Bahiroba* A spirit or deity said to prevent disease.
Balkrishna* The child Krishna.
(Balakrsna*)
Banai*, The Dhangar wife of Khandoba.
Banabai*
Bhavani* A great goddess, worshipped by Shivaji, King of
Maharashtra in the seventeenth century. Bhavani
of Tuljapur is one of four major Maharashtrian
goddesses.
Bholanath* A name of Shiva, "the innocent lord."
(Bholanatha*)
Bhutamata* "Mother of ghosts," an early goddess incorporated
into Renuka.
 Page 335
A Dhangar Shaiva god, at times called
Biroba *
brother to Vithoba.
Brahma* Together with Shiva and Vishnu, Brahma
constitutes the Hindu trinity. To be
distinguished from the Absolute, brahman,
and the Brahman caste.
Chakradhar Considered by the Mahanubhavs to be an
(Cakradhara) avatar of Parmeshwar.
Champashashthi* The last day of the Khandoba festival during
(Campasasthi* which Vaghya boys and Murli girls are
dedicated to the god.
Cangdev* Raul* Considered by the Mahanubhavs to be an
(Cangadeva* avatar of Parmeshwar; the gum of
Raula*) Govindaprabhu.
Chaturshringi* The goddess of "four peaks" on the outskirts
(Catusrngi*) of Pune; analogous to Saptashringi"seven
peaks"near Nasik.
Chaturmas* The four months of rainy season, a time of
(Caturmasa*) fasting and other special religious activities.
Considered inauspicious for marriages and
other such ceremonies.
Dasara* See Vijaya Dashmi.
Datta, Dattatreya* Lord of ascetics; in Maharashtra popular as
an incarnation of Shiva, Vishnu, and Brahma
who in turn is incarnated time after time.
Dev (deva), God.
Devata*
Devi* Goddess.
Diwali* (Divali*), A major festival involving the worship of
Dipavali* wealth and Lakshmi, the celebration of
 Vishnu's victories and the expression of
brotherly and sisterly affection.
Durga* An all-India goddess, wife of Shiva.
Ekvira* Goddess of the Koli and C.K.P. castes. Also
(Ekavira*) another name for Renuka.
Firisti (Phiristi) A Nandiwala god, evidently with Muslim
Mariba* associations.
Ganpati*, All names of the elephant-headed god who is
Gajanan*, beloved throughout Maharashtra.
Ganesh,*
Ganaraja*
(Ganapati*,
Ganesa*)
 Page 336
The birthday of Ganesh* on the 4th of the bright
Ganesh *
half of Bhadrapad.
Chaturthi*
(Ganesa*
Caturthi*)
Gauri* A goddess of the harvest and protector of
women. A name for Parvati before her marriage
to Shiva.
Giridhari* A name of Krishna.
Gopala*, Names of Krishna.
Govinda
Gopalkala* The feasting which concludes a Krishna festival.
(Gopalakala*)
Govindaprabhu Considered an avatar of Parmeshwar in the
Mahanubhav sect; the guru of Chakradhar.
Gramdaivat* The patron deity of a village. See Ishtadaivat
(Gramadaivata*and Kuldaivat.
Gumusta* Dev A Nandiwala god.
Hanuman* Also known as Maruti. The monkey devotee of
Ram.
Hari A name of Vishnu.
Holi* A popular festival held on the full moon of
Phalgun in which a bonfire is lit and behavior is
the opposite of normal decorum.
Indra A Vedic god, the king of gods.
Ishwar* A general name for god. Often used in
(Isvara*) combination, as in Parmeshwar.
Ishtadaivat* A god chosen by an individual as a special
(Istadaivata*) deity. See Gramdaivat and Kuldaivat.
Jagadamba* "Mother of the world." See Amba.
Jagannath* "Lord of the world," the name of the great god
at Puri in Orissa.
Jamadagni Husband of the goddess Renuka and father of
the Parashuram incarnation of Vishnu.
Janardan* A name of Vishnu; also the name of Eknath's
guru.
Jogabai* A goddess, probably the same as Jogeshwari
(Jogabai*) (Jogesvari*), the patron goddess of Pune.
Jyotiba*, A god identified with Shiva whose pilgrimage
Jotiba* site is at Vadi Ratnagiri (Kolhapur District).
 Page 337
A terrible form of Shiva.
Kal * Bhairav
Kali* A terrible form of Shiva's wife.
Kalubai* A goddess who is sometimes the patron
goddess of a village.
Khandoba* A popular Maharashtrian god whose home is
(Khandoba*) the temple at Jejuri.
Krishna* A popular all-India god, an avatar of Vishnu.
(Krsna*)
Krishnajanmashtami* (Krsnajanmastami* The
birthday of Krishna.
Kuldaivat The god of a family. See Gramdaivat and
(Kuladaivata) Ishtadaivat.
Lakshmi* A major all-India goddess. See Mahalakshmi.
(Laksmi*)
Mahadev* "Great god." A name for Shiva.
(Mahadeva*)
Mahalakshmi* One of the four great goddesses of
(Mahalaksmi*) Maharashtra. Her home is the temple in
Kolhapur.
Mangalmurti* "Auspicious image." A name for Ganpati.
(Mangalamurti*)
Mariai* A village goddess, formerly in the care of the
Untouchable Mahar caste. Goddess of
epidemic disease.
Maruti* The usual Marathi name for Hanuman. Every
village has a temple to him, and many forms of
Maruti* are found, such as Bhangya Maruti
and Chinnal Maruti in Karve's article "Town
Without a Temple."
Mhalsa* The first wife of the god Khandoba, from the
Lingayat community.
Mhaskoba* A Shaiva deity represented by a rock, with a
major shrine at Vir, near Jejuri. Probably
evolved from Mhasoba, q.v.
Mhasoba* The buffalo demon as a god; the deity of
boundaries, represented by a stone covered
with red.
Moreshwar A name of Ganpati*.
(Moresvara*)
Muharram The first ten days of the first month of the
Muslim year; associated with the memory of
the martyred Husain, the Prophet's grandson.
Mumbadevi* The goddess who probably gave the city of
Bombay its original name.
 Page 338
A Tamil god.
Murukan
(Murukan *)
Nagpanchmi* A festival in which Nags or serpents are
(Nagapancami*)worshipped. Said to celebrate the return of
Krishna from his triumph over the snake
Kaliya.
Nana* Saheb* A Nandiwala god, probably, like Ram Mama, a
former powerful human being.
Nandi* The sacred bull of Shiva.
Narahare An invocation to Narasimha (Narasimha*) or
Narahari, the man-lion avatar of Vishnu.
Narayan* A name for Vishnu.
(Narayana*)
Navnath*, Nao The nine legendary Nath ascetics, worshipped
Nath* as a group as well as under their individual
(Navanatha*) names.
Navratra* Nine nights consecrated to the worship of the
(Navaratra*) Devi, culminating in thefestival of Dasara.
Pandurang* A name for Vithoba.
(Panduranga*)
Paramatma* The soul encompassing all souls, a name for the
abstract God.
Parshuram* Ram with an axe, the Brahman avatar of
(Parasurama*) Vishnu.
Parmeshwar An abstract name for God. For the
(Paramesvara*) Mahanubhavs, the only real God.
Parvati* The consort of Shiva.
Radha* The lover of Krishna.
Rakhumai* Rukmini, Vithoba's wife; Krishna's wife.
Ram* (Rama*) The hero of the Ramayana*, avatar of Vishnu.
Ram* Mama* The newest god of the Nandiwalas.
Ranabai* A goddess of the Nandiwalas.
Renuka* One of the four great goddesses of
Maharashtra; her home is in Matapur or Mahur.
Rudra A Vedic god, prototype of Shiva.
Rukmini* Vithoba's wife; Krishna's wife. Also called
Rakhumai in Maharashtra.
Sahebrao* A Nandiwala god, probably previously a dead
(Sahebarava*) hero.
Dev
 Page 339
One of Maharashtra's four major goddesses.
Saptashringi *
Seven hills or hams on a hill near Nasik are her
(Saptasrngi*)
home.
Devi
Saraswati* The classical Indian goddess of music and
(Sarasvati*) learning.
Satwai* The goddess who writes a baby's future on his
(Satavai*) forehead.
Satyanarayan* A very modem popular rite performed when
Puja* some new undertaking or journey is begun (often
when a son ordaughter is going overseas) or to
insure good fortune in the corning year.
Shankar A name for Shiva.
(Sankara*)
Shesha (Sesa*) The cosmic thousand-headed snake king who
forms Vishnu's couch and canopy during his
sleep between intervals of creation.
Shiva (Siva*) The great god of destruction, of the reproductive
power of nature, and of ascetics.
Shivnath* A Nandiwala god.
Maharaj*
(Sivanatha*
Maharaja*)
Shivratri* or The "great night" of fasting, worship of the linga
Maha- with bel leaves, and recitation of Shiva's
Shivratri* thousand names
(Sivaratri*)
Sita* The wife of Ram.
Skanda The brother of Ganpati.
Somvati* The conjunction of sun and moon on a Monday.
(Somavati*)
Amavasya*
Tulja* The goddess at Tuljapur, one of the four great
Bhavani* Maharashtrian Devi temples.
Uma* A wife of Shiva. Another name for Parvati.
Vetal* The lord of spirits, king of ghosts.
(Vetala*)
Vighneshwar Names of Ganpati.
(Vighnesvara*),
Vinayak*
Vijaya* Also called Dasara. Chiefly a men's festival
Dashmi* involving worship of the implements of a trade
(Dasami*) or profession, including those of war. Formerly
included buffalo sacrifice.
Vishnu* A great god, protector and preserver of mankind,
(Visnu*) who descends to earth in various incarnations.
 Page 340
All names of the god of
Vitthal *, Vithoba*, Vithai*, Vithu*,
Pandharpur.
Vithuraya*
Yam, Yamaraj* (Yamaraja*) The god of death.
Yamai*, Yellamma* Names of Renuka
 Page 341

Appendix C
The Hindu Calendar
NOTE: The month is given first in Marathi pronunciation, then
with traditional diacriticals in parentheses.
March-April
Chaitra (Caitra)
Vaishakh * (Vaisakh*) April-May
Jyeshtha* (Jyestha*) May-June
Ashadh* (Asadh*) June-July
Shravan* (Sravan*) July-August
Bhadrapad* August-September
Ashvin* (Asvin*) September-October
Karttik* October-November
Margashirsha* (Margasirsa*) November-December
Paush (Paus*) December-January
Magh* January-February
Phalgun* February-March
 Page 342

Appendix D
Castes
NOTE: The caste name is given first as it is pronounced in
Marathi. A second name in parentheses indicates standard
transliteration.
Beldar *: Stone and earth workers, also called Wadar*.
Bhat*: A generally used name for any Brahman priest.
Brahman*: The four most important Brahman castes in
Maharashtra are Chitpavan*, Deshastha, Karhada* and Saraswat*,
q.v.
Cambhar* (Cambhar*): Usually written Chambhar in English. The
Marathi version of Camar* or Chamar*, the leather worker in the
Hindi-speaking area.
Chandraseniya* (Candraseniya*) Kayastha* Prabhu: A ''writers"
caste, ranked below the Brahmans but as well educated.
Chitpavan* (Citapavan*): A Brahman caste that dominated the
political scene from the eighteenth century until the death of Tilak
in 1920 and the intellectual scene until recently. Also known as
Konkanasthas (from the Konkan, their place of origin).
Deshastha (Desastha*): The Brahmans of the Desh. Most
numerous and dominant until the rise of the Chitpavans*.
Dhangar (Dhanagar): A shepherd caste.
Gavari*: Cowherds, not a specific caste.
 Page 343
Gavli * (Gavali*): A cowherd caste.
Gond*: A tribal group in Eastern Maharashtra.
Gurav: A Shudra caste, often priests of Shaiva temples. Also
musicians.
Harijan: "People of God." Gandhi's name for Untouchables, often
rejected by the followers of the Untouchable leader, B.R.
Ambedkar, as patronizing.
Hatkar*: A sub-caste of the Dhangar caste cluster.
Jain: A religion, now found chiefly among Gujarati merchants,
with a smaller group of adherents among agriculturists in Southern
Maharashtra, which took organized form about the time of the
formation of Buddhism (6-5th centuries B.C.) Both groups are treated
as castes in the Maharash-trian context.
Kaikadi*: A caste that makes twig baskets.
Karhada*: A small Brahman caste, originally from the Konkan.
Koli*: Fishermen and watermen.
Konkanastha* (Konkanastha*): Name for Chitpavan* Brahmans,
q.v.
Koshti* (Kosti*): Weavers.
Kumbhar*: Potters.
Lingayat*: A member of the Virashaiva* sect, originally from
Karnataka; they are treated as a caste in Maharashtra.
Lohar*: Ironsmiths.
Mahar*: The largest of the Untouchable castes in Maharashtra,
chief participants in a movement for equality which culminated in a
large Buddhist conversion.
Mali*: A gardening caste.
Mang* (Manga*): An Untouchable caste, still rope makers.
Maratha*: The dominant agricultural caste of Maharashtra.
Marwadi*: Money lenders and businessmen, from Marwar
originally.
Nandiwala*: (Lit., one who works with bulls), a nomadic tribe,
originally from Andhra Pradesh.
Nhavi*: Barbers.
Parit*: Washermen.
Ramoshi* (Ramosi*): Watchmen, formerly tribal.
Sali*: Weavers.
Saraswat* (Sarasvata*): A Brahman caste with a mythic origin in
the North, religious centers in the South.
Shudra* (Sudra*): The fourth order of the varnas*. Some
Brahmans
 Page 344
hold that all castes in Maharashtra except Brahmans and
Untouchables are Shudra *.
Teli*: Oil pressers.
Untouchable: The three most important Untouchable castes in
Maharashtra are Chambhar, Mahar, and Mang, q.v. Since the
practice of untouchability was barred in the Indian Constitution, the
term "Ex-Untouchable" has been used where appropriate.
(Note: v and w interfiled)
Wadar* (Vadara*) or Beldar*: Stone and earth workers.
Vanjari*, Banjari* (Vanjari*, Banajari*): Carriers of grain and salt,
now often settled farmers.
Warik* (Varik*): Barbers.
Vinkar* (Vinakar*): Weavers.
 Page 345

