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DESI DISCOVERY QUIZ 29
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Identify the places in the visuals & the linking factor between the three
DESI DISCOVERY QUIZ 29
1, Howrah Bridge - Hooghly
2. Pandharpur, Maharashtra
3. Taj Mahal - Agra
Linking Factor: Pumpkins
Pandharpur (near Solapur) is to Maharashtra like what Palani is to TN or Tirupati is to AP. There is a linking temple at Aruppukotta ( my native place ) in TN. Hence lot of people from TN come here. However it is not popular outside MH like Varnasi or Dwaraka etc.. Hence it is not bad, if you have heard it for the first time.
The around 8 storey Queue complex at Pandarpur built to accommodate the huge crowds during the festivals is interesting & unique. You start with the ground floor & slowly walk up ( there are no stairs) floor by floor in the queue to the 8th floor & then come down floor by floor to the first floor to enter the temple. In each floor as you keep going up, you can see the people who keep coming floor by floor down to the first floor. It can take 12-24 hours to enter the temple on important festive dates. Warakri’s (devottees) take a padayatra annually & the entire road from Pune to Pandarpur is packed by warkari’s. You will be amazed how the village elders do the fugdi dance with agility.
Now to the link between the three places (the main question ) : Pumpkins.
Agra pedha, made from pumpkins is an affordable sweet & has a GI status. Whereas, the pumpkins are specially grown at Pandharpur & Hooghly to make the sitars, tampura & related musical instruments. The musical instruments are actually made at Miraj which is 120 KM from Pandharpur or 50 KM from Kirloskarwadi (The 100 year old KBL township where I stayed from 2002 to 2014).
While at the township: I knew Miraj as a small dusty town with only 2 purposes: 1.an important affordable specialist medical centre for Maharashtra & Karnataka 2. its railway junction that took us to Bangalore.
It is recently only that I came to know about the numerous over 100 year old shops that specialize in making musical instruments here. Pandit Ravi Shankar used to play these sitars made out of pumpkins. If interested to know more you can read it in the link (http://www.shekharsidhaye.com/essays.xml) .