less severe than the last stage, the
Sanyasi—the texts are very clear that he
should remain with his wife and that he
should continue to perform the pre-
scribed daily domestic sacrifices.
Although in contemporary times it is
fairly common for older people to live a
more retired life, bequeathing the bulk
of the family affairs to their children, few
people live by the strict prescriptions for
the vanaprastha. The prescription for
this third stage of life is generally con-
sidered to be a reaction to the growth of
asceticismin the centuries before the
turn of the common era, particularly the
monastic asceticism of the Buddhists
and Jains, which they claimed was reli-
giously superior to the life of a house-
holder. The vanaprastha is a transitional
stage that paves the way for an ascetic
life, but it is set in one’s old age and thus
allows for the fulfilling of one’s duties to
family and society.
Varada Hasta
In Indian dance, sculpture, and ritual, a
particular hand gesture (hasta), in
which the left hand is held with the fin-
gers pointing downward and the palm
exposed to the viewer, with the fingers
either fully extended or slightly curled.
The word varadameans “boon-grant-
ing,” and the gesture is meant to indi-
cate beneficence and generosity.
Varaha Avatar
The third avataror incarnation of the
god Vishnu, in the form of a boar. See
Boar avatar.
Varanasi
Traditional name for the sacred city of
Benares. The name Varanasimay be
generally used to denote the whole city,
but in a more specific context this refers
to one of the concentric sacred zones
surrounding the Vishvanathtemple, the
city’s ritual center. The smallest of these
zones is called Avimukta, the second is
Varanasi, and the largest is named
Kashi. The sacred zone of Varanasi is
conceived as the area between the
Varana and the Asi rivers—the traditional
boundaries of the city of Benares—but
Varanasi’s boundaries do not stretch
inland as far as those of Kashi.Varkari
Religious community of devotees
(bhakta) of the god Vishnu, in his man-
ifestation as Vithoba. Varkari worship
has centered on Vithoba’s temple at
Pandharpurin the southern part of the
state of Maharashtra. The community’s
history begins with a series of extraordi-
nary devotional (bhakti) poet-saints,
dating from the twelfth to the seven-
teenth century: Jnaneshvar, Namdev,
Eknath, Tukaram, Chokamela, Gora,
Janabai, Bahina Bai, and many others.
One of the ways that these saints
expressed their devotion was in pilgrim-
age to Pandharpur, and this pilgrimage
is still the major ritual act in the Varkari
community. Twice a yearVarkaris come
on pilgrimage to Pandharpur and time
their travel so that all the pilgrims arrive
on the same day—the eleventh day
(ekadashi) in the bright half of Ashadh
( June–July) in the summer, and the
eleventh day in the bright half of
Kartik(October–November) in the fall.
Individual pilgrims travel in small
groups called dindis, often made up of
people from the same neighborhood or
locality. The dindis are organized into
larger groups known as palkhis, each of
which is associated with one of the
Varkari poet-saints and is led by a
palanquin(palkhi, an enclosed single-
person litter borne on the shoulders of
bearers by means of poles) bearing the
sandals of that saint. Each palkhi
departs from a place associated with its
particular saint—for example, the
palkhi of Jnaneshvar leaves from the
town of Alandiin which he lived—and
thus he and all the other saints are still
symbolically journeying to Pandharpur
twice a year. During their journey pil-
grims sing the devotional songs com-
posed by these poet-saints. In this way,
the pilgrims are emulating the saintsVarkari