CONTRIBUTORS
Maxine Berntsen, now an Indian citizen, lives in Phaltan,
Maharashtra, where she has founded two schools, one in the
poorer area of the town. She has produced beginning and advanced
Marathi material which is available from the South Asia Regional
Studies Department of the University of Pennsylvania and her
Ph.D. in linguistics is from that University. She teaches Marathi to
Associated Colleges of the Midwest students during their U.S.
orientation in alternate years, and has tutored many American
scholars.
Sadashiv S. Bhave, who died in 1986, was a member of the historic
Deccan Education Society and taught Marathi at various of the
Society's Colleges, most recently Fergusson College in Pune. A
much published critic in Marathi, he also taught Marathi literature
in the Associated Colleges of the Midwest's India Studies program
in Pune and in 1984 at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota.
Paul B. Courtright, a Ph.D. in the History of Religions from Yale,
is now teaching at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro.
He has recently published his major study on Ganesa * (Oxford,
1986) and is now at work on the life and teaching of the
seventeenth century politico-religious saint Ramdas.
Ulpabai Chauhan is a housewife in Phaltan, Maharashtra. Her
father owned a shop which made hats, an unusual advance in
status for an Untouchable of his day, and also became one
 Page 346
of the leading Buddhists in the area, in spite of a severe physical
handicap. Ulpabai Chauhan continues his interest in Buddhism.
G.N. Dandekar is a noted and popular novelist in Marathi. He lives
in Pune, and travelled with Gadge Maharaj for some time.
R.N. Dandekar, now almost eighty, goes to his office at Bhandarkar
Institute of Oriental Studies every day. A major contributor to the
Bhandarkar edition of the Mahabharata *, Dandekar also taught
Sanskrit at the University of Poona for many years. He has
published much on Hinduism (see the Selected Bibliography) and
many of his scholarly articles were republished in Vedic
Mythological Tracts (Delhi: Ajanta, 1979).
R.C. Dhere, who has a doctorate from the University of Poona, is
one of the most prolific writers in Marathi on Maharashtrian
religion. His work on folk religion and such topics as Muslim saint-
poets in the Maharashtrian bhakti tradition is unique. His most
recent work is on the Varkari tradition, the God Vithoba and
Pandharpur (see the Selected Bibliography).
Philip Engblom, a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, has just
published a major work on the Varkari movement, a translation
with introduction of D.B. Mokashi's Palkhi. He has also co-edited
the Marathi Sampler issue of the Journal of South Asian Literature.
He is at work on translations of an important Marathi poet, P.S.
Rege, and planning a related study on modernism in Marathi and
Indo-English poetry in contemporary Bombay.
Anne Feldhaus, a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from the University of
Pennsylvania, teaches at Arizona State University. She has
published two books on the Mahanubhav tradition, a number of
articles (see the Selected Bibliography), and is now at work on a
major study of pilgrimage places in Maharashtra.
Vitthalrao Ghate (Viththal Dattatraya Ghate) (1895-1978) was a
major writer in Marathi, with books of history, poetry, drama, light
essays, and geography, as well as a well-known autobiography to
his credit.
K.N. Kadam is a retired officer of the Social Welfare department in
Maharashtra. Educated in Jesuit schools and Wadia College in
Pune, he has written a number of privately circulated ar-
 Page 347
tides in English on his life, Buddhism, and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar.
He lives in a Pune housing society, where he has founded a
Buddhist study circle.
Bebi Kamble and her husband run a small store in the Maharwada
(ex-Untouchable quarters) of Phaltan, Maharashtra. Her brother is
a poet in the Dalit Sahitya (literature of the oppressed) movement
and her own autobiography, Jina * amuca (our life), has just been
published as a book after being serialized in the Marathi magazine
for women, Stri*. Her oldest son is well educated and serves as an
agricultural officer in a bank.
Irawati Karve (1905-1970) was born in Burma (hence her unusual
first name), educated at Fergusson College and the University of
Bombay, and received her Ph.D. from the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute
for Anthropology in Berlin. She taunt at the Deccan College
Postgraduate and Research Institute from 1939 on, with a year at
the University of California. Her personal help as well as her
writing has been an inspiration to the editors and to many of the
contributors of this book.
Jayant Karve, now a computer programmer in San Diego, has
worked with Eleanor Zelliot on many translations, including the
famous Tendulkar play, Ghashiram Kotwal (Calcutta: Seagull,
1984). His knowledge of Marathi colloquialisms and Pune cultural
life is unobtrusively reflected in various ways in this volume.
Ashok Kelkar, Professor of Applied Linguistics at the Deccan
College Postgraduate and Research Institute, is an internationally
known linguist who also writes on literary and cultural matters.
His Ph.D. is from Cornell University, and his home in Pune is a
haven for intellectuals of many countries.
Shankarrao Kharat, who lives in Pune, has been a lawyer and a
government official in many capacities. His greatest claim to fame
is as the first recognized dalit writer, with some twenty books to his
credit. He has edited Dr. Ambedkar's newspaper, written on the
Buddhist conversion, published his autobiography, and continues
to produce short stories on the lives of the rural poor in a gentle,
sometimes humorous fashion.
Anasuyabai Koratkar (1911-1983) was a Marathi-speaking
housewife who lived in Hyderabad. Her home served as the first
Indian experience of Maxine Berntsen.
 Page 348
K.C. Malhotra was a student of Irawati Karve's and taught
anthropology at the Deccan College Postgraduate and Reseasrch
Institute in Pune. He has also taught in the United States, and is
now with the Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta.
D.B. Mokashi (1915-1982) has been one of the formative forces in
Marathi literature, often writing on the rural scene. A short story
dealing with the bhakti faith among farmers, his journal of
participation in the Varkari pilgrimage, both translated by Philip
Engblom, and his moving novel of the removal of the household
gods from a village home, translated by Pramod Kale, are noted in
the Selected Bibliography.
Jai Nimbkar, born in Pune to D.D. and Irawati Karve, now lives in
Phaltan where she pursues the double career of writing and market
gardening. Her novel Temporary Answers was published by Orient
Longman, and a collection of short stories, Lotus Leaves, was
published by Writers Workshop, Calcutta.
Charles Pain, a graduate student in Sanskrit at the University of
California, Berkeley, has returned to India several times after his
initial study under the auspices of the Associated Colleges of the
Midwest's India Study program in 1969. He is a graduate of
Carleton College.
Kumar Saptarshi became a founder-member of Yukrand, the
Revolutionary Youth Organization in his student days. He practiced
medicine from 1969-74, leaving that to found a commune in an
Untouchable area of Rashim, where he now has founded the Indian
Institute for Social Development and Research. After a year and a
half in jail during the Emergency, he won a seat in the
Maharashtra Legislative Assembly as a Janata Party member in
1977.
V.M. Sirsikar, Mahatma Gandhi Professor of Politics and Public
Administration at the University of Poona before his retirement, is
now joint director of the Centre for Development Studies and
Activities in Pune. He is the author of several highly respected
books on the behavioral aspects of voting in India. He has served
as Director of the Certificate Course offered by the University of
Poona to the Associated Colleges of the Midwest's India Studies
program, taught twice at Carleton College, and aided many
American scholars and groups.
Carolyn Slocum, a Carleton graduate of 1982, is now in seminary
studying liberation theology. She participated in the Associ-
 Page 349
ated Colleges of the Midwest's program in India, where her
independent study was on the meaning of shakti in women's
lives. She has also worked for a social concerns group
developing grass roots farm leadership.
Gunther-Dietz Sontheimer studied at Tubingen and the University
of Poona Law College, and obtained his Ph.D. from the School of
Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Since 1965, he
has been head of the South Asia Institute of the University of
Heidelberg, teaching in the Department of Religion and
Philosophy. He publishes in both German and English, and has
founded the English journal, South Asia Digest of Regional
Writing, at Heidelberg. He divides his year between Germany and
India.
John M. Stanley is Ellen C. Sabin Professor of Religion at
Lawrence University, Appleton, Wisconsin. A graduate of the
University of Colorado and the Pacific School of Religion, he
secured his Ph.D. from Columbia University. He has frequently led
the Associated Colleges of the Midwest's India Studies group to
Pune, and has written on the Khandoba cult and on the god
Hanuman (see Selected Bibliography), and the Pandharpur
pilgrimage. He is now deeply involved in studies on medical ethics.
Narayan Surve is a poet, schoolteacher, and Marxist. Raised as an
orphan on the streets of Bombay, he is identified with the Dalit
Sahitya (literature of the oppressed) school of writing. On the
Pavements of Life, a collection of his poetry translated by Krishna
Chaudhari and P.S. Nerurkar, has been published by Lok
Vangmaya Griha, Bombay, 1973.
Anutai Wagh has founded a center for the education of Warlis, a
tribal people of Thana district, which is considered a model of its
kind. Her autobiography describes her social and religious
concerns, and those of her distinguished family.
Eleanor Zelliot, a University of Pennsylvania Ph.D., teaches the
history of India at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. She
has travelled periodically to Maharashtra since 1963, pursuing her
research on Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and the bhakti saintpoets Eknath
and Cokhamela, or as director of the Associated Colleges of the
Midwest's India Studies program, most recently in 1986 under the
auspices of the Western India Regional Language Centre.
 Page 350

Selected Bibliography on Religion in Maharashtra

Partially Annotated
NOTE: The editors would like to acknowledge the help of John M.
Stanley and the Ames Library of South Asia at the University of
Minnesota in the creation of this bibliography. Because the volume
is intended for the general reader, only a few Marathi sources have
been included. The edition used is indicated first; if the most recent
edition of the volume is given first, it is followed by the first date of
publication in parentheses.

Bibliography Contents
351
I. General
II. The Bhakti/Varkari/Pandharpur Tradition
Texts 354
General Literature 355
III. Caste Practices 356
IV. Gods and Goddesses 357
V. Gurus and Other Religious Teachers 358
VI. Festivals and Rituals 361
VII. Religion in Literature 362
VIII. Religions Other than Hinduism
Buddhism 363
Christianity 364
Islam 365
Judaism 365
Tribal Religions 365
Zoroastrianism 366
IX. Reform and Rejection 366
X. Statements of Personal Views 367
XI. Temples and Holy Places 369
 Page 351

I. General
Abbott, John. The Keys of Power: A Study of Indian Ritual and
Belief. London: Methuen, 1932. Reprinted in 1974 by University
Books, Seacaucus, N.J.
Amar Chitra Katha (classic picture stories), India Book House
Education, Bombay, has published a number of comics on saints of
the Varkari tradition and other religious figures which accurately
reflect current public knowledge and attitudes. Among them are
Pundalik and Sakhu, Eknath, Tukaram, Ahilyabai Holkar, and
Tales of Sai Baba.
Bambawale, Usha. Inter-religious Marriage. Introduction by V.G.
Pundalik. Pune: Dastane Ramchandra, 1982. Much information on
Hindu-Muslim marriages and religious life.
Bhandarkar, Ramkrishna Gopal. Vaisnavism *, Saivism* and Minor
Religious Systems. Varanasi: Indological Book House, 1965 (1913).
Bharatiya* Samskrtikosa* (Encyclopedia of Indian Culture).
Edited by P. Mahadevshastri Joshi. 10 vol. Pune: Bharatiya
Sanskiritikosh Mandal, 1962-82.
Damle, Y.B. "Harikatha: A Study in Social-Education." In New
Quest 49 (Jan.-Feb. 1985): 23-29.
Deleury, G.A. "The Religion of the Hindu Village." In Religious
Hinduism by Jesuit Scholars. 3rd ed. Edited by R.V. De Smet.
Allahabad: St. Paul Publications, 1968.
Deshpande, Kamalabai. "Great Hindu Women in Mahatashtra." In
Great Women of India. Edited by Swami Madhavananda and
Ramesh Chandra Majumdar. Mayavati, Almora: Advaita Ashrama,
1953.
Dixit, Prabha. "The Ideology of Hindu Nationalism." In Political
Thought in Modem India. Edited by Thomas Pantham and Kenneth
L. Deutsch. New Delhi: Sage, 1986. A discussion of Savarkar and
Golwalkar of Maharashtra, among others.
Enthoven, R.E. The Folklore of Bombay. Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1924. All sorts of folk beliefs and notes on religious life as
gathered from schoolmasters.
Feldhaus, Anne. "Maharashtra as a Holy Land: A Sectarian
Tradition." In the Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African
Studies, University of London 49:3 (1986): 532-48.
Gazetteer of Bombay Presidency. Bombay: Government Central
Press, 1877-1904. District Series. The districts covered which
 Page 352
are now in Maharashtra are Ahmadnagar, Khandesh (now
Jalgaon and Dhulia), Kolaba and Janjira, Kolhapur, Nasik,
Poona, Ratnagiri and Savantvadi, Satara, and Sholapur. See
Maharashtra State Gazetteers for revised editions.
Gazetteer of the Central Provinces of India. Various presses,
including Government Presses in Bombay, Calcutta, and
Allahabad, 1906-11. District Series. The relevant districts are
Akola, Amraoti, Bhandara, Buldana, Chanda, Nagpur, Wardha and
Yeotmal. See Maharashtra State Gazetteers for revised editions.
Jagalpure, L.B. and K.D. Kale. Sarola Kasar: Study of a Deccan
Village in the Famine Zone. Ahmadnagar: L.B. Jagalpure, 1938.
Kale, Pandurang Vaman. History of Dharmashastra. 5 vols. in 7
tomes. Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 1930-62.
International Publications Services reprinted a 1968 edition in
1973. Kane's personal notes and references to Maharashtra
throughout make this a volume useful for contemporary Hinduism
in Maharashtra as well as the history of religious law.
Karandikar, V.R. and M.R. Lederle. ''Philosophy in Marathi." In
Philosophy in the Fifteen Modern Indian Languages. Edited by
V.M. Bedekar. Pune: Continental Prakashan for the Marathi
Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, 1979.
Karve, I. Maharashtra: Land and Its People. Maharashtra State
Gazetteer, General Series. Bombay: Directorate of Government
Printing, Maharashtra State, 1968. Contains a chapter on "Religion
and Gods" as well as many relevant notes.
Karve, Irawati and J.S. Ranadive. The Social Dynamics of a
Growing Town and Its Surrounding Area. Poona: Deccan College
Postgraduate and Research Institute, 1965.
Kosambi, D.D. Myth and Reality: Studies in the Formation of
Indian Culture. Bombay: Popular Prakashan, 1962.
Lederle, M.R. Philosophical Trends in Modern Maharashtra.
Bombay: Popular Prakashan, 1976.
Lyall, Alfred C. "Religion of an Indian Province." In Asiatic
Studies: Religious and Social. 2nd ed. London: John Murray, 1884.
Dated and prejudiced but an unusual perception of the com-
 Page 353
Dated and prejudiced but an unusual perception of the
complexities of religion in one region (Berar, now part of
Maharashtra).
Maharashtra State Gazetteers, District Series. Bombay:
Directorate of Government Printing, Maharashtra State, 1962-77.
24 vols. The volume on Poona District in this revised series was
published in 1954 by the Government of Bombay State. All
volumes are revisions of the earlier Gazetteers (q.v.), except those
for districts which were in the State of Hyderabad.
Paranjpe, Ashok G. and D. Nadkarni. "Folk Performances of
Maharashtra." In The Performing Arts. Edited by Narayana Menon.
Bombay: Marg Publication, 1982. Over a dozen folk performers,
most of them with religious connections, are described, with
several pictured.
Ranade, Mahadeo Govind. Rise of the Maratha Power. Delhi:
Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting,
Government of India, 1961 (1900). Also published in 1961 by
Bombay University Press, with a critical essay by R.V. Orturkar.
Included here because Ranade's evaluation of Shivaji and of the
Bhakti movement's impact in forming Maharashtrian ethos has
determined much of contemporary thought.
Religion and Society in Maharashtra. Edited by Milton Israel and
N.K. Wagle. South Asian Studies Papers, no. 1. University of
Toronto, Centre for South Asian Studies, 1987. (Gunther D.
Sontheimer, "Rudra and Khandoba *: Continuity in Folk Religion";
Charlotte Vaudeville, "The Shaivite Background of Santism in
Maharashtra"; John M. Stanley, "Niskama* and Sakama* Bhakti:
Pandharpur and Jejuri''; Anne Feldhaus, "The Religious
Significance of Rddhipur*"; David N. Lorenzen, "The Social
Ideologies of Hagiography: Sankara*, Tukaram* and Kabir*";
Jayant Lele, "Jnanesvar* and Tukaram*: An Exercise in Critical
Hermaneutics"; Eleanor Zelliot, "Four Radical Saints in
Maharashtra"; and N.K. Wagle, "Ritual and Change in Early
Nineteenth-Century Society in Maharashtra.")
Zelliot, Eleanor and Anne Feldhaus. "Marathi Religions." In the
Encyclopedia of Religion. General Editor: Mircea Eliade. New
York: Macmillan, 1986.
 Page 354

