Paithan

City and sacred site (tirtha) on the
Godavari River in the state of
Maharashtra, about 175 miles east of
Bombay. Although of reduced importance in modern times, it has a long history as a trading city and was an
important stopping-point on the central
Indian trade route from southern India
to Ujjain. Since the sixteenth century,
Paithan has been famous as the home of
Eknath, one of the important figures in
the Varkari Panth, a religious community centered around the worship of the
Hindu god Vithoba at his temple at
Pandharpur in the modern state of
Maharashtra. Varkari religious practice
primarily consists of two pilgrimages, in
which all the participants arrive in
Pandharpur on the same day. Eknath
still symbolically travels to Pandharpur
488
Padya
twice each year; a palanquin (palkhi)
bearing his sandals is at the head of the
procession bearing his name.