To understand Pandharpur, one must understand its saints. The Vitthal-Rukmini Mandir is magnificent, but what made this town the spiritual capital of Maharashtra is a lineage of poet-saints who, over roughly five centuries, turned devotion into song and song into a way of life. The saints of Pandharpur — Dnyaneshwar, Namdev, Chokhamela, Eknath, Tukaram, Gora Kumbhar and many others — created the warkari tradition, whose annual walking pilgrimage still floods the roads of the Deccan each Ashadha. This is a reverent introduction to their lives, their teachings and the living tradition they left us.
Pandharpur, the Meeting Place of Saints
Every sant of the warkari pantheon, whatever their birthplace, is a sant of Pandharpur in the essential sense: their devotion flowed toward Vitthal of the Chandrabhaga, and their verses meet one another in one great river of song. The tradition they shaped is strikingly egalitarian. Among the saints are a Brahmin boy mystic, a shopkeeper fallen on hard times, a washerman’s neighbour, a potter, a Mahar devotee barred from the temple’s inner spaces — and in their abhangs all of them speak to Vitthal as intimately as a child to a parent. This radical spiritual democracy, lived centuries before it was argued anywhere else, is the warkari tradition’s enduring gift.
It is also what sustains the wari pilgrimage: when lakhs of warkaris walk behind the palkhis of Dnyaneshwar and Tukaram each year, they are not merely remembering the saints — they are keeping their company on the road the saints sanctified.
Sant Dnyaneshwar, the Young Mystic of Alandi
According to tradition, Sant Dnyaneshwar was born in the thirteenth century at Apegaon on the Godavari, and in a life of barely two decades changed the spiritual grammar of an entire language. His masterpiece, the Dnyaneshwari, is a Marathi commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, traditionally said to have been composed at Nevasa while he was still in his teens. In an age when the highest spiritual knowledge was locked in Sanskrit, the young sant opened it to the household tongue of ordinary people — a decision the warkari tradition honours as an act of compassion.
His other works, including the compact philosophical poem Amrutanubhav, and the episodes of his short life — the episode, recounted by tradition, of the buffalo speaking, the greeting of the yogi Changadev, and finally his entry into sanjeevan samadhi at Alandi at around twenty-one years of age — are recounted with love rather than analysed. Alandi remains among the tradition’s holiest seats, and it is from there that his palkhi departs each year for Pandharpur.
Sant Tukaram, the Poet of Dehu
Four centuries later, in the seventeenth, Sant Tukaram of Dehu gave the tradition its most beloved voice. A merchant family’s son who lost nearly everything — property, parents, a first wife and children in famine, according to the traditional accounts — Tukaram turned wholly to Vitthal and sang his longing, doubt, anger, surrender and joy in thousands of abhangs preserved in the Tukaram Gatha. His verses are earthy and fearless: he argues with God, confesses his faults, and returns always to the certainty that Vitthal belongs to those who call on him.
According to tradition, his life closed at Dehu with what devotees call his vaikunthan — his departure to the Lord’s abode — leaving behind no institution, only the incomparable Gatha and the abhangwani tradition of singing it. The palkhi of Tukaram, setting out from Dehu each Ashadha, is the emotional twin of the Alandi palkhi, and the two converge at Pandharpur for Ashadhi Ekadashi.
Namdev, Eknath, Chokhamela and Gora Kumbhar
| Saint | Associated place | Remembered for |
|---|---|---|
| Sant Namdev | Pandharpur and the Godavari country | Tailor-saint of the early tradition; according to tradition, his samadhi rests in the temple’s very threshold, the Namdev Payari; hymns attributed to him are also revered in the Sikh tradition |
| Sant Chokhamela | Mangalvedha and Pandharpur | A Mahar devotee who sang achyut-abhangs of longing from outside the temple walls; his family — Soyarabai, Banka, Karmamela — are honoured as poets in their own right; his samadhi shrine adjoins the Vitthal temple |
| Sant Eknath | Paithan, on the Godavari | Sixteenth-century commentator and kirtankar; works include the Eknathi Bhagavat; celebrated for insisting on feeding and seating all castes together |
| Sant Gora Kumbhar | Teradhoki, near Pandharpur | The potter-saint who made labour itself worship, singing abhangs at his wheel until work and kirtan became one |
Each name carries a universe of story, told in versions that differ gently from teller to teller; the warkari tradition itself is the authority it appeals to, and it asks only that the telling be reverent.
Abhang, Kirtan and the Living Tradition
The saints left no cathedrals; they left a practice. The abhang — a few sung lines in which a complete prayer can live — is recited in prabhat-pheri at dawn, in haripath at night, at weddings and deaths, on the wari and at the kitchen hearth. The kirtan, a sermon woven of song and story drawn from the saints’ lives, remains the tradition’s classroom. A Maharashtra village square at nightfall, with a kirtankar’s cymbals bringing three hundred voices into one abhang, is as close as one can come to hearing the thirteenth century still breathing.
Nor did the stream stop with Tukaram. Maharashtra’s bhakti inheritance continued into the modern era through figures such as Sant Gajanan Maharaj of Shegaon, whose teaching of simplicity, service and steady remembrance belongs to the same family of devotion; our article on Gajanan Maharaj’s teachings and legacy traces that continuity.
Summary
The saints of Pandharpur accomplished something rare: they made the highest devotion available in the market language, on the open road, to every caste and condition of person. Dnyaneshwar opened the scripture, Namdev pressed himself into the temple threshold, Chokhamela sang from outside the walls, Eknath sat everyone at one plate, Gora Kumbhar turned the wheel into worship, and Tukaram gave the whole tradition its singing heart. Their living signature is the wari — lakhs of ordinary people walking joyfully to Pandharpur behind the padukas of the saints who taught them that Vitthal asks for nothing but love. To visit Pandharpur is to walk through their verses; to sing an abhang is to join their company.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who are the main saints of the warkari tradition?
The tradition most reveres Sant Dnyaneshwar, Sant Namdev, Sant Chokhamela, Sant Eknath, Sant Tukaram and Sant Gora Kumbhar, who lived roughly between the thirteenth and seventeenth centuries. Each is loved for a distinct life and body of abhangs devoted to Vitthal.
What is an abhang?
An abhang is a compact Marathi devotional verse sung in praise of Vitthal, and it is the heartbeat of warkari worship. Abhangs are sung in kirtan through the night, on the wari, and in homes across Maharashtra to this day.
How are the saints connected to the wari?
The great annual walking pilgrimage is anchored by the palkhis of Sant Dnyaneshwar from Alandi and Sant Tukaram from Dehu, which travel to Pandharpur for Ashadhi Ekadashi. Walking behind the saints' padukas is felt as walking with the saints themselves.
Can visitors attend abhang kirtans at Pandharpur?
Yes. Kirtans are held at Pandharpur around the clock during ekadashi and yatra periods, and in towns and villages across Maharashtra throughout the year. Visitors are welcome to sit, listen and share the singing respectfully.