Place · Tukaram home village · India
Dehū
The village on the Indrayani, 15 kilometres from Alandi, the home of Tukaram (c. 1608-1649) — the 17th-century Marathi poet-saint whose abhanga songs are the devotional core of the Varkari tradition. Tukaram's samadhi legend holds that he physically ascended to Vaikuntha with his body intact; his footprints are shown at the Dehu temple. The town is the second of the two palkhi start-points for the Pandharpur Wari (with Alandi for Jnaneshwar). Together Dehu and Alandi produce the paired procession tradition that defines the Varkari route — two palkhis moving in a coordinated 21-day journey to meet at Pandharpur on Ashadhi Ekadashi.
- Function
- Sacred site & pilgrimage
- Tradition
- Varkari tradition; Tukaram's abhangas
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 18.717, 73.766
Connections (4)
- Life routeTukārām
Dehū is Tukārām's birthplace, his trade's ruin, and the bank of the Indrāyani where his manuscripts are said to have been sunk and recovered. The Varkarī calendar treats the town as the second of the two great palkhī origins, and his abhangs are still sung on the road out of it.
- Procession toĀlandi
The Ālandi and Dehū palkhīs set out within a day of each other and walk roughly parallel roads south, meeting at Wākhri outside Pandharpūr on the eve of Āshādhi Ekādashi. Between them they move several hundred thousand people on foot across Maharashtra each monsoon, in dindis that keep their own order on the road.
- Procession toPandharpūr
Tukārām's palkhī leaves Dehū a day before Dnyāneshwar's and takes a slightly shorter road to Pandharpūr. The two meet at Wākhri on the eve of Āshādhi Ekādashi and enter the town together. The ringan, where horses run through the assembled dindis, is run on the way at fixed places. Between them the two processions move several hundred thousand people on foot across Maharashtra every monsoon, in dindis that keep their own order and their own cooks for the whole three weeks.
- Site withinPune
Dehū lies within Pune — the two sites sit about 24 km apart, well inside the city's historical boundary and part of the same urban or peri-urban landscape. Dehū is one of the specific sites that give Pune its layered character, and reads differently when seen as a stop within the larger city rather than as an isolated monument on an open map. The surrounding neighbourhoods, roads and other heritage ensembles belong to the same single urban fabric.
On these journeys
Sources
Dehu palkhi tradition
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