Travel Diaries- Solapur (2)

Part 1- https://wrytin.com/ashwita/travel-diaries-solapur-1-jr0m7cci

The best part about this 3 hour journey was at its end. Honestly, I was tired after covering 40 Lingas but my mother’s dedication is what kept me going.

Finally when we reached the Mallikarjun temple( where the last 4 Lingas were built), we got to attend the Aarti and that’s when we felt like ‘sarthak zala he ‘ (It was worth the effort). Getting to see 68 Lingas and ending it with an aarti.. What more could we ask for! That sense of satisfaction! Nothing like it! (so yay! Lord Shiva has became my favorite now.. Hehe!)

Coming back to the story-

One day when the prince was working on one of his Lingas, Kumbhar Kanya (one of the forms of Goddess Parvati) saw him working passionately and fell in love with him. She wanted to marry him, so she proposed to him. He said that he was so dedicated to his work that he considered it as his wife and so he wouldn't be able to marry her but he gave his Yoga danda(his stick) and asked her to marry the stick. She was so madly in love with him that she agreed to it and got married to the Yoga danda.

This marriage is celebrated every year on the day before Makar sankranti. People from north Karnataka and Karnataka Maharashtra border travel all the way to Solapur to witness the grand wedding.

A mandap is decorated beautifully with colourful flowers just outside the Siddheswar temple. They also have 7 Nandi dhwaj (20 to 25 ft. Long bamboo sticks which are adorned with flowers in the morning and lights at night). They represent the seven main castes that are prevalent in Solapur. Before the wedding, they take those 7 Nandi dhwaj to all the 68 Lingas as a form of invitation to the Gods and the people of Solapur for the grand wedding.

Then on the next day, that is the day when Makar Sankranti is celebrated, Kumbhar Kanya is taken to the Homa Kund where she had burnt herselves in the fire along with the Yoga danda (ref: Sati practice) as at the end, it was a stick that she had married and not a human. So the women in Solapur do not wear the color which the kumbhar kanya will be wearing that year while burning herself. This year it was white. My mother specifically asked me not to bring white clothes from Pune!

Part 3 - https://wrytin.com/ashwita/travel-diaries-solapur-3-jr0mqb0l