The Vārkarīs are a sampradāy (long0standing religious tradition) based in western India, where Marathi is the dominant language, particularly in the state of Maharashtra. The Vārkarīs are distinguished by a devotional ( bhakti ) focus on the deity Viṭṭhal, two major annual pilgrimages to Viṭṭhal’s chief temple in the town of Pandharpur, and a textual corpus consisting of Marathi compositions by sant-kavis o…