II. The Bhakti/Varkari/Pandharpur Tradition

Texts
Bahina Bai. A Translation of Her Autobiography and Verses by
Justin E. Abbott. The Poet-Saints of Maharashtra, no. 5. Poona:
Scottish Mission Industries, 1929. Reprinted by Motilal
Banarsidass in 1985 with an introduction by Anne Feldhaus.
Dnyaneshwar. Jnaneshvari *: A Song-Sermon on the
Bhagavadgita*. Translated by V.G. Pradhan. Edited by H.M.
Lambert· Albany: State University of New York, 1986. Previously
published by George Allen and Unwin in two volumes, 1967-69.
Kolatkar, Arun. "Translations from Tukaram and other Saint-Poets"
(Namdeo, Janabai, Muktabai). Journal of South Asian Literature
17:1 (Winter-Spring 1982): 111-14.
Mahipati. Eknath, a Translation from the Bhaktalilamrita by Justin
E. Abbott. The Poet-Saints of Maharashtra, no. 2. Poona: Scottish
Mission Industries, 1929. Reprinted by Mo-tilal Banarsidass in
1981 with an introduction by G.V. Tagore.
. Nectar from Indian Saints. Translations from the Bhaktalilamrita
by Justin E. Abbott, N.R. Godbole, and J.F. Edwards. The Poet-
Saints of Maharashtra, no. 11. Poona, 1935.
. Stories of Indian Saints. An English translation of Mahipati's
Marathi Bhaktavijaya, vols. 1 and 2. Translated by Justin E. Abbott
and Narhar Godbole. The Poet-Saints of Maharashtra, nos. 9 and
10. Poona, 1933-34. Reprinted in one volume by Motilal
Banarsidass in 1982.
. Tukaram. Translation from Mahipati's Bhaktalilamrita by Justin
E. Abbott. The Poet-Saints of Maharashtra, no. 7. Poona, 1930.
Reprinted by Motilal Banarsidass in 1980 and 1986.
Srisakalasantagatha*. (A collection of all the saints' work.)
Compiled by Shrinanamaharaj Sakhare. Edited by Kashinath Anant
Joshi. Pune: Shrisantwangmay Prakashan Mandir, 1967 (1923). A
new edition began appearing serially in 1985. This is the basic
collection of the saint-poets abhangas in Marathi.
Stotramala*: A Garland of Hindu Prayers. A Translation of
Prayers of Maratha Poet-Saints, from Dnyaneshvar to Mahipati by
Justin E. Abbott. The Poet-Saints of Maharashtra, no. 6. Poona:
Scottish Mission Industries, 1929.
 Page 355
Tukaram. Psaumes du pelerin. Translated by G.A. Deleury.
Connaissance de l'orient; collection UNESCO d'oeuvres
representatives. 2nd ed. Paris: Gallimard, 1956.
. The Poems of Tukarama. Translated by J. Nelson Fraser and K.B.
Marathe. Vol. 1. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1981. First edition in
three volumes· Madras: Christian Literature Society, 1909-15.
General Literature
See also Durga Bhagwat, D.B. Mokashi, and Vijay Tendulkar's
work in the South Asian Digest of Regional Writing issue and D.B.
Mokashi's short story in the Journal of South Asian Literature issue
listed under Religion in Literature (VII). Also see Iravati Karve's
"On the Road" in this volume.
Belsare, K.V. Tukaram. New Delhi: Maharashtra Information
Centre, Government of Maharashtra, 1967.
Dandekar, S.V. Dnyanadeo. New Delhi: Maharashtra Information
Centre, Government of Maharashtra, 1969.
Deleury, G.A. The Cult of Vithoba. Poona: Deccan College
Postgraduate and Research Institute, 1960. The first and still basic
study of the Varkari tradition.
Deshpande, P.Y. Jnanadeva. Makers of Indian Literature Series.
New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi; Sterling Publications, 1973.
Dhere, R.C. Sriviththal *: ek mahasamanvaya* (Vitthal, a great
integrator.) Pune: Shrividhya Prakashan, 1984·
Edwards, J.F. Dnyanesvar*, the Outcaste Brahman. The Poet-
Saints of Maharashtra, no. 12. Poona: United Theological College
of Western India, 1941.
Feldhaus, Anne. "Bahina* Bai*: Wife and Saint." In The Journal of
the Academy of Religion 50 (1982): 591-604.
Karandikar, M.A. Namdev. New Delhi: Maharashtra Information
Centre, Government of Maharashtra, 1970.
Kulkarni, Shridhar. Eknath. New Delhi: Maharashtra Information
Centre, 1966.
Lele, Jayant, ed. Tradition and Modernity in Bhakti Movements.
Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1981. Also appeared as the Journal of Asian and
African Studies 14:3 and 4 (1980). (Includes Jayant Lele, "The
Bhakti Movement in India: A Critical Introduction" and
"Community, Discourse and Critique in Jnanesvar"; Jayash-
 Page 356
ree B. Gokhale-Turner, "Bhakti or Vidroha: Continuity and
Change in Dalit Sahitya"; Bhalchandra Nemade, "The Revolt of
the Underprivileged: Style in the Expression of the Warkarl
Movement in Maharashtra"; and Eleanor Zelliot, "Chokhamela
and Eknath: Two Bhakti Modes of Legitimacy for Modern
Change.")
Mokashi, D.B. Palkhi. Translated by Philip Engblom. Introductory
essays by Philip Engblom and Eleanor Zelliot. Albany: New York
State University Press, 1987.
Nemade, Bhalacandra. Tukaram. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi,
1980.
Ranade, Ashok D. "Keertana: an effective communication." In his
On Music and Musicians of Hindoostan. New Delhi: Promilla and
Co., 1984.
Ranade, R.D. Mysticism in India: The Poet-Saints of Maharashtra.
Albany: State University of New York Press, 1983. First published
in 1933; then as Pathway to God in Marathi Literature in 1961.
Sardar, G.B. The Saint-Poets of Maharashtra: Their Impact on
Society. Translated by Kumud Mehta. Bombay: Orient Longmarts,
1969.
Skyhawk, Hugh van. "Eknathi * Bharude* as a Performance
Genre." In South Asian Digest of Regional Writing 10 (1981): 48-
56. Issue on "Drama in Contemporary South Asia," edited by
Lothar Lutze.
Tulpule, Shankar Gopal. Mysticism in Medieval India. Wiesbaden:
Otto Harrossowitz, 1984.
Vaudeville, Charlotte. "Pandharpur, the City of Saints." In
Structural Approaches to South India Studies. Edited by Harry M.
Buck and Glenn E. Yocum. Chambersburg, Pa.: Wilson Books,
1974.
Zelliot, Eleanor. "Eknath's Bharuds: The Sant as Link Between
Cultures." In The Sants: Studies in a Devotional Tradition of India.
Edited by Karine Schomer and W.H. McLeod. Berkeley: Religious
Studies Series; Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1987.
III. Caste Practices
Conlon, Frank F. A Caste in a Changing World: The Chitrapur
Saraswat Brahmans, 1700-1935. Berkeley: University of Cal-
 Page 357
ifornia Press, 1977. Includes changes in religious attitudes and
organizations.
Enthoven, R.E. The Tribes and Castes of Bombay. 3 vol. Bombay:
Government Central Press, 1920-22. Volumes 1 and 3 reprinted by
Cosmo Publications, Delhi, 1975.
Illustrated Weekly of India (Bombay). Feature stories on various
castes and their current caste practice appeared in this publication
during 1970-73. Included were the Chitpavans (February 22,
1970); the Saraswats (June 28, 1970); the Kayastha Prabhus (July
26, 1970); the Marathas (May 2, 1971); the Mahars (April 2, 1972);
and the Karhada Brahmans (February 4, 1973).
Ketkar, Shridhar Venkatesh. History of Caste in India. Jaipur:
Rawat Publications, 1979 (1909). Ketkar's work is so filled with
personal opinion that it stands as a liberal view of the times.
Kosambi, D.D. "The Living Prehistory of India." In Scientific
American 216 (1967): 104-14. Refers to the Dhangars and other
nomads.
Robertson, Alexander. The Mahar Folk. London: Oxford
University Press and Calcutta: Y.M.C.A. Publication House, 1938.
Russell, Robert, assisted by Rai Bahadur Hira Lal. The Tribes and
Castes of the Central Provinces of India. 4 vol. London:
Macmillan, 1916.
IV. Gods and Goddesses
Cashman, Richard. "The Political Recruitment of God Ganapati."
In the Indian Economic and Social History Review 7 (1970): 347-
73.
Courtright, Paul B. Ganesa *: Lord of Obstacles. New York:
Oxford University Press, 1985.
Gadgil, Amerindra. Sri* Ganesa* Kosa*. (Encyclopedia of
Ganesh). Pune: Shriganesh Kosh Mandal, 1967.
Ghurye, G.S. Gods and Men. Bombay: Popular Prakashan, 1962.
Joshi, Pralhad Narahara. Sridattatreya-jnankosa*. (Encyclopedia of
Datta). Bombay: Surekha Prakashan, 1974.
Joshi, Purushottam Balkrishna. "On the Household and Village
Gods of Maharashtra." In the Journal of Anthropological So-
 Page 358
ciety of Bombay 2 (1889-90): 202-07. Still valid as a list of
village gods and goddesses and as a delineation of various
categories of worshipped deities.
Mate, M.S. Temples and Legends of Maharashtra. Bombay:
Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1962. Includes Ganesh, Mahalakshmi,
Bhavani, Dattatreya, Parshurama, Bhimashankar, Tryambakeshvar,
Khandoba, Vitthal.
Sontheimer, Günther-Dietz. Biroba *, Mhaskoba* und Khandoba*:
Ursprung, Geschichte und Umvelt von pastoralen Gottheiten in
Maharastra*. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1976.

