in which the pilgrims all arrive on the
same day. Each pilgrim procession starts
from a different place and is identified
with one of the poet-saints who helped
form the community. At the front of
each procession is a palanquin(palkhi)
bearing the sandals of that group’s par-
ticular saint, who is thus symbolically
leading them into Pandharpur. For more
information see G. A. Deleury, The Cult
of Vithoba, 1960; I. B. Karve, “On the
Road,” Journal of Asian Studies,Vol. 22,
No. 1, 1962; and Digambar Balkrishna
Mokashi, Palkhi, 1987.
Pandrenthan
Historical site south of the city of
Shrinagar in Kashmir. Pandrenthan is
famous for one of the few old Hindu
temples still standing in Kashmir, a tem-
ple dedicated to the god Shivabuilt in
the twelfth century C.E. The shrine itself
is fairly small and simple. The floor plan
is basically square, with each side 17.5
feet long and an entrance on each side
giving the temple an open feel. Each
doorway has a gable over it projecting
out from a pyramidal roof known
to builders as a hip roof. The temple
is built entirely of stone but has
overlapping courses, in an attempt to
mimic wooden construction.
Pandu
In the Mahabharata, the later of the two
great Hindu epics, the son of the sage
Vyasaand queen Ambalika. Pandu and
his brother Dhrtarashtraare born as the
result of a desperate attempt to preserve
the royal line of King Shantanuafter
Shantanu’s son Vichitraviryadies with-
out heirs. Upon Vichitravirya’s death, his
mother Satyavati calls upon her eldest
son, Vyasa, to sleep with Vichitravirya’s
wives, Ambikaand her sister Ambalika,
in the hope that the women will con-
ceive. According to tradition Vyasa is
very ugly, and each woman reacts invol-
untarily when Vyasa appears in her bed:
Ambika covers her eyes, causing her son
Dhrtarashtra to be born blind, and
Ambalika turns pale, causing her son
Pandu to be born with an unnaturally
pale complexion. Given Dhrtarashtra’s
blindness, Pandu is the best suited to
rule; he marries Kuntiand Madriand
lives quite happily as the king.
This idyllic time abruptly ends one
day while he is hunting in the forest and
shoots a deerwhile it is mating. To his
horror, he discovers that the deer is the
sage Kindama, who has taken this form
for sport with his wife; with his dying
breath, the sage curses Pandu that he
will die the moment he touches his wife
in an amorous embrace. Since he has no
children, and the cursecondemns him
to die without an heir, Pandu abdicates
the throne in favor of his brother
Dhrtarashtra and goes with his wives to
live as an asceticin the Himalayas. At
this time Kunti tells him about the
mantrashe has received years before
from the sage Durvasas, which gives the
woman who recites it the power to call
down any of the gods and to have by him
a son equal in power to himself. With
Pandu’s blessing Kunti and Madri bear
five heroic sons, the five Pandavabroth-
ers. They all live happily together until
one day when Pandu, swayed by the
intoxicating influence of spring, ignores
Madri’s warnings and embraces her. The
sage’s curse takes effect and Pandu falls
dead, although, through the power of
the mantra, his family line continues.Pandurang
(“pale”) Epithet of the god Vithoba,
whose primary place of worshipis in the
holy city of Pandharpurin the state of
Maharashtra. See Vithoba.Pandya Dynasty
(6th–14th c.) Southern Indian dynasty
whose capital was in the city of Madurai
in the state of Tamil Nadu. The Pandyas
existed as a regional power as early as
the late sixth century, when they fought
the Pallava dynastyof Kanchipuramfor
control of the peninsula. The Pandyas at
one time became vassals to the Chola
dynastywhen the latter reigned over allPandrenthan