Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be visiting Pune and Mumbai on June 14, where he will be inaugurating a temple dedicated to the 17 th century Bhakti poet-saint Tukaram at the latter’s birthplace in Dehu.
In his second visit to Pune in three months, the Prime Minister will inaugurate the ‘Jagatguru Shri Sant Tukaram Shila (rock) Mandir’ on Tuesday. A shila temple was built after the death of Tukaram, who was famous for devotional poetry known as abhangas and community-oriented worship through spiritual songs known as kirtans.
While the rock structure was not formally structured as a temple, the mandir has been rebuilt in stone masonry with 36 peaks, with an idol of Sant Tukaram in it. The site for centuries has been the starting point of the Wari — the annual pilgrimage to the shrine of Lord Vithoba in Pandharpur made by devotees ( warkaris) carrying palanquins bearing the footprints of the Bhakti saints Dnyaneshwar (from Alandi) and Tukaram (from Dehu).