V. Gurus and Other Religious Teachers

NOTE: Dates of the guru or religious teacher are given, when
available, after the first reference. Not all gurus are
Maharashtrian, but all have or have had important ashrams in
Maharashtra.
Apte, S.S. Shree Samartha Ramdas, Life and Mission. Bombay:
Vora and Co., 1965. History of Ramdas (1608-81) by a Ramdasi.
Belfrage, Sally. Flowers of Emptiness: Reflections on an Ashram.
New York: Dial Press, 1981. Notes on the ashram of Rajneesh
(1931-) in Pune.
Dandekar, R.N., ed. Ramakrishna Gopal Bhandarkar as an
Indologist. Pune: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 1976.
Essays include Dandekar's own evaluation of the work of
Bhandarkar (1837-1925) on Vaishnavism and Shaivism.
Date, V.H. R.D. Ranade and His Spiritual Lineage. Bombay:
Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and Jodhpur: Adhyatma Sahitya Vikas
Sanstha, 1982. A biography of R.D. Ranade (1886-1957), author of
Mysticism in Maharashtra, by one of his many disciples.
Donkin, William. The Wayfarers: An Account of the Work of Meher
Baba with the God-Intoxicated, and also with Advanced Souls,
Sadhus and the Poor. San Francisco: Sufism Reoriented, 1969
(1948). Includes descriptions of the ashrams of Meher Baba (1894-
1969) at Ahmadnagar, Mahabaleshwar, and Satara in Maharashtra.
Duncan, I.R. "A Western Anthropologist's Experience under One
 Page 359
Form of Yogic Initiation." In Theoria to Theory 4 (1970): 78-80.
About Swami Muktananda, 1908-86.
Hopkinson, Tom and Dorothy. Much Silence: Meher Baba, His Life
and Work. London: Victor Gollancz, 1974. Much on the life of
Meher Baba in Pune.
Joshi, P.L. "Saints of Vidarbha." In Political Ideas and Leadership
in Vidarbha. Edited by P.L. Joshi. Nagpur: Silver Jubilee
Committee, Department of Political Science and Public
Administration, Nagpur University, 1980. Includes Gulabrao
Maharaj, Gadge Maharaj (d. 1956) and Tukdoji Maharaj (1909-68).
Kane, Padmakar Sidhanath. The Rashtrasant: the Socio-political
Thought of Sant Tukdoji Maharaj. Foreword by V.B. Kolte.
Nagpur: Ameya Prakashan, 1973.
Kirtane, Mrs. Sumati. "Educated Women and the Cult of
Gurubhakti." In Bulletin of the Deccan College Research Institute
31, 32 (1970-72): 353-59. Dr. Irawati Karve Commemoration
Volume.
Kulkarni, B.R., editor. Critical and Constructive Aspects of Prof.
R.D. Ranade's Philosophy. Belgaum: Academy of Comparative
Philosophy and Religion, 1974. Kulkarni's introduction is
instructive on the life and religious teaching of this important
Maharashtrian scholar.
Mangalwadi, Vishal. The World of Gurus. New Delhi: Vikas, 1977.
Includes Shri Dattabai Desai of Kolhapur as well as the better
known Rajneesh and Muktananda.
Meher Baba. Listen, Humanity. Narrated and edited by D.E.
Stevens. New York: Dodd, Mead and Co., 1971 (1957).
Muktananda (Swami Muktananda Paramhansa). Chitshaktivilas:
The Play of Consciousness. New York: Harper and Row, 1971.
Narasimha Swami, B.V. and S. Subbarao. Sage of Sakuri. Life
story of Shree Upasani Maharaj (1870-1941). 4th ed. Sakuri: Shri
Upasani Kanya Kumari Sihan, 1966. An important gum in the Sai
Baba of Shirdi tradition.
Narayan, Shriman. Vinoba: His Life and Work. (Vinoba Bhave,
1895-1982.) Bombay: Popular Prakashan, 1970. Good on the
background and home life of this Marathi-speaking "successor" of
Mahatma Gandhi.
Nargolkar, Vasant. The Creed of Saint Vinoba. Bombay: Bharatiya
Vidya Bhavan, 1963.
 Page 360
Osborne, Arthur. The Incredible Sai Baba. London: Rider and Co.,
1958 (1957). Sai Baba, one of the most important gums in the
Maharashtrian tradition, lived at Shirdi until his death in 1918.
Prajananda, Swami. A Search for the Self: The Story of Swami
Muktananda. 3rd ed. Ganeshpuri: Gurudev Siddha Peeth, 1979.
Rajneesh, Bhagwan Shree. Hammer on the Rock: a Darshan Diary.
New York: Grove Press, 1979. Illustrated.
Sahukar, Mani. Sai Baba: The Saint of Shirdi. 2nd ed. Bombay:
Somaiya Publications, 1971 (1952).
. Sweetness and Light: an Exposition of Sati Godavari Mataji's
Philosophy and Way of Life. Foreword by Lal Bahadur Shastri.
Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1966. A woman gum, born in
1914, in the Shirdi/Sai Baba/Upasani Baba tradition.
Sham Rao, D.P. Five Contemporary Gurus in the Shirdi (Sai Baba)
Tradition. Bangalore: The Christian Institute for the Study of
Religion and Society. Published by the Madras Christian Literature
Society, 1972. (Sai Baba, Upasani Baba, Kanya Kumari Sati
Godavari Mataji, Meher Baba, Satya Sai Baba.)
Shepherd, Kevin. Gurus Rediscovered: Biographies of Sai Baba of
Shirdi and Upasni Maharaj of Sakori. Cambridge: Anthropographia
Publications, 1985.
Tipnis, S.N. Contributions of Upasani Baba to Indian Culture.
(Poona University Ph.D. Thesis.) Sakuri: Shri Upasani Kanya
Kumari Start, 1966.
Tope, T.K. "Bombay University Honours Laxmanshastri Joshi." In
The Radical Humanist 39:4 (1975): 21-24. A note on Maharashtra's
most important humanist religious spokesman.
Tukdoji Maharaj. The Gramgeeta: an Epic on Indian Village Life.
Translated by R.S. Kadwe. Vol. I. Wardha: Rashtrasant Sahitya
Prachar Mandal, 1979.
Tulpule, S.G. Ranade: a Modern Mystic. Translated from the
Marathi by S.R. Sharma. (Sharma is noted as the author on the
spine and the title page.) Poona: Venus Prakashan, 1961.
White, Charles S.J. "The Sai Baba Movement." In The Sai Baba
Movement: Study of a Unique Contemporary Moral and Spiritual
Movement. New Delhi: Arnold-Heinemann, 1985.
 Page 361
. "The Sai Baba Movement: Approaches to the Study of Indian
Saints." In the Journal of Asian Studies 31:4 (1972): 863-78.
. "Swami Muktananda and the Enlightenment through Sakti *
Pat*." In History of Religions 13:4 (1974): 306-22.
Zweig, Paul, ed. Muktananda: Selected Essays. New York: Harper
and Row, 1976.
VI. Festivals and Rituals
Apte, Mahadev L. and Judit Katona. "The Significance of Food in
Religious Ideology and Ritual Behavior in Marathi Myths." In
Food in Perspective. Edited by A. Fenton and T.M. Owen.
Edinburgh: John Donalds, 1981.
Babar, Sarojini. Folk Literature of Maharashtra. New Delhi:
Maharastra Information Centre, Government of Maharashtra, 1968.
Barnouw, Victor. "The Changing Character of a Hindu Festival." In
the American Anthropologist 56 (1954): 74-86. The Ganpati
Festival in Pune.
Courtright, Paul B. "On This Holy Day in My Humble Way:
Aspects of Puja." In Gods of Flesh, Gods of Stone: the Embodiment
of Divinity in India. Edited by Joanne Punzo Waghorne and
Norman Cutler in association with Vasudha Narayanan.
Chambersburg, Pa.: Anima, 1985.
Gupte, Balkrishna Atmaram. Hindu Holidays and Ceremonials.
Calcutta: Thacker and Spink, 1966 (1919).
India (Government of). Fairs and Festivals in Maharashtra.
Census of India 1961, volume 10. Maharashtra. Part 8-B. Prepared
by the Maharashtra Census Office, Bombay, 1969. A very detailed
listing of the celebrations of all religions in the state with figures on
attendancea most useful volume.
Jackson, A.M.T., collector, and R.E. Enthoven, editor. Folklore of
the Konkan. Delhi: Cosmo, 1976 (1915). A great variety of
material collected from school teachers.
Skultans, Vieda. "Trance and the Management of Mental Illness
among Maharashtrian Families." In Anthropology Today 3:1
(1987): 2-4. Good pictures of healing ritual at the Mahanubhav
temple in Phaltan.
Stanley, John M. "Hanuman Wrestles on Saturday: An Exami-
 Page 362
nation of the Conceptualization of the Special Power of Certain
Days." In Contemporary India: Socio-Economic and Political
Processes. Poona: Continental Prakashan, 1982: 458-68.
. "Special Time, Special Power." In the Journal of Asian Studies
37:1 (1977): 37-48. The Khandoba festival at Jejuri.
Underhill, Murial Marion. The Hindu Religious Year. Calcutta:
Association Press, 1921. Still an excellent compendium of
information on festivals and fairs, chiefly in Bombay Presidency.

VII. Religion in Literature

Bharucha, Perin. The Fire Worshippers. Bombay: Strand, 1968. A
novel on Parsi life.
Chitale, Venu. In Transit. Bombay: Hind Kitabs, 1950. A novel of a
Chitpavan Brahman family in Pune, with much on ritual and
custom.
Journal of South Asian Literature 17:1 (1982). "The Marathi
Sampler" issue edited by Philip Engblom and Eleanor Zelliot.
Contains short stories by D.B. Mokashi, "An Experience of
Immortality," and Shankarrao Kharat, "Potraj"; and two
semireligious poems by Bahinabai Chaudari, "The Mind'' and
"What It Should Not Be Called."
Kolatkar, Arun. Jejuri. Bombay: Clearing House, 1976. A poem
cycle on the town of Jejuri, which is a religious center.
Mokashi, D.B. Farewell to the Gods. Translated by Pramod Kale.
Delhi: Hind Pocket Books, 1972. A novel on the removal of a
family's godhouse from a village home.
McMurry, George H. The Call to Murralla. New York: Harper and
Brothers, 1960. A novel on a young boy's life in a missionary
family in Maharashtra.
South Asian Digest of Regional Writing 3 (1974). Edited by
Gunther D. Sontheimer, University of Heidelberg. Includes
Sontheimer's "Religion in Modem Maharashtrian Literature";
Durga Bhagwat's "The Vithoba of Pandhari"; and Vyankatesh
Madgulkar's "The Pilgrimage."
Tilak, Lakshmibai. I Follow After; an Autobiography. Translated
by Josephine Inkster. Madras: Oxford University Press, 1950.
Considered a literary masterpiece and recently made into a
 Page 363
television drama, this is the autobiography of a Brahman woman
who followed her husband, Narayan Waman Tilak, into
Christianity.
Tulpule, Shankar Gopal. Classical Marathi Literature. (A History
of Indian Literature 9:4). Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1979. A
history of the pre-1818 literature, essential for understanding the
background of religion today.

VIII. Religions Other than Hinduism

See also the volume by Bambawale listed under the General
Section (I) and the Castes and Tribes volumes under Caste
Practices (III).
Buddhism
See also Bebi Kamble and Ulpabai Chauhan's statement in this
volume.
Ambedkar, B.R. The Buddha and His Dhamma. Bombay:
Siddharth College Publication: 1, 1957. The basic bible for those
who followed Ambedkar into the Buddhist conversion movement
in 1956 and after.
Kharat, Shankarrao. Da *. Babasaheb* Ambedkarance*
dhammantar*. (Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar's conversion.) Pune:
Thokal Prakashan, 1966.
Ramteke, D.L. Revival of Buddhism in Modern India. New Delhi:
Deep and Deep Publications, 1983.
Sangarakshita. Ambedkar and Buddhism. Glasgow: Windhorse
Publications, 1986. A memoir by an English Buddhist who knew
Ambedkar personally and has established several Buddhist
teaching and service centers in western India.
Wilkinson, T.S. and M.M. Thomas, editors. Ambedkar and the
Neo-Buddhist Movement. Bangalore: The Christian Institute for the
Study of Religion and Society. Published by the Christian
Literature Society, Madras, 1972.
Zelliot, Eleanor. "Buddhism and Politics in Maharashtra." In South
Asian Politics and Religion. Edited by Donald E. Smith. Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1969 (1966).
. "The Psychological Dimension of the Buddhist Movement
 Page 364
in India." In Religion in South Asia. Edited by G.A. Oddie. New
Delhi: Manohar, 1977.
. "The Buddhist Literature of Modem Maharashtra." In South Asia
Digest of Regional Writing 11 (1985): 134-49. Issue on "Minorities
on Themselves," edited by Hugh van Skyhawk, Heidelberg
University, 1986.
Christianity
NOTE: There is surprisingly little material on the Christian
community in Maharashtra, except for the well known nineteenth
century woman social reformer Pandita Ramabai and the poet
Narayan Waman Tilak. See also the Tribes and Castes volumes
under Caste Practices (III.), the Fairs and Festivals volume under
Festivals and Rituals (VI), and the autobiography of Lakshmibai
Tilak under Religion in Literature (VII).
Adhav, S.M. Pandita Ramabai. Bangalore: Christian Institute for
the Study of Religion and Society; Madras: Christian Literature
Society, 1979.
Hivale, Ruth. The Wings of the Morning. Edited and translated by
Sarala Barnabas. Bombay: The Bombay Tract and Book Society,
1984. On the life of Dr. B.P. Hivale of the very influential
Ahmednagar College, with much emphasis on relationships with
the West.
Jacob, Plamthodathil S. The Experiential Response of N. V. Tilak.
Bangalore: Christian Institute for the Study of Religion and
Society; Madras: Christian Literature Society of Madras, 1979.
Moulton, Joseph Langdon. Faith for the Future: the American
Marathi Mission, India, sesquicentennial 1963. New York: United
Church Board for World Ministries, 1967.
Pandita Ramabai. The Letters and Correspondence of Pandita
Ramabai. (1858-1922). Compiled by Sister Geraldine; edited and
with an introduction by A.B. Shah. Bombay: Maharashtra State
Board for Literature and Culture, 1977.
Shirsat, K.R. Narayan Waman Tilak: Poet and Patriot. Bombay:
Bombay Book and Tract Society, 1979.
Staelin, Charlotte. "The Influence of Missions on Women's
Education in India: The American Marathi Mission in
Ahmadnagar, 1830-1930." Ph.D. dissertation, University of
Michigan, 1977.
 Page 365
Islam
NOTE: Material on Muslims in Maharashtra is even more sparse
than that on Christians. See the Tribes and Castes and Fairs and
Festivals volumes as above. See also detailed bibliographies for
occasional articles on the Gujarati-speaking merchant Muslim
communities, Bohras and Khojas, chiefly found in Bombay and the
cities of the area.
Dalwai, Hamid. Muslim Politics in Secular India. Delhi: Hind
Pocket Books, 1972. A statement on communal problems by the
late Muslim secularist and reformer.
Shakir, Moin. Muslim Attitudes: A Trend Report and Bibliography.
Aurangabad: Parimal Prakashan, 1974.
. Secularization of Muslim Behavior. Calcutta: Minerva, 1973.
Professor Shakir teaches at Marathwada University in Aurangabad;
his many books represent a liberal Nationalist Muslim voice.
van Skyhawk, Hugh. "The Heart of Religion: A Sufi's Thoughts on
the Relations between Religious Communities." In South Asian
Digest of Regional Writing 11 (1985): 117-33. Issue on "Minorities
on Themselves," edited by Hugh van Skyhawk, Heidelberg
University, 1986.
Judaism
Abraham, A.S. "The Jews of India." In the Illustrated Weekly of
India 90:42 (October 19, 1969): 6-11, 18-19.
Israel, Benjamin J. Religious Evolution among the Bene Israel of
India since 1750. Bombay: author, 1963.
Kehimkar, H.S. The History of the Bene Israel of India. Tel-Aviv:
Dayag Press, 1937.
Strizower, Schifra. The Bene Israel of Bombay: A Study of a Jewish
Community. New York: Schocken Books, 1971.
Tribal Religions
Chapekar, Laxman Narayan. Thakurs of the Sahyadri. 2nd ed.
Bombay: University of Bombay, 1966.
Kale, D.N. Agris; A Socio-Economic Survey. Bombay: Asia
Publishing House, 1959.
 Page 366
Naik, Thakorlal Banabhai. The Bhils, a Study. Delhi: Bharatiya
Adimjati Sevak Sangh, 1956. Includes Khandesh in Maharashtra as
well as the Bhil community in Gujarat.
Punekar, Vijaya B. The Son Kolis of Bombay. Bombay: Popular
Book Depot, 1959.
Save, K.J. The Warlis. Bombay: Padma Publications, 1945.
Zoroastrianism
Bharucha, Sheriarji Dadabhai. A Brief Sketch of the Zoroastrian
Religion and Customs. 3rd ed. Bombay: D.B. Taraporevala, 1928.
Bulsara, Joel F. "The Parsis." In the Illustrated Weekly of India
90:35 (August 31, 1969): 9-29 passim.
Duchesne-Guillemin, Jacques. Symbols and Values in
Zoroastrianism: Their Survival and Renewal. New York: Harper
and Row, 1966.
Hinnells, John R. Zoroastrianism and the Parsis. London: Ward
Lock Education, 1981.
Kulke, Eckehard. The Parsees in India: a Minority as Agent of
Social Change. Munchen: Weltforum Verlag, 1974.
Masani, Rustom Pestonji. The Religion of the Good Life,
Zoroastrianism. London: G. Allen and Unwin, 1954 (1938).
Modi, Jivanji Jamshedji. The Religious Ceremonies and Customs of
the Parsis. 2nd ed. Bombay: J.B. Karanis & Sons, 1937 (1922).

