By RAMESH SAVAIKAR | NT NET WORK
‘Ashadi Ekadashi’, an important Hindu festival also known as ‘Maha Ekadashi or ‘Shayani Ekadashi’, marks the beginning of the ‘Chaturmasa’ period in the Hindu calendar, a period that marks the four-month-long slumber of Lord Vishnu.

This period is considered to be most auspicious to perform religious fasts.
Pandharpur, in the Solapur district of Maharashtra, known as the Kashi of South India, marks this festival in the grandest manner with devotees of Lord Vithal (an avatar of Lord Krishna) thronging to the banks of the River Bhima (also known as Chandrabhaga because of its half moon shape). As part of the celebration, devotees take a dip in the holy waters of Chandrabhaga to cleanse themselves of their sins before they take go to the temple.
A large number of devotees from different parts of the states of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Goa make a pilgrimage to Pandharpur on foot at this time of the year to pay their obeisance to the Lord Vithal. These devotees, also referred to ‘varkaris’, organise themselves in groups called ‘dindis’, and mark the journey with chants of ‘Jai Hari Vithal, Shri Hari Vithal’ and ‘Vithoba-Rakhumai’ to the beat of  mrudunga and talas.
The varkari sampradaya of Vaishnava was founded way back in 12th century and the ‘dindi’ tradition has been kept alive since by the devotees of Lord Vithal.
In Goa, the tradition of going to Pandharpur on foot goes back to five or six hundred years ago. Later the devotees who went brought an idol of Lord Vithal-Rakhumai from Pandharpur to Sanquelim and installed it at Vithalapur in the present Pandurang temple there.
This temple is situated on the bank of the Valvanti River in Sanquelim and here several hundred ‘varkaris’ throng to commence their journey to Pandharpur.
For a couple of years now, the varkari dindi from Mulgaon-Bicholim have been making the journey to Pandharpur (about 350 kms from Bicholim). This year 175 ‘varkaris’ have left to Pandharpur. A ‘dindi’ of 75 devotees has also left from Marcel.
This year, Ashadhi Ekadashi falls on July 11.