IX. Reform and Rejection

See also Buddhism under Other Religions (VIII) and the essay by
Kadam in this volume.
Ghugare, Shivprabha. Renaissance in Western India: Karmaveer
V.R. Shinde, 1873-1944. Bombay: Himalaya Publishing House,
1983. Shinde was an educator and reformer who worked chiefly for
the depressed classes.
O'Hanlon, Rosalind. Caste, Conflict and Ideology: Mahatma
Jotirao Phule and Low Caste Protest in Nineteenth-century
Western India. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
 Page 367
1985. Phule's Satyashodak (truth-seeking) Society is no longer
engaged in religious reform, but Phule's underlying thought is
still important in Maharashtra.
Phadke, H.A. R.G. Bhandarkar (1837-1925). New Delhi: National
Book Trust, 1968. Contains a chapter on the importance of
Bhandarkar's religious reform.
Phadke, Y.D. Social Reformers of Maharashtra. 2nd ed. New
Delhi: Maharashtra Information Centre, Government of
Maharashtra, 1975. Includes Balshastri Jambhekar, Gopal Hari
Deshmukh (Lokahitawadi), Jotirao Govindrao Phule, Ramkrishna
Gopal Bhandarkar, Mahadeo Govind Ranade, Gopal Ganesh
Agarkar, Dondo Keshav Karve, Vitthal Ramji Shinde, Chhatrapati
Shahu Maharaj, Bhaurao Paigonda Patil, Bhimrao Ramji
Ambedkar. For most of these social reformers, religious reform
was also an issue.
Rationalists of Maharashtra. Dehradun: Indian Renaissance
Institute, 1962. Includes essays on "Gopal Deshmukh,
Lokahitawadi," by N.R. Phatak; "Jyotirao Fule," by Tarkateertha
Laxman Shastri Joshi, and "Gopal Ganesh Agarkar," by G.P.
Pradhan.
Social and Religious Reform Movements in the 19th and 20th
Centuries. Edited by S.P. Sen. Calcutta: Institute of Historical
Studies, 1979. Includes articles by J.V. Naik, N.H. Kulkarnee, S.R.
Hanmante, Mani Kamerkar, Vasanta D. Rao, M.P. Kamerkar, and
S.R. Shirgaonkar on Maharashtra.
Shah, A.B. Religion and Society in India. Bombay: Somaiya
Publications, 1981. Essays by the late leading secularist of the
India Secular Society in Pune.
X. Statements of Personal Views
Bedekar, D.K. Towards Understanding Gandhi. Edited by
Rajabhau Gawande. Bombay: Popular Prakashan, 1975. A
thoughtful, revealing analysis by a leading Marxist intellectual.
Bhave, Vinoba. Talks on the Gita. London: George Allen and
Unwin, 1960.
Damle, N.G. "The Faith of an Idealist." In Contemporary Indian
Philosophy. Edited by J.H. Muirhead and S. Radhakrishnan. 2nd
ed. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1952 (1936).
 Page 368
Dandekar, Ramchandra Narayan. Insights in to Hinduism. Delhi:
Ajanta Publications, 1979.
. Some Aspects of the History of Hinduism. Poona: Poona
University, 1967. Includes a chapter on Hinduism and Modem
Culture.
Deshpande, Mahadeo. Socio-Linguistic Attitudes in India. Ann
Arbor: Karoma Publications, 1979. The place of Sanskrit in
affecting caste attitudes is one of Deshpande's interesting and
personal analyses.
Joshi, Tarkateertha Laxmanshastri. "Caste System and Hindu
Theology." In The Radical Humanist 42:5 (Aug. 1978).
Apa, Pant. Mandala: An Awakening *. Bombay: Orient Longman,
1978.
. A Moment in Time. Bombay: Orient Longman, 1974. Apa Pant is
the influential heir of the princely house of Aundh.
Paradkar, M.D., ed. Studies in the Gita. Bombay: Popular, 1970.
Includes statements by a number of Maharashtrians.
Paranjpe, Anand C. In Search of Identity. New York: John Wiley
and Sons, 1975. Includes lengthy interviews with students on their
beliefs and attitudes.
Ranade, R.D. Bhagavadgita as a Philosophy of God-Realisation.
Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1982 (1959).
. Essays and Reflections. Compiled by B.R. Kulkarni. Bombay:
Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1964.
. "The Evolution of My Own Thought." In Contemporary Indian
Philosophy. Edited by J.H. Muirhead and S. Radhakrishnan. 2nd
ed. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1952.
Rege, M.P. "Gandhi, Dharmashastra and Untouchability." In Quest
84 (Sept.-Oct. 1973): 9-17. A report on the thought of
Lakshmanshastri Joshi in an interview with Gandhi.
. "Some Reflections on the Indian Philosophical Tradition." In
Quest 44 (Jan.-Mar. 1965): 9-24.
Tilak, Bal Gangadhar. The Hindu philosophy of life, ethics and
religion. Om-tat-sat, srimad Bhagavadgita rahasya: or Karma-
yoga-sastra, including an external examination of the Gita, the
original Sanskrit stanzas, their English translations, commentaries
on the stanzas, and a comparison of Eastern with Western
doctrines, etc. (Short title: Gita Rahasya.) Translated by
Bhalchandra Sitaram Sukthankar. 5th English
 Page 369
ed. Poona: J.S. Tilak and S.S. Tilak, 1983 (1935; Marathi
original, 1915).
Tulpule, S.G. "Spiritual Autobiography in Marathi: a Tradition
Lost and Renewed." In South Asian Digest of Regional Writing 5
(1976): 57-68. Includes a discussion of the work of G.V. Tulpule
and K.V. Belsare, among others.
XI. Temples and Holy Places
See also the essential Fairs and Festivals (VI); Feldhaus under
General (I); and the listings on Pandharpur under
Bhakti/Warkari/Pandharpur Tradition (II). The reader should also
note that while the magnificent cave temples of
MaharashtraAjanta, Ellora, Elephanta, Karla, Bhaja, Kanheri and
many othersare no longer used as religious structures, they are an
important part of Maharashtra's religious past. There are Hindu
temples now in use near the sites of the Karla and Ellora cave
temples, ashrams of Hindu and Jain sadhus near Kanheri, and a
new Buddhist retreat center near Bhaja.
Dave, J.H. Immortal India. 4 vols. Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya
Bhavan, 1957-61. Vol. 1 includes Pandharpur and Nasik; vol. 2,
Kolhapur, Ambarnath and Bhimashankar; vol. 3, Alandi and
Paithan; vol. 4, the Godavari, Krishna, and Bhima rivers and the
Sahyadri mountains.
Dingre, Gajanan Vithalrao. "Study of a Temple Town and its
Priesthood." Ph.D. dissertation in Sociology and Anthropology,
Deccan College, 1968. The town is Pandharpur, but Dingre
concentrates on the priesthood, not the Varkaris, and on all the
temples of the town, not only those visited by Varkaris.
Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency. District Series. Edited by
lames M. Campbell. Bombay: Government Central Press, 1877-
1904. Each volume contains material on holy places important to
that district. Revised versions, often shorter, have been published
by the Government of Maharashtra in the Maharashtra State
Gazetteer series beginning in 1970 which include districts
originally in Berar and the Central Provinces and the state of
Hyderabad. The revised versions began in the 1950s under the
Government of Bombay State.
Huble, S.K., Traude Vertschera, and Sudhakar Khome. "The Sa-
 Page 370
cred Complex of Mahdi." In Man in India 56:3 (Jul.-Sep. 1976):
237-62. A rare look at the place of Kanifnath, one of the nine
Naths.
Mate, M.S. Temples and Legends of Maharashtra. Bombay:
Bhavan's Book University, 1962. Includes Morgaon, Kolhapur,
Tuljapur, Gangapur, Pedhe, Bhimashankar, Tryambak, Jejuri and
Pandharpur.
 Page 371

INDEX
A
Adbanginath: in Dagadu Halwai Datta Mandir, 108n. 14
Ahimsa *: as Mahanubhav principle, 265, 279n. 9
Ahmednagar: Ganesh festival in, 87, 88
Akhandanand Maharaj: and Shedgao Datta temple, 252;
breaking of Untouchability Offenses Act by, 253, 260, 261,
263n.6
Alandi: Dnyaneshwar's samadhi* at, 145;
Dyaneshwar pilgrimage from, 143, 145
Amalikagrama* Mahatmya*: on gaundali-dance*, 181
Amavasya*: bhut-excorcism* on, 37
Amba, 180
Ambaji-Limbaji: as principal Nandiwala god, 134, 135;
navas to, 155;
overshadowing of, by Ram Mama, 136, 137
Ambedkar, Dr. B. R., 294;
and mass conversion to Buddhism, 291;
and religious skepticism, 288;
 Gadge Maharaj's extolling of, 224, 237, 249n.8;
invocation of, by Yukrand satyagrahis, 260, 261, 263n.5
Amraoti District: concentration of Mahanubhav pilgrimage places
in, 274, 279n. 14
Ancestor deification: by Dhangars, 115
Ancestor-worship: by Hatkar Dhangars, 114-16, 119, 127, 128;
by Nandiwalas, 133, 134
Andhra Pradesh: origin of Nandiwalas in, 132
Angat* alela*: exorcism of bhuts* by, 30
Angat* aleli*: as mediums of gods among Nandiwalas, 135;
as mediums and healers, 46-47;
as temple of god, 52;
common hy-peractivity of, 42;
"mighty works" done by, 45;
power of, felt as gift of god, 51;
respected social standing of, 47, 50;
rivalry among, 136
Angat* yene: and age, educational, and caste distributions, 42-43;
as common to Hindus and Muslims, 40-41;
as distinct from power infusion, 44-45;
as prototype of religious experience, 51;
 Page 372
comparison of, with bhut * badha*, 26-27, 48-53;
great variation in symptoms of, 41-44.
See also Possession by the divine
Anti-Muslim Sentiment in the R.S.S., 195, 201
Arati*: as occasion for angat* yene, 51;
as religious experience for healed bhut* victims, 56-57;
bhut-exorcism* during, 35, 37;
by Mahanubhavs, 265, 271;
for Dnyaneshwar padukas*, 149:
in Ganesh worship, 209, 230, 231;
in temple worship of Datta, 101, 105, 106, 252, 259;
of Jagadamba, in gondhal* , 182;
Untouchables excluded from, 253
Arati Prabhu (Chintamani Tryambak Khanolkar), 302, 308n.20,
311, 312
Arjuna, 164
Ashadhi Ekadashi: Arrival of Dnyaneshwar pilgrimage on, 145,
265
Ashtavinayaks*, 77
Atheism: among Maharashtrian intellectuals, 281
Atma*: identification of, with God, 294;
 transcendence of duality by, 222
Avadhuta* ascetic: Datta as type of, 99, 105
Avatar*: Datta as, of Brahma, Shiva, Vishnu, 95
Avatars*: as object of Mahanubhav devotion, 266, 270;
birthdays of, celebrated by Mahanubhavs, 275;
of Datta, 98-99, 103
B
Baba*: god or pir* at healing center known as, 37-39, 53, 54-55;
bonds to, of healed bhut* victims, 56
Babir: annual jatra* for, 122;
story of, in Dhangar ovis*, 123
Badrinarayan, 227
Bahinabai, 4, 6n.1
Bahiroba, 256
Balakrishna, 205;
Yashoda's fight to, as son, 6
Banabai: possession by, of high court judge's wife, 47
Banai: Khandoba's second wife, as Dhangar, 124
Bards: Gondhalis as, 181, 186-87
Barodekar, Hirabai: annual concert by, to Dattatreya, 103
Bathing: and sovla*, 207
Bel leaves: offering of, to Shankar, 206-07
Berads, 15n.1
Betasur: tuntun* formed from head of, 177
Bhadrapad: major Ganesh festival in, 77, 86
Bhagavad Gita*: as rendered by Dnyaneshwar, 144;
as sacred book of Varkaris, 164;
cited in support of untouchability, 258-59
Bhagavata* Purana*, 245, 308n.39
Bhagwat. See Bhagavata* Purana*
Bhajan: all-importance of, to Mirabai, 242, 249n.10;
as nuisance to middle class, 70;
at Dagadu Halwai Datta Mandir, 105, 106;
in Datta and Varkari cults, xvii;
in Ganesh festival, 87, 88;
preparation by, for possession, 41;
recommendation of, by Gadge Maharaj, 227, 242;
sung by Gadge Maharaj, 226.
See also Devotional singing.
Bhakta: 315, 316, 317, 318;
and practical life, 320;
as baby to mother, 313;
 of Biroba, 119;
of Datta, 98, 102
Bhakti: as key to readiness for angat* yene*, 51, 52;
as most potent factor in relation to god, 63;
as one of many Hindu ways, 316;
as reinforcement of karni*, 32;
in poems of modem Marathi poets,
 Page 373
310-14;
through opposition, 219;
true meaning of, in bhajan, 230-31;
Tukaram's pursuit of God through, 227
Bhangya Maruti temple: as locality marker in Pune, 71
Bharat Mata: glorification of, by R.S.S., 195
Bharud *, 175;
performance of, on Pandharpur pilgrimage, 161, 166;
place of gondhals* in, 180
Bhavani of Taljapur: as kadak* deity, 17;
as religious base for Maratha empire, 175, 178;
official emphasis on benevolent aspects of, 24-25;
photograph of, as sword, 173;
possession by, of high court judge's wife, 47;
power of, localized in Tuljapur, 18;
submission of bhut* victims to, 55;
worhip of, by Kadamrai Gondhalis, 177
Bhavisya* Purana*: on celebration of Bhutamata festival, 178
Bholanath, 123
Bhutamata: origin of gondhal* in cult of, 178-79
Bhut* badha*: as cause of illness, 29, 33:
as neurosis, 34;
as religious experience, 53-57:
comparison of, with angat* yene*, 26-27, 48-53;
diagnosis and cure of, 35-40;
experience of, as ''wrongness," 50;
healing from, as rite de passage, 57;
traditional Ma-harashtrian beliefs about, 27-29;
worsening stages of, 35-36.
See also Possession by a ghost
Bhut* exorcism, 38-40, 54-55, 57;
by angat* aleli*, 47
Bhuts*: and Bhutamata festival, 178;
and origin of gondhal*, 179;
as seen by angat* alela*, 44;
traditional Maharashtrian beliefs about, 27-29.
See also Ghosts
Bhut* victims: description of, at healing centers, 37-40, 54-55;
ritual pollution as key to susceptibility of, 32
Biroba: annual jatra* for, at Arevadi, 117-18;
as brother of Vithoba, 114;
 devotion to, by Dhangar devrishis*, 116;
Dhangar jatras* for, 118-20:
possession by, 127-28;
temples of, 118;
worship of, in khel*, 126-27
Body-temple-cosmos homology of angat* alela* , 52
Borkar, Balkrishna Bhagavant, 300, 307n.8, 310, 311, 313, 317
Bose, Subhash Chandra, 197, 202n.2
"Boy-friend": as term for Vithoba, 3-6
Brahma: and four Vedas, 227;
incorporation in Datta of, 95
Brahman: and Varkari devotionalism, 164;
attainment of, through indifference, 219;
dalit poet's ironic identification with, 64-65;
Ganesh as symbol of, 76;
humanity of Harijans provided in, 257
Brahman: as guru in pilgrim dindi*, 144;
Datta as, 106;
in Dhangar ovi*, 122
Brahmanical sacrifices: erotic representations in, 161
Brahmans: Akhandanand and Saptarshi in conflict as, 259;
 as chief patrons of Dagadu Halwai Datta Mandir, 105;
authority of, not acknowledged by Mahanubhavs, 264;
disdaining by, of water brought by Maratha, 154;
Ganpatyas confined to, 76;
houses of, to be lower than king's palace, 71;
rituals of, not encouraged in R.S.S., 193;
separation from Marathas at mealtimes, 143-144, 151-53;
virtues of, 236, 237, 240, 248, 249n.7
Brhadaranyaka* Upanisad*: on love of self, 214-15
 Page 374
Buddha, 169, 291, 305;
and legitimation for Untouchables, xix;
story of, by Mahars, 292;
taking refuge in, 294
Buddhism, 316;
and propagation of ascetic life, 164-65;
conversion of Untouchables to, 281, 291
Buddhists: former Untouchables as, 280;
in Shedgao, 253, 260.
See also Mahars

C
Campbell, Sir James: on Maharashtrian beliefs about bhuts *, 27
Caste: deemphasis on, in Ganesh festival mandals*, 88;
divisions of, in pilgrim dindi* , 151-55.
See also Varnashrama*
Celibates: support of, by women, 163
Celibacy in Mahanubhav sect, 269
Chaitra: Mariai fair on full-moon day of, 8, 9
Chakradhar, 266, 270, 274, 275, 278n.5
Chambhars, 185;
 Gadge Maharaj on failings of, 236, 248, 249n.7;
new position of, in Pandharpur pilgrimage, 170n.3
Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhus (C.K.P.), 277
Changadev Raula, 266
Chaturmas: as time of self-restraint, 207-208
Chaturshringi: Mahar pilgrimage to, 285
Chhinal Maruti temple: as locality marker in Pune, 71
Childbirth: and bhut-susceptibility*, 32
Chinchwad: Ganesh cult center at, 76, 77, 210
Chitre, Dilip Purushottam, 303, 308n.23, 311, 312, 313, 318
Chokamela, 291, 294;
devotional song of, 155;
Mahars at Pandharpur shrine of, 285;
Mahar story of birth of, 292;
photo of Samadhi* of, 284
Chokhoba. See Chokhamela
Christ, 305, 318.
See also Jesus; Christianity; Roman Catholicism
Christianity: and Hinduism, 316, 318;
and missionaries, 159-60;
and translation of Tukaram, 317;
 conversion to, by Mahar, 288;
Narayan Waman Tilak and 310, 315.
See also Christ; Jesus; Roman Catholicism
Circumcision: as preventative of bhut* badha*, 33
C.K.P. See Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhus
Cowdung and sovla*, 207
Cow-slaughter ban and R.S.S., 200
Crooke, William: on Maharashtrian beliefs about bhuts*, 27
D
Dagadu Halwai Datta Mandir, 102, 104-06
Dagadu Halwai Ganpati, 104
Darga*: as healing center for bhut* badha*, as, 36, 37
Darshan: at Dagadu Halwai Datta Mandir, 104, 105:
at temple of Swami of Akkalkot, 104;
by Gadge Maharaj of crowds, 248;
in Datta temples, 101;
of baba* by healed bhut* victims, 56;
of Gadge Maharaj, 226;
of Ganesh in Morgaon, 209;
of Khandoba, in Degaon, 14;
of linga, by Mahanubhavs, 274;
 of Vithoba, by Irawati Karve, 4
Darwin, Charles, 288
Dasara, xvii;
and Ganesh celebration at Morgaon, 210
Dasnamis and Datta tradition, 97, 98
Dasopant, 98
Datta. See Dattatreya
Datta jayanti*: celebration of, in Pune, 106
 Page 375
Datta Mahatmya *, 106
Datta Prabodh, 106
Dattatreya: as archetypal guru, 98;
as Mahanubhav avatar* of Parmeshwar, 97, 264, 266, 271;
as patron god of prostitutes, 105;
as ultimate syncretistic god, 95;
as wandering ascetic, 96;
Brahmanness of, 106;
as guru of naonath*, 103;
importance of music to, 107n.12;
in Varkari Panth, 319;
photo of temple image of, 100;
temple of, in Mahur, 267;
temple of, in Shedgao, 252;
Untouchables excluded from temple of, 253;
varying emphasis on Shaiva or Vaishnava aspects of, 102
Dattatreya temples: as healing centers for bhut* badha*, 36;
in Pune, 101.
See also Dattatreya
Davan* and Dhangar sheep sacrifice, 120
de Beauvoir, Simone: on saint possession in Brazil, 49
Deccan College Postgraduate and Research Institute, xv, 140
Defecation and susceptibility to ghost-possession, 116-17
Defilement: as religious experience of bhut* victims, 54-57
Deification: of Dhangar ancestors, 115, 117;
of Ram Mama, 131-32, 138-40
Deoras, Balasaheb, 190, 198
Desh, xvii, xx n.5
Deshastha Brahmans: as patrons of gondhal*, 174, 176;
as principal constituent of Ganesh cult, 77;
as pujaris* in Darts temples, 101, 105
Devasthan*: as center of divine power, 18
Devi: kadak* form of, at Degaon, 17;
possession by, as uniquely rapturous, 42.
See also Bhavani of Tuljapur; Bhutamata; Jagadamba; Kali;
Mahalakshmi of Kolhapur; Mariai, Renuka of Mahur
Devotionalism: harmony of, with monistic idealism, 61-62;
in pre-modern Marathi poetry, 309
Devotional singing: during Dnyaneshwar pilgrimage, 144, 149,
150, 160, 162, 165-66.
See also Bhajan
Devrishi*: as medium of Dhangar ancestors and gods, 116-17;
 cause of bhut* badha* attributed to, 29, 30, 58n.4
de Waal Malefijt, A: on voluntary and involuntary possession,
58n.7
Devwalas, 132, 139
Dhamma: taking refuge in, 294
Dhangars, xviii, 185, 186, 248;
and influence of Shaivism, 113-14;
and jatras* for Biroba and Mhaskoba, 117-20;
and Khandoba, 124-25;
and Khel*, 125-28;
ancestor worship by, 114-16, 119, 127, 128;
devrishi* as ancestor medium for, 116-17;
monsoon camps of, 109-11;
ovis* of, 120-24;
photo of, 112
Dharma, 235;
as applicable to each yuga, 267;
evocation of, by Akhandanand Maharaj, 259;
independence of, from god-propitiation, 20;
in Dhangar ovis*, 124;
of R.S.S. ethos, 192;
of the Buddha, 292
Dindi*: pilgrimage in, by Irawati Karve, 144, 145, 155, 165, 168,
170;
separation of Brahmans and Marathas in, 153
Dnyaneshwar, 170n.2, 307, 309n.44, 311;
advaita insight of, 320;
and Nath Sect, 319;
cult of Vithoba antecedent to, 144-45;
devotional song of, 165;
in Gadge Maharaj's kirtan*, 228, 249n.3;
Gondhali simile for
 Page 376
prakriti * by, 179;
in temple of Swami of Akkalkat, 104;
regarded as god, 142, 143;
taking of samadhi* by, 74-75, 75n, 145.
See also Jnanesvari*
Draupadi, 298, 307n.4, 311
Drums: importance of, in possession, 119;
in gondhal*, 176, 177, 182
Dualism: as heuristic, not essential in man-god relation, 61;
of brahman and maya*, 319
Dushshasan, 307n.4
Dvapara yuga and dharma of sacrifice, 267

E
Eclecticism in common Hindu religious practice, 276
Eichmann, Adolf: from Upanishadic viewpoint, 216, 220, 222
Ekadashi*, 4, 145, 265
Eknath, 150, 275, 309n.44;
and Datta Sect, 319;
gondhals* in bharuds* of, 180;
performance of bharuds* of, 161;
 recognition of God by, in Datta, 97
Eliade, Mircea, 52, 53
Emergency and banning of R.S.S., 190
Enthoven, R.E.: on Maharashtrian beliefs about bhuts*, 27;
on married Mahanubhav sannyasis*, 270;
on number of Mahanubhavs, 279
Ethics: as aspect of dharma, not god-worship, 20
Evil-eye: screen against, at food offering to Dnyaneshwar, 149
F
Fascism and the R.S.S., 200-201
Fasting: as active measure for influencing kadak* deities, 23;
as preparation for angat* yene*, 51;
by Brahman women on pilgrimage, 148;
gaining of shakti* by, 208;
of the Buddha, 293
Feldhaus, Anne: on "Marathi Religions," xxi n.7
Fire walking rite: and religious dimension of angat* yene*, 52;
by panja* bearers at Muharram, 45
Firisti Mariba, 134, 135
Freud, Sigmund: on opposition as sign of agreement, 219
Full-moon day and vow to Mariai, 7, 8, 9.
See also Purnima*
G
Gadge Baba: as modem saint, xviii;
as Varkari reformer 223-24;
darshan of, by thousands, 226;
extolling by, of education, 237, 240-41;
illustration of, 225;
on evil of Untouchability, 224, 240, 243-46;
vegetarianism promoted by, 224
Gadge Maharaj. See Gadge Baba
Gaekwads of Baroda: patronage by, of Gondhalis, 187, 189n.18
Gandharvas, 307, 309n.43
Gandhi, Mahatma: assassination of, 190, 198, 221;
extolled by Gadge Maharaj, 233-34;
invocation of, by Yukrand satyagrahis, 260, 261
Gandhian method and Yukrand, 251, 259
Ganesh: as protector of democracy, 210;
distribution of temples of, 77;
in role of trickster, 84;
invocation of, in gondhal*, 182, 183;
iconography and names of, 78;
 mediatory function of, 85;
origin of, as related in Sivapurana* and Skandapurana*, 79-81;
photos of images of, 89, 90;
worship of, in Morgaon, 209.
See also Ganpati
Ganesh chaturthi* celebrated in Morgaon, 209
Ganesh festival: ambiguous modernity of, xviii;
as largely an urban phenomenon, 86;
criticized by Gadge Maharaj as lacking bhakti, 230-31;
liminality of so-
 Page 377
cial relationships during, 91-92;
procession of images on last day of, 87-88;
promotion of, by Lokmanya Tilak, 77, 92;
sponsorship of, by Peshwas, 77
Ganesh sampraday *, 76
Gangapur, 98
Ganpati, 249n.5;
as protector of democracy, 91;
installment and exhibition of murti* of, 86-87;
near Dagadu Halwai Datta Mandir, 104.
See also Ganesh
Ganpati festival. See Ganesh festival
Ganpatyas* as Maharashtrian Brahman sect, 76
Gaulanis* in gondhals*, 183
Gaundali*, gaundalinritya* as variants of gondhal*, 179, 181
Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency: on Maharashtrian beliefs
about bhuts*, 27, 28
Ghode-Pir, 283;
photograph of, 284
Chosts: little fear of, by Dhangars, 116;
 Nandiwala's belief in, 134;
textual connection of Gondhalis with, 179.
See also Bhuts*
Ghurye, G.S.: on enumeration of Pune temples, 101
Giridhari as Meera's "lover," 4
Girnar: meditation at, by Datta, 96
Gitarnava* on gondhal's* connection with ghosts, 179
Godavari River: common reference to as Ganga, 157;
Datta's morning bath in, 96;
Mahanubhav pilgrimage places along, 274, 279n.14;
ritual bathing in, 288;
spread of Mahanubhavs north of, 264
God-house: photo of, in Brahman home, 100
Gokul, 184-85, 274
Golwalkar, M.S., 195;
change of R.S.S. under, 197-98
Gondhal*: animal sacrifice at, 239;
as type of folk literature, 182;
at wedding and thread ceremonies, 176;
modernization of, 175;
on Varkari pilgrimage, 160;
 origin of, in cult of Bhutamata, 178-79
Gondhalis: government patronage of, xix;
in performance, 176, 181-82;
as bards of Maratha kingdom, 181, 186-87;
patronage of, 174-75;
textual connection of, with ghosts, 179;
under the Peshwas, 180-81
Gopalkala*, 4
Gopura as symbol of town's presence, 71
Gorakhnath, 97
Govardhan, 270, 274
Govindaprabhu, 266, 278n.4
Grace (Manik Godghate), 304, 308n.26, 313
Great Tradition: in ovis* of Dhangars, 121, 123-24;
interpenetration of, with Little Tradition, 60
Guru dakshina* and R.S.S. funds, 193-94
Guru: care for, by women, 163;
Datta as archetype of, 98;
in dindi* of Irawati Karve, 144, 145, 152;
Mother Goddess as, 180;
M.S. Golwalkar in role of, 198
Gurucaritra, 98;
cited in support of untouchability, 258-59;
public reading of, on Datta jayanti*, 106
H
Hari Singh Nalwa eulogized by R.S.S., 195
Harijans, 245, 249n.13;
of Shedgao, 255, 257, 258, 260.
See also Untouchables
Hatkar Dhangars, See Dhangars
Hazrat, 246, 249n.14
Hedgewar, Dr. K.B., 193, 197
Hindu dharma and R.S.S. ethos, 194
Hinduism: and nationalistic ethos of R.S.S., 191;
and practice of untouchability, 258-59, 262;
as fusion of myth, ritual, philoso-
 Page 378
phy, morals, 315;
god-consciousness of, 61-63;
Shaivism and Vaishnavism synthesized in, in Maharashtra, xvii;
regional diversity of, vii;
Untouchables' complete disavowal of, 280;
weakening of, by Untouchability, 246
Hindu Mahasabha and the R.S.S., 198
Hindu-Muslim interaction: xvi-xvii, 280;
in history of Datta and Varkari sects, xvii;
in K.N. Kadam's experience, 283
Hindu nation and R.S.S. ethos, 192, 193, 195, 198, 200
Hindu scriptures on untouchability, 258-59
Hitler, Adolf: from Upanishadic viewpoint, 220, 222
Horses with Dnyaneshwar palanquin, 147, 150, 160-61
Hospitality: as cardinal virtue in Dhangar ovis *, 122
Householder: as sannyasi* in Mahanubhav sect, 269-70;
devaluation of, as compared to renunciation, 164-65
Humanism: basis for, in Hinduism, x.
See also Manuski*
I
Illiteracy: as no bar to effective culture, 159-60
Indra: in myth of Ganesh's origin, 84
Indian National Theatre and gondhal*, 175
Inquisition in Goa, 218
Ishtadaivat*: Ganesh as, 76
Islam: and angat* yene*, 45-46, 52-53;
and Hinduism, xvi-xvii, 280, 316, 318, 320;
and Muharram, 40-41, 283;
and R.S.S., 191, 195, 200, 201;
healing centers of, 27, 35, 36, 49.
See also Muharram; Darga*; Pir*
J
Jagadamba invoked in gondhal*, 180, 182, 183
Jagannath, 228, 229
Jainism and propagation of ascetic life, 164-65
Janabai, 5, 6n.2;
songs of, preparation for angst* yene*, 51
Janardan Swami, 97
Janata Party: R.S.S. affiliation with, 190-91;
Yukrand affiliation with, 256, 262n.1
Jani. See Janabai
Jan Sangh and R.S.S., 190, 199
Jatayu, 303, 308n.22
Jatra*: contrast of, with khel*, 126;
for Biroba and Mhaskoba, 177-78;
in honor of deified devrishi*, 117.
See also Yatra*
Jejuri: animal sacrifice at, 238-39;
localized power in, of Khandoba, 18;
Mahar pilgrimage to, 281, 285;
taking of Banal to, by Khandoba, 124, 125
Jesus, 300, 307n.10, 311, 315, 317.
See also Christ
Jnanesvari*: on Gondhali as bhut and pishaca*, 178.
See also Dnyaneshwar
Joshi, Bhimsen: as patron of gondhal*, 174-75
K
Kabir: in Gadge Maharaj's kirtan*, 228, 234, 238, 249n.4
Kadak* (harsh) deities: anxiety in people's relations to, 20-21;
animal offerings to, 19;
possession by, most frequent, 24
Kailas, 80, 114-15
Kal Bhairav: assimilation of Mhaskoba as, 118;
temples of, as healing centers, 36
Kali: possession by, of high court judge's wife, 47
Kaliya depicted in gondhal*, 183-185
Kali yuga: and dharma of tirtha-
 Page 379
khsetra-vrata-dana *, 267;
decline of shakti* in, 208
Karbala, saints of: as precedent for fire walking rite, 41, 52-53
Karma, 314;
as applied to bhuts*, 28;
god as dispenser of, 62-63;
in Dhangar ovis*, 124
Karni*: as cause of bhut* badha*, 29, 30, 31;
by mantrik*, devrishi* or navas, 32
Kartik: ancestor ceremony of Dhangars in, 115;
Varkari pilgrimage from Konkan in, 158
Karve, Irawati, 140, 265;
insight of, in "On the Road," xv;
as scholar and Marathi essayist, xvi, xx n.3
Kashi, 274, 281
Kattal ki* rat* and fire walking rite, 45
Katyayani vrata, 306, 308n.39, 311
Keshavsut: and modem Marathi poetry, 309, 320;
cherishing of advaita by, 310
Khandoba, 14, 276;
 as Dhangar god, xix, 124-25;
as kadak* deity, 17, 22;
as represented in khel*, 128;
as version of proto-Indian god Rudra/Shiva/Murukan, 124;
official emphasis on benevolent aspects of, 24-25;
photograph of pujari* of, 43;
possession by, 42, 47, 51, 52;
power-infusion by, 45, 125;
power of, localized in Jejuri, 18
Khel*, 126-28;
and Dhangar ancestor-possession, 115;
heckling of ghost-possession during, 117
Kirtan* in performance by Gadge Maharaj, 226-48
Kolatkar, Arun, 307, 309n.41, 311, 312, 314
Konkan, xvii, xx n.5;
Dhangars' annual migration to, 113;
Varkari pilgrimage from, 158
Konkanastha Brahmans and Ganesh cult, 77
Krishna, 305, 307n.4, 308n.9;
as Mahanubhav avatar*, 264, 266, 270;
as Vithoba, 164;
 stories of, in gondhals*, 183-85;
unfamiliarity of, to Hatkar Dhangars, 114
Krishnajanmashtami, 275
Kriti yuga: and dharma of introspection, 267
kuladaivat: as generally a kadak* deity, 18-19, 21;
Ganesh as, 76;
mother goddesses as, 175;
source of, in pre-Vedic religions, 316
Kurus and Panchalas, sacrifices of, 164
Kusumagraj (Vishnu Waman Shirwadkar), 302, 308n.18, 311, 312
L
Lacharit* shakti* : of medieval Marathi saint-poets, 313
Lakshmi: in Dhangar sheep pens, 125
Lalit nibandha, xvi, xx n.4
Lawani*, 175
Liberation, 312, 314;
avatars* of Parmeshwar necessary for, 266, 277.
See also Moksha
Limaye, Arun, 251
Lime: as offering against bhuts* , 31;
purification by, before possession, 41, 52
Liminality of Ganesh festival celebration, 91
Lingayats, 129n.3;
effects of, on pastoral groups, 114
Liquor: as offering to angat alela*, 135;
offering of, to Ram Mama 137-138
Literacy: as distinct from culture, 159-60
Lord of Divine Hosts, 78
Lord of Obstacles, 77, 78, 84

M
Madalasa: in song of renunciation, 162-63
Madhur bhakti, 6, 319
 Page 380
Mahabharata *: in ovis* of settled Dhangars, 121
Mahalakshmi of Kolhapur, 175;
daily begging by Datta at temple of, 96;
Mahanubhavs forbidden visit to, 267, 278n.7
Mahanor, Namdeo Dhondo, 304, 308n.28, 311, 312, 313
Mahanubhavs, 279n.18, 319;
as medieval bhakti movement, 265;
first Marathi reference by, to Datta, 97;
heterodoxy of, 264, 266;
maths* and temples of, as healing centers, 36, 37, 54, 275;
on meaning of "gondhal*," 179;
perception of, as different, 266;
photographs of, 272, 273;
pilgrimage places of, 274;
visit by, to Mahur, 268, 278n.8
Mahapuja*: at Dagadu Halwai Datta Mandir, 105;
by wife, to husband, 242
Maharashtra: as bridge between Aryan and Dravidian, xix, 92;
definition of, by Pandharpur pilgrimage, 158;
deities of, that do and do not possess, 40, 58n.6;
 pilgrimage as education in language and culture of, 159;
thirteenth-century bhakti movements of, 264
Mahars, 236, 248, 249n.7;
access denied to, at Vithoba temple, 285;
and worship of Mariai, 286-87;
in Shedgao, 253;
mass conversion of, to Buddhism, 291;
rituals of, in household shrine, 282-83;
story of Chokamela's birth by, 292.
See also Buddhists
Mahur: Gondhali's origin at, 177, 181;
Mahanubhav temple in, 267;
sleeping of Datta at, 96
Malls, 236, 237, 238, 248;
dominance of, in Shedgao, 253
Mangalmurti, 78
Mani and Malla, 52
Manikprabhu: Datta incarnation as, 98
Mantriks*: as cause of bhut* badha*, 29, 30, 58n.4
Manu on begetting of progeny, 164
Manuski*: as modem corollary of non-duality, x;
 in conflict with orthodox Hindu view, 251, 260
Maratha kingdom: Gondhalis as bards of, 181, 186-87
Marathas, 186;
as dominant caste among Mahanubhavs, 277;
as patrons of gondhal*, 174, 176;
Gadge Maharaj on failings of, 236, 237, 241, 248;
in minority in Shedgao, 252-53;
and separateness from Brahmans in dindi*, 143-44, 147, 151-53
Marathwada, xvii, xx n.5
Mardhekar, Bal Sitaram, 298, 307n.1, 310-311, 312, 313
Mariai, 175;
annual fair at Degaon for, 8-9;
as kadak* deity, 9;
offerings for, 9, 13, 15;
possession by, of Dhangar devrishi*, 127;
ubiquity of, 15n.2;
vow to, 15;
worship of, by Mahars, 286-87;
worship of, in khel*, 126
Maruti, 69-70, 285
Marwadis: Gadge Maharaj on virtues of, 236, 237, 240, 248,
249n.7
Marx, Karl, 169
Matapur: as name of Mahur, 177
Mate, M.S.: on syncretism in Maharashtrian temple puja*, 101
Matsyendranath, 97
Mauli*: as epithet of Dnyaneshwar and Vithoba, 143
Mediums: function as, by angat* aleli*, 47
Meenakshisundaram temple, 71
Meera (Mira), 4, 5, 6n.1, 242
Meher Baba, xvii
Menstruation: and bhut* susceptibility, 32
 Page 381
Metraux, A.: on possession as pleasure for the poor, 49, 58n.7
Mhalsa, 124
Mhaskoba, 120;
fourteen-day jatra * for, at Vir, 118
Mira. See Meera
Mira Datar Chilla: as healing center for bhut* badha*, 34-35, 49,
56, 57
Mira Wall Darga; as healing center for bhut* badha*, 35, 56
Modernity: ambiguous manifestations of, in Ganpati festival and
R.S.S., xviii;
and future of Gondhali, 175;
in Marathi poetry, 309-10
Mokashi, D. B.: on Pandharpur pilgrimage, 171n.6
Mokashi-Punekar, Shankar: on diversity of Datta tradition, 99
Moksha: in Mahanubhav system, 266.
See also Liberation
Monasteries: of Mahanubhavs, 267, 268-69
Monistic idealism: harmony of, with passionate devotionalism, 61-
62
Monotheism and intolerance, 159-60
Monsoon: and Dhangar's pastoral cycle, 109-11
Morgaon, 76, 209-10
Moreshwar, 78
Mridang*, 146, 151, 160, 312
Muharram, 290n.1;
and fire walking rite, 45;
and vow to Ghode-Pir, 283;
possession by Shi'ia pirs* during, 41
Muktabai: devotional verses of, 165;
palanquin of, 163
Muktananda, xvii
Muktibodh, Sharadchandra Madhav, 301, 308n.12, 311, 312, 313,
318
Murli, 176; photo of, 43
Murti*: exhibition of, in Ganpati festival, 86-87;
communication of diety to devotee through, 116;
of Dhangar ancestors, 115;
difference of, from sambandhi* pashans*, 271
N
Nagpanchmi, xvii; in Gondhalis' songs, 185
Nagpur: as main R.S.S. center, 190, 191, 195
Naivedya, 230, 232.
See also Nived
Namdev: devotional songs of, 150;
way of bhakti established by, 320
Nandi: of Shiva, 236;
of Nandiwalas, 132
Nandiwalas: and possession, 134, 135-36;
deification of Ram Mama by, 136-40;
deities worshipped by, 134;
ethnology of, 132-33;
sacrifice of pigs by, 137-38
Nao-nath*: depiction of Datta as guru of, 103.
See also Nath Panth
Narada, 80, 292, 307, 309n.43
Narasimha Saraswati, 98, 103, 104
Nasik, 288
Nath Panth: ascetics of, at Datta temple in Pune, 103;
close connection of, with Datta tradition, xvii, 97, 99, 103;
effect of, on pastoral groups, 114;
in Maharashtra, xxi n.6, 129n.2;
in Varkari sect, 319
Navanathabhaktisara*: Datta as founder of Nath sampraday* in,
97
Navas: and offerings to Mariai, 9, 15;
 as active measure for influencing kadak* deities, 23;
connection of, with many cults, xvii;
to Ambaji-Limbaji, 135;
to kuladaivat to remedy barrennes and karni*, 19;
to Ram Mama, 139.
See also Vow
Navmatvad* in Marathi poetry, 310
Navratra, 285
 Page 382
Nazis: from Upanishadic viewpoint, 216
Neurosis: and bhut * badha*, 34, 48-49
Nived: at Dhangar ancestor shrine, 115, 120.
See also Naivedya
Nonduality, 314;
as basis for Hindu ethics, x
Nontheism, 61
Nrtyaratnavali*: on gondhal* as part of Bhutamata festival, 178

O
Obscenity: in bharud* performances, 161-62
Offerings: annual demand for, by kuladaivat, 19;
at Dhangar ancestor shrine, 115;
of food to Dnyaneshwar, 149;
of liquor to angat* alela*, 135;
of pig, liquor, and ganja* to Ram Mama, 137;
of rice balls, lime, and kunku* against bhuts*, 31;
to Mariai at annual fair, 9, 13
Officer Training Camps of R.S.S., 195
Ota*: as relic for Nahanubhav worship, 271;
photograph of, 273
Overcomer of Obstacles, 77
Ovi*: of the Dhangars, 120-24

P
Padma (Padmavati Gole), 306, 308n.37, 311, 312, 313
Padukas*: in Datta worship, 102;
of Dnyaneshwar, 143, 149;
of Swami of Akkalkot, 104
Paithan, 275
Palanquin: of Dnyaneshwar, 144, 145, 146, 147, 149, 150, 160-61;
of Ganesh in procession, 210;
of various Varkari saints, 145, 163.
See also Palkhi* of Khandoba
Palkhi* of Khandoba: possession or power infusion induced by, 42,
45
Panchamrit*: as prasad* at Dagadu Halwai Datta Mandir, 105
Panchayat*: dispute settlement by, among Nandiwalas, 133,
140n.2
Pandhari, 4, 6n.1, 156.
See also Pandharpur
Pandharpur, 6n.1, 305, 308n.33;
as place of pilgrimage, 143, 145;
Irawati Karve's connection with, 3-6;
 Mahar pilgrimage to, 281, 285;
pilgrimage to, as definition of Maharashtra, 158.
See also Pandhari
Pandurang: as epithet of Vithoba, 155, 166, 167, 168, 169, 170n.1
Panja*: and possession at Muharram, 41, 44
Paramahamsa: Datta as type of, 99
Parashuram: creation of gondhal* by, 177
Parmeshwar, 227, 230, 242;
as paramount Mahanubhav god, 264, 266, 267, 270, 277;
attributes of, 64; devotion to, by Gadge Maharaj, 223;
exclusivism of Mahanubhavs' devotion to, 276;
incarnation of, in Dattatreya, 97
Partition: role of R.S.S. in, 202, 202n.5
Parvati, 79-81, 84
Pasodya Vithoba temple: as locality marker in Pune, 71
Peshwas: patronage of gondhals* by, 180-81;
support of Ganesh cult by, 76-77
Pigs: sacrifice of, by Nandiwalas, 134, 137-38
Pilgrimage: by Mahars, 281, 285;
Mahanubhav places of, 274
Pir*: as a haunting ghost, 283;
 as power of exorcism at dargas* and chillas, 36;
possession by, 41, 53.
See also Ghode Pir
Pishacas*, 28, 29;
and Bhutamata festival, 178
Poona: See Pune
Possession by ancestors: among Nandiwalas, 134;
and Dhangar ancestor shrines, 115
 Page 383
Possession by the divine: among the Nandiwalas, 135-36, 139;
and fire walking rite, 45;
as most personal experience of kadak * deity, 23-24;
at Chaturshringi temple, 285;
description of, 40-47;
importance of drums to, 119;
of Dhangars at Mhaskoba jatra*, 118;
of portraj* in Mariai procession, 286;
sociological causes of, 49, 58n.7.
See also angat* yene*
Possession by a ghost: Mahanubhav temples as places for cure
from, 275;
Shedgao Datta temple as healing center for, 252;
similarity of, to Christian conception of sin, viii;
sociological causes of, 49, 58n.7.
See also Bhut* badha*
Potraj*, 286, 290n.2
Povadas* and Gondhalis, 180, 182, 187
Power: as key to Hindu concept of divinity, 18
Power infusion: as distinct from angat* yene*, 44-45;
 by Khandoba, at Dhangar chain-breaking, 125
Pracharakas*: as life-blood of R.S.S., 196, 199
Prasad*: as poor substitute for bhajan, 229;
at Ram Mama yatra*, 138;
from puja* of dead pir*, 285;
in Ganesh worship, 209;
of Renuka, 268;
sacrificial animal as, 19
Pressler, H.H.: on correlation of tona* vidya* and poverty, 49
Prets, 28;
and Bhutamata festival, 178
Pre-Vedic religions: as one constituent of Hinduism, 316
Puja*: and sovla*, 207;
as characterized by syncretism of Maharashtra, 101;
as pre-Vedic notion, 316;
in Datta temples, 101, 105;
of Dnyaneshwar padukas*, 149;
by Mahanubhavs, 265, 270, 271;
to ghost of pir*, 284-85;
to household gods, 205-06, 282;
to Mariai, 286;
 to Vitthal, 292
Pujaris*, 101, 102, 104, 117;
photograph of, 43
Pune, 160, 216;
bias toward, in this volume, xvii;
Datta temples of, 101-06;
historical center of Ganesh festival in, 86;
K. N. Kadam's early life in, 280-87;
Krishnajanmashtami in, 275;
new Maruti temple in, 69
Puranas: on Bhutamata festival, 178
Purush, 310
Purnima*: as powerful time for bhut-exorcism*, 37.
See also Full-moon day
Q
Quit India Movement: and R.S.S. non-participation, 198, 202n.3;
extolled by Gadge Maharaj, 233
R
Radha, 6, 302
Raeside, I.M.P.: on complexity of Datta cult, 96
Ragas*: in pilgrimage singing, 160
Raidas dindi*, 170n.3
Rakhumai, 147, 161, 163, 164;
Mahat worship of, 282, 288
Ram, 133, 236;
as benign deity, 18
Rama Gondhali: and Tamasha* in Peshwa Period, 187
Ramakrishna Mission, 197
Ramayana*, 308n.22;
in ovis* of settled Dhangars, 121
Ramdas, 313;
place of, in Varkari pilgrimage, 163, 171n.5
Rameshwar, 227, 228
Ram Mama, 132, 133, 134;
history of, 136-37;
overshadowing of other Nandiwala gods by, 136, 139
Ramoshis, 15n.1;
death of Babir attributed to, 122, 123
 Page 384
Rana Pratap: eulogizing of, by R.S.S., 193, 202n.1, 195
Rangan *, 160-61, 166
Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (R.S.S.): ambiguous modernity of,
xix;
and political socialization, 199-200;
anti-Muslim sentiment in, 195;
banning of, in Emergency, 190;
criticism of, for not upholding untouchability, 259, 262n.4;
Hindus and nation-hood defined by, 198;
military drill of, 191-92;
pracharaks* as lifeblood of, 196
Ravana, 236
Refuge in the Buddha, sangha, and dhamma, 294
Rege, Purushottam Shivram, 301, 308n.14, 311, 313;
affinity of, with Gitagovinda*, 317
Rege, Sadanand, 315, 317
Relics worshipped by the Mahanubhavs, 270-71, 279n.11
Renunciation, 314;
and devaluation of householder, 162-64
Renuka of Mahur, 96, 175, 178;
 Mahanubhavs prohibited from visit to, 267, 278n.7;
worship of, by Renukrai Gondhalis, 177
Renuka* Mahatmya*: on origin of gondhal*, 177
Rite de passage: in healing from bhut* badha*, 57
Ritual: as fabric of daily life, 204-10;
as means of mollifying kadak* deities, 23;
gaining of shakti* by, 208;
invocation of Ganesh at beginning of, 85;
of Mahars in house shrine, 282-83;
preceding possession by the divine, 41;
to control Ganesh's trickster tendencies, 84;
R.S.S. non-support of, 200
Ritual garments: and sovla*, 207;
wearing of, by Brahmans at mealtime, 143, 144
Ritual pollution: as key variable to bhut-susceptibility*, 32-33;
as pre-Vedic notion, 316;
intolerance of, by kadak* deities, 19-20;
variation in codes of, by caste, 20;
water and, 154. See also Sovla*
Roman Catholicism, 287, 289.
See also Christianity
R.S.S. See Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
Rudra, 80, 124
Russel, Bertrand, 289
S
Sacrifice: as center of Vedic religion, 316;
of bird or animal to kadak* deities, 19;
of sheep, goats, fowl by Mahars, 281-82, 285;
of pigs by Nandiwalas, 134, 137, 138;
of sheep by Dhangars, 117, 119, 120, 127.
See also Yadnya
Sadhana*, poetry as, 312, 314
Sadhuvani and Satyanarayan puja*, 231
Sahasrarjuna in mythic origin of gondhal*, 177
Sai Baba of Shirdi: as Datta incarnation, 99
Saints: as greater than gods, 235-36;
dust on road of, sacred, 145-46;
rebellion of, against purity-pollution, 154
Sakhu, 4, 6n. 1
Samadhi*: as healing center for bhut* badha*, 36;
of Dnyaneshwar, 145, 309n.44
Sambal-drum*, 176, 177, 182
Sambandhi* pashans* in Mahanubhav worship, 270-71
Sangha: refuge taken in, 294
Sankara: paradox of monistic idealism and devotionalism in, 62
Sannyasis* burial of, in samadhi*, 309n.44;
of Mahanubhav sect, 264, 266, 268, 269
Sanskrit: in R.S.S. prayers, pledges, and drills, 191-92, 194
 Page 385
Saptarshi, Kumar, 251
Saptashringi, 175
Saraswati, 85
Sardar Shitole, 147
Sat: temple as symbol of, 72
Satyagraha *, 233;
as practiced by Yukrand, 251, 254, 259, 260, 261
Satyanarayan puja*: as part of Ganesh festival, 87;
Gadge Maharaj's last kirtan* at, 224, 231, 249n.6
Satyayuga: in Hatkar Dhangar ovis*, 121
Savitri, shakti* of, 208
Sawant, Vasant Ladoba, 305, 308n.31, 311, 312, 318
Seven water goddesses: worship of, at Dhangar sheep shearing,
125
Sexual intercourse and bhut-susceptibility*, 33
Shabaraswami: on limits of celibacy, 164
Shaivism: large effect of, on pastoral communities, 113-14;
Maharashtrian synthesis of, with Vaishavism, xvii, 319
Shakti*, 208, 209
Shaligram, S.T.: on gondhals* in Peshwa Period, 180-81, 187
Shaligrams*, 205
Shankar, 206
Shesha, 236
Shids: and Mhaskoba-possession at Vir, 118
Shi'ia Muslims: possession by saint-heroes of, 41
Shiva: as leper in Dhangar ovi*, 122;
crystalizing of pre-Vedic religion in, 316;
incarnated as Babir, 123;
incorporation m Datta of, 95;
mediatory functions conferred on Ganesh by, 81, 82;
role of, in myths of Ganesh's origin, 79-81, 84
Shiva linga: worship of, by Mahanubhavs, 274, 275
Shivaji: eulogizing of, by R.S.S., 193, 195, 202n.1;
illustration of, 173
Shripad Shrivallabha: Datta incarnated as, 98, 103
Sickness: as punishment by kadak* deity, 20:
as result of bhut* badha*, 29
Siddhis*, 118
Sita, Shakti* of, 209
Sivapurana*: myth of Ganesh's origin in, 79-80
Skanda: in contest with Ganesh, 84
Skandapurana*: myth of Ganesh's origin m, 80-81;
on dramatic performances m Bhutamata festival, 178
Somavati-Amavasya: Dhangar chain-breaking rite on, 125
Sopankaka, palanquin of, 163
Sovla* in daily ritual, 207-08.
See also Ritual garments; Ritual pollution
Stalin, Joseph: from Upanishadic viewpoint, 220, 222
Suicide, 74;
and Dnyaneshwar's taking of samadhi*, 75, 75n.
Sunni Muslims: in Shi'ia processions, 41, 46
Surve, Narayan, 61, 64-65
Surya: in Dagadu Halwai Datta Mandir, 104
Sutrapatha*, 265, 277;
devaluing by, of popular Hindu practices, 266-67, 278n.5
Syncretism: of Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva in Dattatreya, 95;
of temple puja* in Maharashtra, 101
Svanubhavadinakara*: on Parashuram and first gondhal*, 177
Swami of Akkalkot: Datta incarnated as, 98;
Pune temple of, 101, 103-04
T
Tamasha*: and Gondhalis, 187;
in Ganesh festival, 87
 Page 386
Tapashcharya * of the Buddha, 293
Tarun* mandals*: for Ganesh festival, 88-93
Tilak, Bal Gangadhar: and Ganesh festival, 77, 92
Tilak, Narayan Waman, 310, 315
Tirtha-kshetra-vrata-dana*: as dharma of Kali yuga, 267, 275, 276
Tirthas*: Gadge Maharaj's scorn for, 228, 229, 230, 238
Treta yuga: and dharma of bhakti, 267
Trickster, Ganesh as, 84
Tukaram, 5, 6n.3, 170n.2, 305;
iconography of Datta given by, 95-96;
in Gadge Maharaj's kirtan*, 227, 228, 229, 234, 241, 248n.2:
on individual less-than-wholeness, 311-12;
palanquin of, 163;
self-identity of, with God, 227;
devotional songs of, 150
Tuljapur: localized power in, of Bhavani, 18;
Mahar pilgrimage to, 281
Tulpule, S.G., 176;
on Mahanubhav relics, 279
Tulshi*, 207
Tuntun-drone*, 176, 177, 182
Turmeric: ritual use of, 125, 126, 282;
presence of Biroba in, 119
U
Uma, 81
University Training Corps: as model for R.S.S., 193
Untouchables: disavowal of Hinduism by, 280;
pilgrim dindi* of, 150, 170n.3;
fear of social boycott of, 254, 261;
legitimation sought by, in Buddhism, xix;
part played by, in Shedgao satyagraha, 253, 256, 257, 260
Untouchability: Gadge Maharaj's scorn for, 224, 240, 243-46;
Hindu scriptures cited as support for, 258-59;
viewed as necessary to true Hindu practice, 262
Untouchability Offenses Act: breaking of, by Akhandanand
Maharaj, 253, 260, 261, 263.6
Upanishads, 316;
and propagation of ascetic life, 164-65;
and speculative ''containing" of Vedic and pre-Vedic religions,
316;
on oneness of self and universe, 214, 216
V
Vaghyas, 45, 176, 189n.16
Vaishavism: Maharashtrian synthesis of, with Shaivism, xvii
Varhad, 6, 6n.4.
See also Vidarbha
Varkari Panth, 264;
annual pilgrimage of, 145;
Gadge Maharaj and social reform in, 223-24;
connection of, with Datta, 97, 319;
devotional songs of, 160;
as rural and non-Brahman, xvii;
saints of, against Brahman exclusiveness, 155;
Varkari pilgrimage: photograph of pilgrims on, 172,
viewed as education, 160
Varkari tradition, 320;
and renunciation, 162-63;
and Tukaram, 6n.3;
at odds with ritual purity-pollution, 154
Varnashrama*: justification of, in R.S.S., 198.
See also Caste
Vasudev, 175, 176, 189n.16
Vedanta, 161, 316
Vedas: and immorality through progeny, 164;
as criterion of orthodoxy, 266;
fifth attributed to Tukaram, 227;
representation of, by Datta's four dogs, 95
Vedic religion: centering of, on sacrifice, 316
Vegetarianism, 282;
Gadge Maharaj's espousal of, 224;
of Mahanubhavs, 268, 279n.9
Vidarbha, xvii, xxn.5
Vighneshwar, 78, 79, 80